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 High street flowers looked so outdated as table centres for dinner parties and were taking away the natural beauty of flowers.'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 now operates from the flower shed at Hartley Farm Shop in Cranbrook where she spends her time from Wednesday through to Saturday snipping and arranging posies & bouquets for the good people of Kent & 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