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Ashton Hayes & Tarvin Flower Club – January 2019

14th January 2019 @ 6:06am – by Tarvin Webteam
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A flower demonstrator with a difference.

Anne Haughton's visit to our January meeting was really enjoyed by all the audience. Not only did she arrange flowers in the Constance Spry style but she also told us the fascinating history of this incredible lady's life.

Constance was born in Derby in 1886 in a terraced house near the railway station. She had a domineering mother and her escape from this was to climb into a nearby garden/ building site. Here she developed her love of flowers. This love continued when the family moved to Devon and then to Dublin. Whilst in Ireland she studied hygiene, physiology and district nursing. She also married and had a child.

Design 1 represents the rough garden in Derby with wooden boxes, snapdragons, much garden foliage and deep purple hellebores.

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After working with the Red Cross, she and her son left Ireland for good and settled in Barrow in Furness where she worked in munitions. In 1917 she moved to London and worked in several jobs within the Civil Service. Here she met Henry Spry, she divorced her 1st husband and she and Henry then lived as a married couple and bought an old rectory with a large garden. She worked in her garden and by 1929 decided to become a horticulturist. At this point she won a contract to display flowers in the window of Atkinson's perfumiers in Old Bond Street. This was represented in Anne's 2nd design (not photographed), a cascade of garden foliage with pink carnations and deeper pink lisianthus.

The opening of her 1st shop, " Flower Decorations" proved very successful. Constance started to collect unusual but often everyday objects for arranging flowers . Anne's 3rd design uses an old stoneware vase , contains green chrysanthemums, whole limes and fir cones (no photograph). By this time Constance was mixing with an artistic group, she had started a Flower School and was arranging flowers for the Royal Family. In 1937 she made the mistake of doing the flowers for the wedding The Duke of Windsor and Mrs Simpson. Her reputation suffered but in 1946 she opened a cookery school with her friend and Cordon Bleu cook, Rosemary Hume.

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The 4th and 5th designs show very typical Constance Spry designs. The 1st an all white design is in a white china urn. The 2nd represents the wedding work she was doing with beautiful peach roses.

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By 1947 she was in favour again. She produced the flowers for the wedding of Princess Elizabeth with Prince Philip and in 1953 Constance had the honour of helping with flowers for the Coronation. She and Rosemary also produced a cold meal for 350 dignitaries – that was when Coronation Chicken was born.

Anne's final arrangement shows her interpretation of the Commonwealth stand which Constance decorated.
Constance received an OBE in the Coronation honours list. A fascinating history of the lady who started flower clubs as they are today.

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I am sorry not to be able to show photographs of all the designs but demonstrators spend a long time planning their work and do not want to have their work copied. For those who are interested come to a meeting as a visitor. The February meeting is titled "Surprise" and is on 13th February.

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