New Covent Garden Flower Market

In the name of a little research, I dragged myself (and Izzy) out of bed at the crack of dawn on a bank holiday and down to Vauxhall to the New Covent Garden flower market. I cycle past this market pretty much every day on my way to work, but until now I had never investigated further. And BOY am I now kicking myself now!!!? This place is amazing, it's a HUGE warehouse of plants and flowers and pretty much my heaven on earth!  If you ever want a whole lotta varied flowers at wholesale prices, this is THE place to go in London.

The early start was well worth it. The flower market is open from 4am till about 10am. We rocked up by about 7:30 and by 8:30 it was already starting to wind down. In fact, it was pretty quiet, something I put down to it being bank holiday and our later arrival time. No worries, all the more flowers for us, mwahahaha!

The venue itself is the epitome of industrial functionality. There is barely a single angle that can turn this warehouse into a thing of beauty. I find this a little tragic to be honest. Compared to the breathtaking beauty of the original Covent Garden market, it's a tragedy. But alas, lets not dwell on this. It's what's inside that counts!!! :)

In addition to all the fresh flowers and plants, there was also a huge section of silk flowers and all the flower condiments you could ever want - oasis, vases, jars, sparkles, tapes and wires, stands, glasses, candles etc etc. It's like a party planners dream. 

We were doing a reckee in advance of the big day this summer! We wanted to try our hand at putting together a little bouquet and some flower display. I had absolutely no idea how hard or easy this would be. I'd mentioned to a few people this plan and generally the response has been 'are you crazy?!' (or something a tad politer, but pretty much along the same lines!!!) But without a little experimentation I had no idea if was do-able or if I really was barking mad...

Without much clue what we really doing we scoped out what was on offer and how the whole thing worked! We spotted a few bunches that caught our eye, I was looking for mostly bright colours with some offsetting neutrals plus some greenery! We ended up with an armful of flowers and as we were leaving a super kind gent who was packing up his wares offered us a few extra bunches that he was leaving behind - SCORE!

The journey home on the bus was hilarious! Just getting on and off with all the flowers was a mission. Izzy and I then proceeded to have THE BEST day. We spent the entire morning out in the garden playing with all the flowers. Practicing bouquets, boutonnières and displays. Filing vases, glasses and watering cans. Dreamy. But that's enough of that...shall save those gems for another post! hehe.

They also had a whole section of plants, trees and shrubs. It too ALL my willpower to walk out of that place without any plants. There were some fabulous hydrangeas, standards, succulents, orchids, the list goes on. As soon as we are settled into our new house, this is the first place I'll be coming back to! I have a long shopping list at the ready.

Leaving with our haul and happy hearts! :)