All this week we're running a series on the people who make Christmas in the country what it is. Today, Paula Lester meets wreath maker Ellie Taylor.
Six weeks before Christmas, Ellie Taylor’s slate-grey-fronted florist’s shop on Cheap Street becomes a veritable Aladdin’s cave of foraged delights as she works all hours to craft more than 100 bespoke wreaths for the residents of Sherborne — and surrounding villages — in Dorset. As her mother, Jane, serves those wanting to buy flowers or the homeware that’s artfully arranged on tidily stacked apple-crate shelving, Miss Taylor grabs every chance to retreat into the back of Occasions Florist, where the narrow space is lined with serried rolls of velvet ribbon, neatly tied bunches of spruce, dried limes, rose hips, teasel seedheads and pine cones.
‘Christmas is our busiest time by far, followed by Mothering Sunday and Valentine’s Day,’ says the cheerful 30 year old, who has run the shop for six years.
‘It gets busier each year and the wreaths have got bigger, too — they look so good on the large front doors of period properties.’
She begins with a circular wire frame that’s then enveloped in a generous layer of moss and spruce and works to the individual requirements of her clients, many of whom order ahead. Some go for a traditional red theme of fruit and cones; others prefer a more rustic, russet-brown look with pheasant feathers, bracken, twigs, catkins and Eryngium. ‘They sell quicker than we can make them,’ she admits. Although, as with many florists these days, most flowers and foliage are purchased from Dutch markets, Miss Taylor also gathers elements — mistletoe, guinea-fowl feathers and homegrown gourds — from her mother’s Somerset smallholding or from the hedgerows surrounding her own home, which she shares with her partner, Edward White. A gamekeeper on an estate in Hinton St George, he also runs a butchery business specialising in sika venison (he’s on Instagram @thegamekeeperslarder).
Miss Taylor, who began her working life in childcare, trained as a florist 10 years ago: ‘I love the creativity and how it’s so different from the carnations and chrysanthemums you buy in the supermarket.’ As soon as she saw the Facebook advertisement for a floristry business for sale in the abbey town, she knew she had to have it — even if she and her mother are exhausted by the time the festivities arrive. ‘By lunchtime on Christmas Eve, we’re on our knees and only open for collections,’ she admits. ‘But we still get people coming in to buy table decorations, flowers for the house or Christmas garlands of Ilex, berries and twisted hazel.’
Christmas treat ‘Going beating with Ed, who works golden retrievers, and my two spaniels, Bella and Tia.’
01935 814308; www.occasions-flowers.com; @occasionssherborne
This piece is extracted from an article in Country Life’s 2024 Christmas double issue — see what else is inside and order a copy here
