Bloomers Flowers Limited is a florist's shop in Cheltenham. Cut flowers, plants and arrangements are sold over the counter to whoever comes through the door — for a birthday, for an apology, for a table, for a funeral, or for no reason at all beyond wanting something alive in the house.
What is in the buckets changes with the season, because that is how flowers work. Instead of promising the same twelve stems every week of the year, we buy what is good when it is good, and tell you plainly what will last and what will not.
British flower growing runs to a calendar, and the shop follows it. Choose a season to see what tends to fill the buckets.
The season starts underground. Daffodils and narcissi come first and come cheaply, then tulips, hyacinths with their heavy scent, and the small bulbs — muscari, fritillaries — that look best crowded into something short. Blossom branches arrive from the orchards and are worth buying in tight bud so you get the whole show at home.
Bulb flowers keep drinking and keep growing after cutting, so a spring arrangement moves about in the vase for days. Tulips in particular will lean towards a window and go on lengthening; that is the flower behaving normally, not a fault.
The broadest choice of the year. Garden roses with actual scent, sweet peas that last a few days and are worth every one of them, peonies opening from tight fists, delphiniums and larkspur for height, and cornflowers, scabious and ammi for the loose, meadowy look that suits a jug better than a formal vase.
Heat is the enemy in summer. Stems drink hard and water turns quickly, so summer flowers want a cool spot away from a sunny sill and fresh water more often than you would think necessary.
The colours turn and the material gets tougher. Dahlias run until the first frost takes them, chrysanthemums come into their own after years of being unfairly dismissed, and there are hips, berries, seed heads and turning foliage to build around. Grasses and dried elements start earning their place.
Autumn stems are generally sturdier than summer ones and last well in a cool room. Dahlias are the exception — they are thirsty and short-lived, and are best enjoyed for the few days they give, without any expectation that they will soldier on.
The season trades abundance for structure. Evergreens, spruce and eucalyptus, holly and ivy, amaryllis with its enormous trumpets, hellebores, and paperwhites and hyacinths brought on in pots for scent. Anemones and ranunculus arrive to carry the colour through the darkest weeks.
Cold rooms suit winter material, and most of it lasts considerably longer than the flowers of any other season. Potted bulbs are the best value in the shop at this time of year, since they go on performing long after cut stems would have finished.
You are welcome to buy a single stem, and plenty of people do. Flowers are sold loose from the buckets as well as made up, so a bunch can be built in front of you from whatever you point at. If you tell us the room, the vase or the person, we will steer you — and if what you have chosen will be over in three days, we will say so before you pay.
Hand-tied bunches, arrangements in a vessel and funeral tributes are made up in the shop. The more you can tell us — the occasion, the colours you cannot stand, whether it must travel on a train — the closer the result will be to what you had in mind. Sympathy work is handled quietly and carefully, and we will talk you through the options without hurrying you.
Alongside cut flowers there are houseplants and planted arrangements, which suit anyone who would rather have something that carries on. They come with a straight answer about how much light the thing actually needs, which is usually more than people expect and less than the label suggests.
Cut flowers last on clean water and a sharp cut. Recut the stems at an angle before they go in, strip anything that would sit below the waterline, keep the vase out of direct sun and away from a radiator or a fruit bowl, and give it fresh water in place of a top-up. That is most of it.
Different stems want different treatment before they go anywhere near an arrangement. This is what happens to them in the back of the shop.
| Stem type | Examples | What is done to it |
|---|---|---|
| Woody | Blossom, lilac, hydrangea | Cut on a long slant and the base split, so the hard stem can draw water instead of sealing itself off. |
| Hollow | Delphinium, amaryllis | Turned up, filled with water and plugged, so the column of water inside supports the head. |
| Milky | Euphorbia, poppy | The cut end sealed in boiling water or with a flame, which stops the sap bleeding out and fouling the vase. |
| Soft | Tulip, anemone, ranunculus | Cut short and given a deep, cold drink in the dark before use, which firms up stems that would otherwise flop. |
| Bulb | Daffodil, narcissus | Stood alone first, because the sap they release shortens the life of everything sharing their water. |
The shop is on Great Norwood Street in Cheltenham. Because a florist's week bends around the seasons and around what has to be made up, it is worth writing to the counter before making a special journey — particularly for larger work, where a proper conversation beats guesswork.
Enquiries about arrangements, sympathy work and plants all reach the same counter.