Sophie started out in Floristry whilst working for a Country house in Sussex as a PA. 'There were cutting gardens that were bursting with colour and I couldn't resist bringing the flowers into the home. High street flowers looked so outdated as table centres for dinner parties and were taking away the natural beauty of flowers.' On a wish and a prayer Sophie left her job as PA and was offered an old Estate Office at a Walled Nursery in Kent as a workshop to 'create'. 'I've never looked back' - Sophie now creates arrangements for the same family and many more as well as bringing up a young family of her own, and has recently opened her own workshop from home in Bodiam, East Sussex.
Sophie's signature style works with a carefully picked palette of colour, incorporating the most beautiful roses picked especially for their exquisite tones. Colour is paramount in Sophie's work - and she is always trying out new combinations to broaden her portfolio. 'Astilbe & Sorrel is now known for it's signature style - often using Amnesia, Quicksand or Wild Look roses, veronica, country garden flowers such as love-in-a-mist, delphiniums and cornflowers in the Summer months, hypericum and seedpods in the Autumn, ranunculus, tulips and anemones in the Spring - and always including a variety of foliages, picked for scent, colour and texture'.
Photo by Alun Callendar