I have been working in the flower industry for over 20 years, and believe it or not, didn’t begin to attend classes, workshops or training programs until I began my own flower company in 2019!

When I think about that now I cringe a bit, and see how I became stuck for so very long, in both developing a style but also in the ingredients, vessels, mechanics and colours I would consider.

Attending and taking part in training and upskilling has been so rewarding for me, and I would encourage every florist and floral designer to invest in themselves (and their staff!) and try out a workshop!

bowl arrangement by Flicky Howe at Fleuropean Belgium May 2024 — Bowl arrangement created by Flicky Howe at Chateau Wodemont, Belgium at Fleuropean Artist’s Retreat in May 2024
Image by Anna Doshina Photography

For my latest adventure on my floral learning journey I went to Belgium for a week in May 2024 with my best flower friend Taylor who also grows his own flowers just on the northern edge of Cork city, and is an incredible floral designer. His company is called Between The Briars (you must go see!).

We attended the Fleuropean Artist’s Retreat at Chateau de Wodemont, nestled in the rolling hills and forests of the Belgian countryside.

chateau wodemont in Belgium, home of Fleuropean — Beautiful Chateau de Wodement in early May 2024.

Our adventure began with a short, early morning flight from Cork, Ireland to Amsterdam. We then set off on a quick bus ride to visit the Keukenhof Botanical Gardens for the morning.

Our visit to Keukenhof was right at the end of the tulip season, so many of the varieties had gone over or were very blown out. We still enjoyed them though, and were bowled over by the huge array, the sheer size of some of the flower heads, and also the incredible amount of work it must take to produce such a stunning display each year.

Both of our favourites were the whimsical and naturalistic woodland plantings, filled with wonderful textures and plant types.

The gardens were very, very busy with huge crowds of people visiting, but it didn’t at all feel overwhelming. There was plenty of “escape space”!

We headed back into Amsterdam in the afternoon and caught a train to Liege in Belgium where we had a really nice apartment booked for the night.

Dinner in Liege at a Lebanese tapas restaurant!

After checking out the next day we headed back to the central train station at Liege to meet Emily from Fleuropean, and our other course colleagues. We all bundled into Emily’s car and taxi’s and headed for the Belgian hills!

Chateau de Wodement peeking over the brow of a meadowy hillside.

We were all so eager to explore the Chateau and it’s surrounds!

Taylor and I chose rooms on the top floor of the chateau overlooking the beautiful Belgian landscape of rolling hills and old woodland. My room had the most beautiful brown floral patterned wallpaper. It looked like a dollshouse, and smelled like honey. Below my window sat a tawny owls nesting house, perched on a tall tree stump. It was such a joy to hear the owls calling to each other outside in the nighttime!

room with an incredible view Chateau de Wodement — My bedroom window at Chateau de Wodemont.

looking down at the tawny owls house — Looking down to the Tawny owls nesting box below my window.

After a guided walk around the property, and a stroll through the adjacent forest and fields with Emily, we all returned to the Chateau for a relaxing drink while we waited for dinner at the beautifully set banquet table in the dining room.

Each day of the retreat began with Emily giving us a floral design demonstration in her magnificent barn workshop. She had gathered a host of gorgeous flowers for us all to work with, and we also had free reign of the gardens and surrounding hedgerows to pick as we pleased from. The most exciting thing was of course Emily’s incredible bearded iris’s, which were all beginning to bloom with profusion in the gardens.

bearded iris at Chateau de Wodemont — Emily’s beaded iris bed at Chateau de Wodement

The barn workshop at Chateau de Wodemont

demo time at Fleuropean — Emily giving our group an inspiring insight into her style of floral design.

loved up snails — Two beautiful snails joined the party

After the demo we were all given a beautiful handmade ceramic bowl to create our own design in, and an empty bucket to choose our ingredients into. Initially I thought I might go very “witchy woo” with a dark and moody colour palette. However, I picked up an apricot at lunchtime and became besotted by it’s colours! So that became my inspiration.

My first design at the floral artist’s retreat.

another view of the bowl arrangement — Emily also showed us how to set our designs in various positions and angles, and in different settings to take photos of our work on our phones.

Emily guides us in a dye class — For our second demonstration Emily showed us how to dye our own ribbons with various dyes and plant materials in the chateau kitchen. It felt like we were in potions class! So much fun!

In the afternoon Taylor and I decided we would get creative and make a design we had always wanted to try out. A stairway installation! We convinced some of our fellow course participants to join in the fun (it really wasnt too hard to convince them!!) and we all had a magnificent time gathering materials from the hedgerows and creating a bit of seasonal magic on the chateau stairs.

We used various bowls of water with chicken wire mechanics dotted every other step of the stairs, and larger vessels of water at feature points of the staircase. The entire list of ingredients for the design were foraged in the surrounding hedgerows - cow parsley, mayblossom and rambling rose.

Working with us on this design were Karis (Flowers by Karis), Hope (Pigsty), Zoe (Bloom Amethi) and Jenn (jenn.afleur)

pre dinner treats — winding down at the end of the day with a glass of bubbles

Our next demonstration was a hand gathered bouquet design.

Emily going through her bouquet ingredients selection — Emily going through her selection of ingredients for her bouquet design.

We also had the pleasure of Anna Doshina’s company that day as she had come to take photos of us all and our work!

Anna Doshina Photographer busy at work at Chateau de Wodement — Anna Doshina busy capturing images of my design!

My bouquet design later that day — One of my bouquet designs later that day featuring the silk ribbons I had dyed the day before.

After Anna had captured some initial photos of our stairway design, we changed it up by adding dozens of pretty peonies! She captured it again with the additions!

Flowers By Karis — Karis adding gorgeous “Claire de Lune” peonies to the outside vessel.

Taylor and Karis tablescaping — Taylor and Karis busy redesigning the centrepiece for our evening meal in the dining room

We were so lucky to have one of our course team not only being a talented floral designer, but also a willing dinner chef for our stay! Hope, you made the yummiest and most memorable meals, thank you!!

fresh market produce — So much delicious fresh produce was brought every day for our larder.

Our final design demonstration was a larger vessel piece.

Emily demonstrating an urn design — Emily demonstrating a larger urn design.

I went for a larger, heavy painted iron urn for my piece which included stunning foxgloves from the gardens outside. We had lots of fun styling our designs in a Dutch masters style against a black backdrop, and received lots of tips on styling and photography from both Emily and Karis.

Of course Taylor and I didn’t think this design was big enough at all! We wanted to work in the biggest urn on the estate! So, we again roped in a few willing assistants and set to work on this monster….

We even involved Emily in the design!

The team with us on this piece was again Hope, and also Elizabeth (The Petaler Floral & Events Co.) and Lily (Lilly Les Plants). Again mostly foraged our found in the chateau gardens.

Later on I went back to the workshop and tried out another vessels for my urn design.