Stone & Stem - who are we, and what do we do?

Since the re-brand, I’ve had a lot of questions about the direction the business is going in. Are we full time growers now? Are we a flower farm? Do you still do weddings?

So today I wanted to add a little clarity to the curious, and outline exactly what’s changed, along with what is firmly staying the same!

I’ll be honest, over the last few months I’ve been trying to figure it out too. It’s felt a bit like starting a new business, even though what’s really happened is an evolution of what the business was before, and I’m really excited about how it’s evolved already, and for what’s to come.

So, let’s start with the biggest change shall we - flower growing.

Yes, at Stone & Stem we grow a lot of flowers now, with the investment of a poly tunnel at the start of the year helping us along. The flowers we grow are predominantly for Stone & Stem Floral Design. We grow for our weddings, our events, our workshops, and our floral bunches, carefully selecting the flowers and foliage we want to grow to perfectly represent who we are as a brand, and the varieties we love the most!

We do not consider ourselves as a flower farm as such, as we have a lot more we need to do before we would even get to that point, such as an increase in beds in the poly tunnel, and more beds needed outside. However, at the moment we are very happy to provide buckets of flowers to local florists!

The buckets provided are based on colour palette alone, not specific varieties. Tell us what arrangements you plan to use the flowers in too, and we can choose the right flowers for you, considering stem length, size of the flower itself, and so on. We believe that we have a great eye for choosing the perfect flowers for florists, being florists ourselves too!

If you’re a local florist and would like to order some flowers, pop us an email: hello@stoneandstem.co.uk

So what’s stayed the same, given there’s been such a big change to the business?

Well, we are very much still a bespoke wedding and event florist. We have a number of large scale weddings and events, both this year and next, where we work with our clients to carefully curate bespoke floral designs, just for them. The difference is that we now use a lot of our own grown stems within all of our work, meaning we grow flowers and foliage specifically for our clients, based on their colour palette, designs, arrangement style, and so on. By growing flowers and foliage specifically for our clients’ weddings and events, it makes the flowers ever so much more special, and we are really enjoying the process so far!

We have started more services alongside weddings & events, which I’ll go into shortly. This means that our bespoke service for weddings and events is now even more exclusive, as we limit the amount taken on per year to ensure we allow the correct amount of time and care in the planning stage that our clients need. If you’d like to find out more about the bespoke service we offer, click here.

Now let’s talk about the new services we offer!

Firstly, we have our Intimate Floral Design service. This service is designed for those who are planning a wedding or event on a slightly smaller scale, and wish to add truly lovely and unique flowers, but without any fuss.

Examples of this could be an intimate wedding, with a small bridal party and just a few tables. Or perhaps you are planning a dinner party, and want to have a scattering of pretty bud vases across the table. Maybe you have a corporate event, and want to add a few floral arrangements to enhance the room.

All we ask for is your colour palette and types of arrangements you’d like, and we do the rest. Within all of these designs, we create with seasonal flowers that match the colour palette, predominantly using British stems. There is no consulation or mood board - it’s a bit like choosing from a menu, trusting us to create lovely flowers in our signature style.

Within this service, you can collect your arrangements from our Hampshire studio, or delivery can be arranged for an additional fee.

We’re really excited about this, as we will be able to provide beautiful florals for so many people. We appreciate how expensive having flowers can be, and hope to be able to provide flowers that are a little easier on the budget within this service! If you’d like to find out more about the Intimate Floral Design service, click here.

Another new addition to our offerings are floral workshops, mostly held in our floral studio in Hambledon, Hampshire. I’m really excited about these - I used to do a lot of workshops, but without a studio this was really tricky - we had workshops in pubs, vineyards, even a pilates studio - none of which were ever quite the right fit, as they were not “purpose built” for floral workshops.

With the addition of our new studio space, I’m excited to be welcoming many flower enthusiasts through the studio doors!

I will be arranging workshops each month or so that you can book onto as an individual, or with a few friends. These will be designed to be a super relaxed and enjoyable few hours, eating cake, drinking tea, and making some beautiful flower arrangements! You can expect to create hand-tied bouquets, low bowl arrangements, Autumn wreaths and Christmas wreaths.

We also welcome group bookings for workshops! Whether its for a hen do, birthday party, team building day, or just an excuse to get a few friends or family together, our studio space is the perfect place. We can discuss different options of what you might like to create as a group, so please send an e-mail to hello@stoneandstem.co.uk if this sounds like something you would like to learn more about!

I will also be holding workshops exclusively for florists. You will have the option to book a private 1:1 with me, either for half a day or a full day. You may be new to floristry and wish to learn the basics, or you may be established but looking to level up. Or, perhaps you are wishing to learn more about sustainable mechanics or working with British flowers. Whatever you wish to learn, I’d be delighted to help, tailoring the workshop to your floral needs!

Group florist workshops can also be available, if there are a few of you that would like the opportunity to learn, but wish to split the cost - this is absolutely possible!

To enquire about florist workshops, and to find out about pricing, please send an e-mail to hello@stoneandstem.co.uk

To find out more about all of our workshops, click here.

Last but not least, I’m delighted to announce that you can now buy our flowers!

We create weekly Floral Bunches, created out of seasonal British flowers, varying week to week. These are delivered every Friday to The Southsea Deli in Portsmouth.

I really hope you’ve enjoyed reading all about who we are, and what we offer, here at Stone & Stem! I’m so excited to continue on this journey and see what our future holds.

We’re only just getting started, and I strongly believe that the best is yet to come!

Millie - Owner & Founder, Stone & Stem