Today, as part of my Florist Friday blog post series, I’m delighted to feature an interview with Ming Veevers Carter, founder and Creative Director of Veevers Carter.
You may have read my recent blog post about New Covent Garden Flower Market’s debut appearance at this year’s RHS Chelsea Flower Show? Well, Ming’s company are creating their exhibit, ‘Behind Every Great Florist’.
Could you tell us about your floristry background?
I have always loved flowers, and living on a practically deserted island in the Seychelles from a very young age, I would spend time arranging posies from flowers collected around the island. When I returned to the UK, a school governor suggested I turn my hand to floristry. So after leaving school I went to train with Pulbrook & Gould. After some travel around the world where I taught floristry as I went, I consulted for a silk flower importer, travelling between London and China to develop ever more realistic silk flowers. By my late twenties, I had opened two flower shops in Chelsea and Fulham. But it wasn’t long before I moved out of flower shops in favour of being able to create large scale drama in the events world with my own company, Veevers Carter. I’ve never looked back!
Here are just a few examples of their INCREDIBLE designs!
What was your inspiration behind the design for the New Covent Garden Flower Market exhibit at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show?
Our brief was to illustrate how New Covent Garden Flower Market is ‘Behind Every Great Florist’ and has been an essential part of London life, flowering London for centuries. We were inspired by the Flower Market’s history, its traders and their stories, the physical market and its motifs (such as the flower buckets), but also by the many skilled independent florists who are loyal market customers and who constantly draw inspiration from the tapestry of colour to be seen every morning at 6am.
