Beautiful Blooms S


Waterfront steals a moment from Simon Lycett, one of Britain’s most in-demand florists, to discuss the evolution of his blossoming career


imon Lycett has a lot of achievements to be proud of. He is resident florist on the Alan Titchmarsh show and


can count Her Majesty the Queen, Ringo Starr and the Beckhams as his clients. He even provided the floral decorations for the premieres of Quantum of Solace, Calendar Girls and Sex and the City 2. Tese accolades, however, have not gone to his head. He is remarkably grounded, warm-natured and passionate about the job that he does. It is a passion that began at the age of seven in his hometown of Warwick. As he recalls, “My mum took us to a local park where they were holding the town flower show. I went inside the tent and the spark just hit me to the core. I knew from that moment on that I had to do something with flowers and plants.” Simon’s natural skill for floristry did not always please everyone, though. “At the tender age of sixteen, I won my first floral art competition, putting some noses seriously out of joint in the process,” he jokes. “I was this young upstart and these were ladies who had done it for years and they were not happy!” Te early days of Simon’s career


were fairly prosperous and Simon found himself working hard. “Te ‘80s were an amazing period for a naïve youngster from Warwick to start working in Chelsea,” he explains. “Budgets were fast and clients would send their pilots in to collect designs and fly them back!” After a spell with the late great Robert Day, Simon worked briefly at Pulbrook and Gould, which he counts as the best experience of working in a fresh flower shop. “We changed the window displays twice a day and had the most amazing client base, so the


28 waterfrontmagazines.co.uk


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