The team
Megan grows it and does the weddings, Owen does the hardest orders and the deliveries, Lily does the daily bouquets and the workshops. Whoever answers the phone is one of the three, and the dog is Lily's.
Owner and florist. Weddings, the garden, the seasons chart
Trained at a flower school in London and a nursery in Devon, worked for a big Cardiff florist for eight years, and opened Bloom Lane in 2014 with the idea that a florist should grow some of what she sells. Megan does the weddings and the cutting garden at Llanblethian, writes the seasons chart each month from what is actually in the ground, and stopped using floral foam in 2019 before anyone asked her to.
Florist. Sympathy flowers, events, the weekly contracts, the van
Joined in 2017 from a garden centre and found he had a gift for the hardest orders. Owen takes most of the sympathy calls, because he is calm and asks the right three questions, builds the coffin sprays, runs the weekly flowers for the hotels and restaurants, and drives the electric van across the Vale every afternoon. He also keeps the bees whose wax is in the candles.
Florist. Bouquets, the shop, subscriptions, the workshops
Came for a Saturday job at sixteen and never left; qualified in floristry at college in Cardiff and runs the shop floor, the subscriptions and most of the workshops, where her hand-tied spiral is the thing people remember. Lily makes most of the daily bouquets, writes the cards in the neatest hand in the building, and is the reason the shop has a dog.
How we do it
Every stem is cut, stripped and stood in deep water in the cold room overnight before it goes into anything. It is why the flowers last a week and why we do not sell what came in this morning.
Chicken wire, moss, pin holders and water. Floral foam is a single-use plastic that crumbles into the water supply; nothing we make needs it, and the flowers drink better without it.
A third from the garden; the rest Welsh first, British second, Dutch third, and we tell you which. No air freight. The seasons chart is the same list we order from.
Megan trained at a London flower school and a Devon nursery; Lily holds the City and Guilds floristry diploma; Owen learned here and at the garden. All three go to a course a year and come back with ideas we then have to accommodate.
The long table
The table at the back of the shop is an old chapel pew-maker's bench that came with the building. On weekday mornings it is where the bouquets are tied; on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday evenings it is where wedding consultations happen over tea; on Saturday afternoons in December it is six people and a pile of foliage making wreaths. The dog, Bramble, sleeps under it through all of this and has never once eaten a flower.
Workshops, dates and pricesA hand-tied from the best of the morning, a bowl for someone grieving, a bunch every fortnight, or an hour in the shop to talk about a wedding: ring, send the form, or come in. Same-day delivery across the Vale by electric van, £5 local, £8 across the Vale, free over £60.