A botanical lunch at Petersham Nurseries
In what turned out to be the perfect way to round off a busy week at London Design Festival, last Friday I was invited along to Petersham Nurseries to enjoy a botanical lunch with the team from notonthehighstreet.com, some of the artists and makers who sell with them and a small group of interiors editors and bloggers.
We dined at weathered zinc topped tables on vintage tubular chairs in one of Petersham’s glasshouses…
…where I swooned over these gorgeous peach pink roses and resolved to buy a set of gold cutlery.
I know it is still too early to mention the ‘C’ word but this jewel tone colour palette would be perfect for a festive table setting. The amethyst wine goblets are available here.
The napkins were made of the softest white linen and I loved the rustic tableware, handmade by artisans in Southern Africa
The pine cone illustration on the place setting is by Lâle Güralp who, along with Kate Thorburn of What Kate Loves was one of the sellers I met over lunch. Lâle was sketching botanical details when I arrived and this picture really doesn’t do her work justice. The detail in her drawings is just incredible!
I must also mention Kate’s beautiful wild garden bowl, which sadly I didn’t manage to take a picture of as I was too busy devouring the delicious burrata salad that was served up in it.
After lunch we enjoyed an autumnal flower class with Petersham’s horticultural manager and florist Thomas Bloom, making seasonal bouquets with hydrangeas, dahlias and chrysanthemums. Amazingly I managed to transport mine home safely where I topped it up with foliage from my own garden. I’ve been on the hunt for a new vase for some time as although I have a huge collection of decorative vases most of them are pretty useless when it comes to flower arranging. This dew drop glass vase does the job perfectly! It has a narrow neck and a wide bulbous base so it keeps the stems together while allowing the flower heads to spread out in a lovely loose informal arrangement.
Thank you notonthehighstreet.com for a wonderful afternoon!
