Calla Lilies: A Study

Pale Pink Calla LilyPink Calla Lily "Captain Romance Calla Lily"
Black Calla Lily "Schwartzwalder Calla Lily"

Black Calla Lily "Schwartzwalder Calla Lily"

Red Calla Lily "Majestic Red Calla Lily"

White Arum Lily "Columbe De Pays Lily"

Orange Calla Lily "Mango Calla Lily"

Yellow Calla Lily

Mango Calla Lily

Aubergine & White Calla Lily "Picasso Calla Lily"

Caroline Ellor Manager of Kathleen's Florist

This is Caroline/Caz, she has worked at Kathleen's for Eleven Years.

Caz is a very beautiful funeral florist and ribbon edges tributes with precision.

Christmas buying in Holland for Kathleen's

Jason and I went to Holland buying some lovely things for Christmas, we found some fabulous glassware and some really beautiful Christmas decorations.
We will be putting some of the goodies into our window display over the weekend, watch out for an amazing array.

At the auction the flowers are arranged in colour and variety order and it's just like looking at an ocean of flowers, it is quite spectacular. We look for new flower varieties for us to sell in both shops, we want to have a great show for our customers to see and choose from.

It is quite a treck to Aalsmeer, we leave Blackpool mid afternoon on Sunday and drive over to Hull, we get the overnight Ferry to Rotterdam, we drive to Rozenberg and then on to the ferry there crossing to Maassluis, we arrive in Aalsmeer around 9:45 just in time to see the flower auctions. We go to visit particular wholesalers and discuss our flower needs for the following month. We also buy from the massive Vase and Ceramic makers, visit packaging companies and some very up-market design houses for our Christmas Stock. We eat on the go and get back to Rotterdam for 7:30 to travel back to Hull. We usually get back in the shop by lunchtime on Tuesday.

This trip is not for the faint hearted, we go once a month from September-May and we hope our customers appreciate the lengths we go to to ensure really fabulous flowers and vases.

A Major Rant!

Trials and tribulations, Kathleen’s was broken into in the early hours of Sunday morning. The most annoying thing is that amazingly the police actually caught the thieves red handed, actually inside the shop, the bit that is upsetting is that this does not guarantee a conviction, even more shocking is that one of these alleged thieves was very possibly the same person that was caught in precisely the same situation a few months ago and potentially the same person (he certainly matched a description given at the time) that came into the shop frightening the girls.
The thing is this Kathleen’s is a lovely shop, not necessarily the busiest shop in the world but it provides three/four florists with a livelihood, it provides the community with a proper florist shop, with qualified florists who can offer an excellent service in and out of the season.
All of this is in jeopardy because a couple of idiots think they can break in doing £1200.00 worth of damage to steal what absolutely does not belong to them, Kathleen’s has been broken into already a number of times this year, we have nothing to steal (Other than flowers) they cannot access the chemist via Kathleen’s or any other premises. But every time they break in, we have to replace the window, the door or pay for the roof to be repaired and though we can claim on our insurance (apart from the excess) our insurers will undoubtedly increase the premium or eventually insist on roller shutters which incidentally Kathleen’s quite simply can’t afford.
We asked the police woman (Who seems as frustrated as us) why a custodial sentence is un-likely, she explained that the accused may say that they were just passing by and happened to notice a big gaping hole in our door and so they climbed in to check that everything was ok, the reason they have some bits and pieces of the staffs property on their person is just to prevent any would be thieves from taking it, so they are in fact protecting it! (This supposedly was their excuse last time they were caught red handed).
We never ever allow there to be only one person in the shop when it is open, there are undesirables that knock about every town and it wouldn’t be safe, we have a walky talky radio that links to the police station just in case and we have a burglar alarm, we are taking responsibility for the safety of the staff and the shop to a level that we can afford.
We have now taken to removing any pieces of funeral work for early delivery and storing them at the St. Annes shop for safe keeping, we ensure that no paper orders are kept on the premises because we don’t want to lose them in the mess that follows one of these break ins, but this is all so upsetting for the staff and us, we know far worse things happen to other people but really not of us should have to put up with it!

Return for Loyalty

Fabulous Asiatic lilies are back in season and amazing value for money, the colours are sensational this is Brunello, a long lasting and strong autumnal variety. We will be using it in many of our designs next week.

Kathleen's now has its very own loyalty card, so for every £10.00 you spend you get a stamp on your card after 10 stamps you recieve a £10.00 bouquet absolutely free of charge. So make sure to ask Caz and her team for your first loyalty card.

80th Birthday Celebrations

These are the beautiful flowers we arranged for a ladies 80th Birthday at the St. Annes YMCA today.