Kelly Perry - 00:01 - You are listening to the Team Flower podcast where we talk about flowers and the people who have dedicated their lives to sharing them with the world. My name is Kelly, founder of Team Flower, and I'll be your host today, attaching giant arrangements of flowers to buildings. Today's guests Natalya and Fiona of Pyrus have done just that. Their work for the inspiring impressionism exhibit will leave you breathless and with questions about how it came together, but the good news is on this episode they'll answer those questions, learn what they're looking for while they do a site visit, and what the next steps are. After that, their partnership is inspiring and has given them quite a bit of courage. Learn about their unique backgrounds and why their partnership is flourishing. Looking for some new instagram accounts to follow outside the realm of flower world in Natalya and Fiona are sharing some of their favorites. 

Kelly Perry - 00:55 - A balanced life is really important to both our guests. Get a peek inside what this looks like for them. They're also sharing about their fantastic walled garden project and all the flowers that they are growing inside. It's all right here on the Team Flower podcast. This podcast is brought to you by the 2018 Team Flower conference. The future of our industry are gathering in March of 2018 at the reunion resort in Florida. To be purposeful about where our industry is headed in the legacy, we'll leave behind the next century of floral industry professionals. Get connected in a mastermind group, enjoy stage presentations and panels and speak into what our industry will grow to look like during our lifetime. Being in a room with people like you is something that can't be replaced by online resources. Those can only take you so far. Come and join us in person. You can find the most up to date information teamflower.org/conference. Pyrus is based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Welcome Fiona and Natalya. Alright, well welcome to tell ya and Fiona were so glad to have you on the Team Flower podcast today. We wanted to just chat with you about a few questions and I know that both of you have a background in art and I was wondering if you could tell us a little bit more about this and how you feel like this has maybe helped you in your work with flowers and using flowers as your medium. 

Fiona Inglis - 02:26 - Well, yeah, we both, we both studied different art qualities. Um, I studied design and applied arts and specialized in ceramics. And what was yours? 

Natalya Ayers - 02:39 - I did fine art, so quite different disciplines. 

Fiona Inglis - 02:42 - So it's a really interesting in working together because the way that we learned to process things that at college was very different. So with ceramics and everything was very much designed through from beginning to end and you looked lots of different design eventualities and had to think about how things were structured and put together, which turns out to be pretty much the opposite of the way that the Natalya learned. 

Natalya Ayers - 03:14 - Fine art is, um, is all about the process rather than the final results. So, um, it's much more organic. So we come from very different places, but I think that a visual education really helps you to think creatively and spatially, um, and that when that comes to kind of sculptural forms using flowers, I think that's really valuable. Um, and it gives you a certain sort of way to visually communicate that I think has been really useful in our studio is. 

Fiona Inglis - 03:42 - And, I certainly think it's helped our process a little bit of kind of being able to get to the end product and the design work in the best path to do that between the differences in the way that we've learned. We generally find that we come with a, a quite a well balanced and well rounded and design. 

Kelly Perry - 04:04 - Yeah. That's fantastic. Speaking of design, I wonder what maybe some of your favorite elements or maybe your favorite element of design is like, do you prefer color or texture, shape, or size? What's really a place that you kind of find yourself returning to again and again? 

Natalya Ayers - 04:22 - That's a tricky question because we, we probably enjoy the, the whole design process as a whole. Actually, I think that I enjoy the conceptual stage. I'm actually considering what it is about a project, what we're going to do, thinking about the whole design and I love the color element. I think that, um, that sensitivity towards color and thinking about how you can communicate an idea visually through color is, is really special 

Fiona Inglis - 04:51 - I think. I think with all the things you mentioned, I'm generally instinctively drawn into textures, jodes and I don't know if that's part to do with my upbringing. I feel like the Scottish landscape is quite textural and rugged, so that's all wild. Yeah. And I feel like that's often comes through in our work was the materials that are available to us. 

Kelly Perry - 05:14 - Yeah, absolutely. I would agree. You guys have done a lot of really large installations on buildings in the city and I saw a little video that you had done with birch from New York City where you were doing the installation and the city and I was wondering if you would mind sharing your process for, like you were saying, that conceptualizing of the idea and turning it into some of these really show stopping projects that you share with us. And along with that, some of the florists, um, within our community, you know, have asked questions about how do you secure the flowers or, you know, make sure that there aren't damaged to walls. I know on your instagram posts and people had some questions about that as well. Tell us what kind of tips that you have. Things like this. 

Natalya Ayers - 05:58 - I think that with any, um, site specific installation or something that's outdoors or when you're working on a building, then the idea very much takes form through that specific place. So that's the thing that we consider first of all. So, um, the first thing is to do a really thorough site visit. Um, so we will go and visit, look at the space, look at the building, look at what we're working with, and then often the ideas form around that rather than trying to make a piece of fit to a certain space. Um, it's really important to think about the kind of, the conditions and the restrictions of where you're working. Um, so things like weather can really influence what you can do, particularly if something's going to be in place for a while. Um, and also, um, you need to think about things like weight distribution and allocation when you're on the working on the outside of something and there's a lot of health and safety that comes into play as well. 

Fiona Inglis - 06:56 - Yeah, we generally find with the bigger installations we're in any kind of doubt whatsoever we'll call and our production team and take advice from them. Um, especially with the bigger, more permanent installations that we've worked on. We also have, we also have quite a lot of connections in the event industry and so we have lots of people that we can go to and find out about whether we should be using a certain kind of frame or a kind of clip. Um, so we asked a lot of questions and do a lot of research before we commit to do an, a final design. 

Natalya Ayers - 07:37 - Sometimes you'll need a surveyor to come in as well just to have a look and see. Um, you know, if, if something can actually be done before you arrive on the day and try and put it in place. But in terms of fixing, you know, most buildings and venues, particularly historic buildings, they will not allow you to put fixings in. So you have to find another way and you have to design around that. So we will always look for tying points. For example, we use a lot of cable ties and fixings. Um, we will anchor things to the ground. So we'll use like concrete basis, um, sheets of Wire Mesh, you know, we're always trying to look at the alternatives and that's where the weight distribution comes back into play as well because you might only be able to tie in like, I don't know, two or three different places, but you have to make an enormous installation. Hang off that. So, um, so there's a bit of physics involved, which isn't our strong point actually, but yeah, we're learning, we're learning slowly. But I think the main thing for us with an installation is that when it's taken away you shouldn't be able to see that we've been there at all. You know, you have to tread lightly and you have to respect the site. 

Fiona Inglis - 08:45 - Yeah. And I think we tend to always do a lot of what we call disaster prevention. So we kind of think about all the, all the things that could go wrong and then make sure that none of them can ever have 

Natalya Ayers - 08:45 - Don't tie one knot tie five knots.

Kelly Perry - 09:08 - Knot tying that's one of the things, um, that's one of the things they don't necessarily teach you in our school. 

Natalya Ayers - 09:15 - Probably had about three or four different guys in fishing shops now teach us how to do all these kinds of special fishing knots. 

Fiona Inglis - 09:24 - Definitely is key to the fisherman. They have a note for every new situation. 

Kelly Perry - 09:29 - Yeah. That's awesome. So you had mentioned that you might bring some of these things to your production team or a surveyor. What, what would the specific roles of the people on the production team be like? Would you consider that fisherman, one of the people that you would sort of loop into that a little bit to ask some questions. What are those people? 

Natalya Ayers - 09:49 - Probably on an advisory level, but we have had people that have um, you know, they've got a license to use a cherry picker for example, so they will be able to hoist a very large scale installation or they will rig a pulley or they'll rig a hook for us or we did a big job on museums in Scotland last year. 

Kelly Perry - 10:13 - And the picture was on your instagram. Was that the museum? 

Natalya Ayers - 10:16 - So the one, I think the recent one. No, that was actually for a wedding and. But the museum we did, they've got like eight enormous pillars on the front of the main gallery in Edinburgh and they wanted all of the brief was to cover all of those eight pillars, top to toe in flowers for the duration of like three months and difficult briefly. And it wasn't, it wasn't achievable to like cover all eight top to bottom for various health and safety reasons and budget reasons, but we did a section, um, and so they brought in a team that they were familiar with that works on those pillars and does a lot of, um, wraps on them and for their signage. So what they did is they put a pvc wrap on the face of the pillar and then we used ratchet straps to ratchet, the actual flowers on, on a bed of wire Mesh. And what that meant is that the flowers and the wire mesh and the ratchet straps were against the plastic rather than the stone of the pillar. So it wasn't. 

Fiona Inglis - 11:22 - So essentially had a protective pvc layer underneath all of our workings and it was located together. So it meant there was no actual fixings attached to the boating. Um, so there's always kind of are, there tends to always be a way around things and how to do things, but sometimes it just requires asking a few more questions. We work quite closely with some lighting designers as well, so they're used to. I'm hanging up heavy pieces of equipment and for different kinds of events. So we generally make lots of connections along the way and ask a lot of questions and knock on doors. 

Kelly Perry - 12:05 - Right, right. Absolutely. So whenever you're headed to do your initial site visit, you said you were looking for places to rig, um, what, what would be some more checklist items that you're kind of like taking notes on as you're doing that site visit? 

Fiona Inglis - 12:22 - Well, if you come across a venue that has a kind of bare exposed beams, then that's a winner. What I do kind of venue because you've got something very strong overhead that you can attach to. Um, we would always be looking for fixings that are part of the building. So you would never attach to anything like a light fitting or conduit or anything that's been added onto the building. You want something that's kind of structurally a part of it. 

Natalya Ayers - 12:56 - But sometimes it's just not possible as well. I think that the majority of clients come to us asking for installation pieces. Um, and, you know, sometimes we have to go back to them and say we can't really be done for that site and give them alternative. So I think it's being sort of true to yourself and the possibilities and not putting yourself in a, in a position where you're really stressed about it and you don't think you're going to be able to achieve it to the best of your ability and to how you feel it should actually look. Um, you know, so I, I think that there's a time and a place for installations and we do only do them when we feel it's possible, you know, um, and sometimes it just doesn't work for various reasons. 

Fiona Inglis - 13:39 - Somebody really, really keen to have an installation and it's something like a lovely old Georgian townhouse and there's no fixings will put forward a design which moves upwards rather than downwards and we can use a weighted basis, um, so we have freestanding structures, structures in place, um, that have the help of gravity and to keep them secure and safe. But we would also point, I guess is that when you are putting a structure in place to always make sure that your structure is smaller than what you want your finished piece to be, because ultimately that structure must always be completely covered. The worst thing in the world is if you can see the working, there's this potentially this magical piece that seems to have grown in situ, um, and then you can see a big wire or a metal pole and say do it. Or a little chink of concrete. 

Kelly Perry - 14:43 - Yeah, exactly. That's really helpful. Thank you so much for sharing that. I know that's going to help a lot of people who are listening and just have maybe been wondering about some of those things a little bit mysterious.  

Natalya Ayers - 14:54 - We literally learned on the job, so I don't think that there's any wrong or right and I think it's confidence and I think that that's the main thing is knowing that nobody really knows. I'm a sure fire way to do these things. It's just asking a lot of questions, taking a lot of time to prepare and maybe doing a few mock ups, see what works, see what doesn't work and then in time you just get more confident with these things 

Fiona Inglis - 15:15 - And I think we have the benefit that we have two heads so I'm, I'm pretty sure if a lot of these design ideas, if it was just me on my own, I would talk myself out of it, but because there's two of us were quite brave to go each other on and what might seem like a mad idea, you know, the other person will say, okay, well how are we going to do that? And then we'll take it from there. So I definitely think we have that as an advantage. 

Kelly Perry - 15:43 - Yeah. Very good. I love that. Well, tell us about some artists maybe that you admire that are outside of the flower world. I wondered if there were any values or philosophies or design principles that are present in their work that inspire you. 

Fiona Inglis - 15:43 - There's lots, where to start?

Natalya Ayers - 16:02 - I think that we're inspired by all sorts of people. I mean I've, you know, I was thinking about this question and I made so many notes and it's like, well, who do I talk about? You know, because I think everyone, anyone that's creative, anyone that's doing anything interesting, whether that's a poet or a painter or a sculpture, a musician, a dancer, you know, you think you can be inspired by so many things and kind of take those with you with your ideas. But there's a few people that stand out for me and I really love the fire poet, Robert Montgomery. He uses poetry and then make site specific sculpture or conceptual pieces that you set on fire. So it's that combination of kind of conceptual art but also in immersive experience, but also using words. It's very, very powerful. Um, and then there's musicians, you know, I suppose like Kate Bush would have to be, you know, the ultimate in sort of like pushing expression and bringing something we have really special. 

Natalya Ayers - 17:08 - Um, and recently, um, musicians like of like Max Richter I've found really inspiring and then actors like Tilda swinton because again, she works across mediums. So, you know, she's an actor, she's a performer, she works with artists. She, you know, is working cross mediums. So for me, it's people that aren't pigeonholed and that aren't, um, aren't scared of doing something new, aren't scared of fitting in and quite brave and sort of working across visual mediums that inspire me. 

Fiona Inglis - 17:43 - Coming across Andy Goldsworthy, I'm really quite early on it must have been at art college and it being the first artist that I saw that was really crossing boundaries with art and nature. Um, and that I think that really inspired me. I don't think you can ever create anything better than nature, but I think what he does is he presents things in a way that makes you look at it a little bit differently and think about it and relate to it differently. 

Fiona Inglis - 18:12 - Um, and I remember feeling like that was a bit of a pivotal point for me, um, when I discovered him as an artist and of course as a Makoto, but I don't know if he counts as being outside of the, the flower world, but just he does it in a different way though. He's a real hero, you know, everything he does is just, I've never seen any of his pieces of work that I've thought was dull or, or uninteresting 

Natalya Ayers - 18:36 - He's paved the way I think for, um, a different approach in the flower industry and as an artist I think, I think that he's quite an important figure actually. 

Kelly Perry - 18:45 - Wow. Thank you for sharing these different people. And I think that one of the keys and why I wanted to ask this question, I knew you guys would have some great suggestions because whenever we do stay within the realm of flowers, you know, a lot of us are frequently on instagram and that's kind of the place where we're seeing a lot of things come through, but we're all following flower people and so whenever you kind of look outside and some of these other artists and the other types of mediums that they're using and you really start digging into what are those philosophies and principles that are in their work and what makes them really intriguing and interesting. Um, it can be so inspirational in helping you kind of jump out of what you're used to seeing and to create some really special, you know, some really special piece. It's just to kind of jog your brain a little bit. Um, are there any nonrelated instagram accounts that you ladies follow that you would recommend? Um, 

Natalya Ayers - 19:43 - Yeah, a lots. And I actually think that it's, for me personally, it's quite important not to get bogged down with too many flowers because I think that you can look at almost too much and then you don't know what your place is exactly. The thing is, it's so much beautiful stuff to look at. You can compare yourself as well and always think, well that's my work isn't as good as that, or maybe I should be doing what that person's doing or. So I think it's really, really key to sort of spread your net quite wide actually. And it's a very, it's very personal. So I think that there is, you know, probably thousands of accounts out there and they will all appeal to different people. But, um, I've got, you know, for me, I follow lots of different magazines, so we follow magazines like rake's progress, which is a horticulture magazine and they're, you know, they're doing amazing things for horticulture floriculture and really kind of opening it up. 

Natalya Ayers - 20:44 - Um, you know, the world of interiors blog is. Instagram is really inspiring. It's quite historical, but it's very inspiring. And then there's other sites like verite published, um, that is under the influence magazine and there's then studios working late night show studio, which is kind of more fashion based, but it's quite cutting edge and avante garde. Um, and then there's other accounts, things like trend bland that's across the board that's obviously quite big, but across the board it will kind of show you design architecture, products, places, um, the new craftsmen. That's another one that I really love that will, um, kind of show you lots of really beautiful artists and work and craft. So there's so many. But we also follow lots of travel blogs, food blogs, you know, cooks, there's different artists, you know, it's quite niche and I feel like I almost fall in and out of love with different accounts depending on what time of year is, how I'm feeling, whether I'm tired, um, you know, what I'm kind of lacking or what I feel that I need to kind of look at to sort of get a bit of creative inspiration. 

Kelly Perry - 21:57 - Well, and I think something that I noticed about a lot of the places that you've mentioned is that they are um, they're like a connection point. So they're featuring a lot of different artists and a lot of, there's a lot of different things coming through each of those one places. So it's not like you're just following one person you're following, you know, the culmination of a lot of different people 

Natalya Ayers - 22:21 - And that can take you often end up journey is a bit like Pinterest, you know, how you start looking at pinterest and then you'll see something which relates to a picture and then that will take you off somewhere and like two hours later you find that you're looking at like a whole thread of, I don't know, like really crazy sculpture using embroidery and dead bees or something and you're like, how have I got for this point from light researching that wedding or something. And I think that that's the beauty of it is like you're constantly sort of taking on inflammation and sort of like feeding your soul a little bit, you know? 

Kelly Perry - 22:55 - Absolutely. So good. Well, I was wondering how you two work together, I was wondering if you take turns or leads on different creative projects or do you take a more collaborative approach, kind of tossing it back and forth? What works for you guys? 

Fiona Inglis - 23:11 - Well, when we start it, we spent a long time discussing for how we would think we would like it to work and we had lots of discussions about what we felt our strengths and weaknesses were, what we enjoyed, what we did in. And thankfully in terms of the business. It was all opposite. So the things that I didn't enjoy doing Italian is very good at and um, and vice versa. So the day to day running of things is generally quite clearly split and, but when it comes to creative projects, we always work as a, as a collaboration. 

Natalya Ayers - 23:52 - We spend a lot of time bouncing ideas off each other. Um, I think there are times when we're both drawn to different projects and one of us will naturally lead it dependent on what the brief or the aesthetic or the client wants. Um, but yeah, we, we definitely work as a, as collaborators, um, and kind of boost and feed off each other on a project from beginning to end, including, you know, from concept all the way through the design process too, you know, foraging sourcing materials and then the installation. 

Fiona Inglis - 24:20 - Yeah. And I think within that there's areas that we prefer and then don't prefer so much. For example, in Italia is very good creative writer so she tends to take the lead with him putting the proposals together. Um, I'm a natural worrier so our generally kind of work on the logistics and the structure will say do things and, and how it's all going to go to come together. Um, so, but it's always um, it's always a really enjoyable process and when we're actually on site and putting a piece together, um, you know, that's, that's really kind of the highlight over job, isn't it? 

Kelly Perry - 25:04 - That's so fun. Well, it sounds like communication is definitely a really important part of a solid partnership and a lot of self awareness too. And I'm just chatting back and forth. Then it kind really 

Natalya Ayers - 25:17 - It's really good for you. I think actually because I think you know, you get, I don't know, I think we have, we're both quite strong minded, so actually sort of having another person there to sort of say, actually I think and this might work better or have you thought of that and that other set of eyes is incredibly valuable. You know, when, when you're talking about visual communication, it's really lovely to sort of have the support 

Fiona Inglis - 25:40 - And I think particularly at times where it's peak season and everything is so busy crazy that just having another set of eyes to look at something and go, okay, that needs that or it doesn't need that or that's okay. Is really is really, really valuable. 

Natalya Ayers - 25:57 - When you've had to four hours, you don't actually know what your name is anymore 

Kelly Perry - 26:04 - Well my next question was when you're feeling exhausted creatively, what do you do for a little refresh? That's a perfect lead in. 

Natalya Ayers - 26:12 - What we actually do. I think that both of us, I would say that time out is so crucial for anyone that has a creative business or anyone that is running their own business. It is so important to take time out and the way that we tend to manage it is we actually take time off during the winter. So, um, when our flower garden is sleeping, we take a month off and we shut everything down and we go away. Um, and during that month we might travel and see our friends, catch up with our family, read, cook, write, paint, make pots, you know, whatever that is. Um, but that time to kind of reset and rebalance is so incredibly important to us. 

Fiona Inglis - 26:58 - Yeah, definitely. And I think either, you know, it's difficult because the times where you most need a little bit of time, I as the times where you don't have time to do that. And so in our calendar if there's ever a little quiet weekend or the weekend where we have nothing vic, then you know, for us even just a night away in the borders of Scotland or a couple of nights on an island on the west coast, just to just removing yourself from the situation. Getting back into nature and just stopping really, really is incredibly valuable. And I think that's, that's genuinely what keeps us sane and understanding the garden, you know, with the garden that we're working in, the walls that are so high that when you're inside there you really feel like you're cut off from the world. So even when everything is crazy and the emails are built up and you know what it's like all the inquiries or come in at the same time that if we take a day in the garden, everything's fine. It's kind of brought back the integrating. Think about things clearly. So it is a tricky one because when you, when you're feeling so exhausted and backed up, it is quite difficult to see. Do you know what? I'm not, I'm just going to go away. I'm just going to spend the afternoon in the garden and tending the flowers. But it's definitely definitely worth it. 

Natalya Ayers - 28:34 - I think it's also learning not to beat yourself up too much about feeling tired and, and you know, being busy because I think we all talk a lot about work life balance these days and like the perfect life and you see all these so called perfect lives on instagram and on social media and actually I think that we're coming to the conclusion that there is no perfect work life balance and that you know, what you see on social media isn't necessarily the reality and it is just taking those snatched moments when you can. I'm sort of trying to enjoy every day. So making the studio fund, making the garden really lovely lighting a barbecue, staying a bit longer, you know, when the sun sets and just sort of trying to enjoy every day rather than it just being a real crazy rush all the time and trying to make it more of a lifestyle than just a job, you know? 

Fiona Inglis - 29:24 - Yeah. And I think, no, I think this is now our sixth year that we're definitely much more tuned in to take your care ourselves, self care, each other in the team, you know, and recognizing when you need to stop and I think that will begin in particularly when you're building your business up and you know, you, you, you really want it to be the best that it can be. Um, and I think like Natalya was saying, you can give yourself a hard time and actually sometimes you just need to stop and take a break. 

Kelly Perry - 29:59 - I think that's really, really good advice. Thank you for sharing that. Yeah, that never hurts. Absolutely. Well tell us a little bit more about this garden project that you have. I think I read that you studied it at the botanic garden. 

Fiona Inglis - 29:59 - Well sort of so when we, um, when we started growing flowers and neither of us had had any, well neither of us had, had a garden before, had. 

Natalya Ayers - 29:59 - Nope. 

Fiona Inglis - 30:54 - Neither of US had been in charge of plants solely on our own ever before, but we knew from really early on in our Florida street career that we wanted to use local flowers. Um, when we were training in a flower shop, there was a, a local rose grower who used to bring roses into the flower shop, maybe once a week. And those roads is, we're so divided and there was so, so different from the Dutch imports that we were used to seeing that it really struck a chord with us. And at that time of doing just over 10 years ago, it was really difficult to get British flow. 

Natalya Ayers - 31:12 - There's a waiting list for those races every week. They never even got put out. They just went in, you know, an instant

Fiona Inglis - 31:21 - They were absolutely divine. So then I heard about an organic farm in five, just a couple of hours outside of Edinburgh and they mostly vegetables but had a small part, a small plots or for cut flowers. So I moved to five and took a part time job there to learn how to grow flowers. And in the meantime, I did a couple of short courses at the botanic gardens at Edinburgh and got my certificate in practical horticulture, but it wasn't until we set up together, um, that we really started to learn about how to grow flowers and 

Natalya Ayers - 32:02 - There was a lot of learning through doing and a lot of trial and error. But I think that, um, you know, you, you could go and have, you know, you can study for four or five years and in practical horticulture and then still talk to 10 other different professional gardeners and they would approach the same plant differently, you know. So I think that it's very much sort of experience. And this is our second garden. The first garden was much smaller and it was so completely different. Soil was different, site was different. It liked different plants, different things thrived and did well. Different things died and didn't like it. So it has, you know, even with a few years experience, it has been starting again, hasn't it in this new site. So I think that there's, um, you know, probably we were foolish to begin with 

Fiona Inglis - 32:55 - I mean that first year, if I'm honest, was terrified, you know, there was so many questions. Um, uh, you know, when you're not confident you don't everything that you're doing. And um, the first year was hard and it was a particularly bad season in Scotland as well, otherwise remained virtually until August. So nothing really started to flow and we started to think this is this why there's nobody growing flowers in Scotland.  Do you know the weather's just so bad actually. But then august came, the sun, came out, everything, came into to bloom and it was fine. But every year is very different in terms of where the. And every year we learn some new skills and certainly from the experience that I got before we set up, I did learn that there are obviously, you know, techniques and ways to do things, but people do do things in their own way and they find, they find the best way to do things for themselves. But again, kind of like with the installations, we, we talked to a lot of people, um, and we visit other gardens, um, and we share as much information as we can, um, to get a better idea of kinda the bigger picture of what our different options are. 

Kelly Perry - 34:26 - Right. Well, what's your favorite thing that you have planted in the garden this year? What are you excited about coming up? 

Natalya Ayers - 34:32 - Hard question. Um. Oh, we've just planted a whole load of garden roses that's going to be so excited. So this year we've had, we have had roses in the past but I'm not, not in this volume and not in this garden. So it'll be exciting to see how those do grown. Foxgloves should. Oh yes. 

Kelly Perry - 34:56 - Yeah, yeah. I have some of those outback. The chocolate? 

Natalya Ayers - 34:56 - Yeah, 

Kelly Perry - 35:03 - They should come into flower this year as well, so we can compare notes. 

Natalya Ayers - 35:10 - Lots of vines as well. Um, we are just about to put up a second poly tunnel so we can sort of get the focus on lots of vines and we like growing lots of fruit and veg as well. You know, something a little bit different, quite textural. So I mean there's, there's so many things and we're quite fickle so um, you know, we, we feel like every year we kind of get a little bit tired of one thing and then we sort of move on to a new color Palette or the texture or you new favorite flower.

Fiona Inglis - 35:43 - And I feel I do feel like working in this way of growing our own flowers is almost like a prolonged Christmas, you know, so we buy all our seeds are sewing and you've kind of got some hopes about what things might turn out like, but you're never completely sure what it is to be like in real life. And sometimes there's disappointments and then sometimes it's amazing discoveries that are our new, our new favorite thing. So who knows is the way I feel about 

Natalya Ayers - 36:15 - Ask it again in September. 

Fiona Inglis - 36:19 - Some amazing Delia's, but there was quite a lot of them turned out to be colors that, that, that wasn't what we thought it was going to be late. Right. And we had other things like our lotty beans we didn't really think much of, but when they went to fruit they were so incredibly beautiful and we were using them in everything that we possibly could. So it feels like the garden provides us with a bit of a seasonal adventure. 

Kelly Perry - 36:49 - I like that. That's really fun. And I'm excited about your new poly tunnel because that'll help a lot with some of those weather fluctuations and even just having quite a lot of rain. It'll provide some shelter and things like that. So they took it a little bit of a leg up on that. So. Good. Well tell me what's new, what's, what's on the, uh, what's on the agenda for you this year? Um, are there any workshops or opportunities that you have for people who might be interested in learning from you? 

Fiona Inglis - 37:16 - Yeah, we did, we did some workshops in the good in, um, and then we started to do less. But we found in the last year or so we've had quite a lot of requests for workshops. So this year we are going to do some one to one tutoring in our studio and our cutting garden, I'm just a small number, just a few, but she'd be a really beautiful day picking flowers in the garden and um, so 

Natalya Ayers - 37:46 - It will be really lovely to welcome people into our space and, and get to see where they are kind of on their flower journey or whether they're just starting out or you know, what they want to learn and kind of tailor it to their needs. So we're excited about offering that this year. 

Kelly Perry - 38:03 - Yeah, that'll be really fun. Well, you'll have that posted on the website or on your instagram I imagine for anybody who's interested in person, 

Natalya Ayers - 38:12 - That's like a scoop for you. No one else knows about that. 

Kelly Perry - 38:19 - Thank you for letting us know about it and thank you so much for coming on and sharing with us today. It's been a really delightful conversation. I have loved having you guys. 

Natalya Ayers - 38:30 - Thank you so much for having us. It's been a total pleasure. 

Fiona Inglis - 38:33 - Nice to talk to you thanks for listening to our flower ramblings.

Kelly Perry - 38:39 - Absolutely. And thank you so much to everyone who's been listening. Uh, we're delighted to have you here on the Team Flower podcast, and I'm a part of the story of the flower story for the world. Will see you guys later. Bye Bye. Thanks for listening. And remember the deep importance of the work you do. The flower is not just a flower. It's a conduit for passing the hope and love inside of your heart to the people you share them with.