Dan: 0:00

Long before Paul Hawkins was a floral decorator, he was a child actor. When he was 10, he played the title role in a West End production of the musical Oliver. Now on the face of it, musical theater and floral decoration very different art forms, but in practice floral decoration is very much a production.

Paul: 0:23

There's a beautiful hotel called the Mandarin Oriental in Knightsbridge which I do quite a few weddings at, And the changeover, honestly, it's like mayhem, candelabras flying everywhere and it's like a scene from, I don't know... some... I don't know.

Dan: 0:39

Mad Max.

Paul: 0:41

Yes. Yes. Meets Hello Dolly, you know.

Dan: 0:45

And just like in the theater, every production eventually ends.

Paul: 0:51

There's a wedding I did last weekend and on my Instagram... It's a large white arch outside the church full of roses and it's just well, I think it's really lovely but that was there for two hours. It went up and then that had to come down because of something else going on. The flowers are for that moment, the marriage or the christening or the whatever. It is about the moment.

Dan: 1:16

There's something so beautiful about the fact that this is art that is fleeting, you know. It's like a painting that dissolves after three or four days or so, you know, so it's experiential which makes it somehow more precious.

Paul: 1:32

Yes. Like going on stage as an artist or an actor, you know, that moment has to be seized. It's a performance and it's a bit like being an actor, I suppose. It's putting on a different character when I'm doing the flowers.

Dan: 1:59

I'm Dan Heath, and this is "What It's Like To Be..." In every episode, we walk in the shoes of someone from a different profession, a hairstylist, a veterinarian, a harbor pilot. We wanna know what do they do all day at work. Today, we'll ask Paul Hawkins what it's like to be a floral decorator. We'll talk about why you shouldn't mix red and white flowers, how many zeros are in some of the client budgets he works on, and what it's like to design flowers for royalty. Stay with us. Early on in my conversation with Paul, I used the word 'arrangement' to refer to what he makes, and I noticed he used a different word, 'decoration'. So I asked him, why 'decoration'?

Paul: 2:53

Well, I'm just a terrible snob. No. You can use the word 'arrangement', but I just think decoration's a bit more freeing when you're throwing flowers around. And my thing with flowers is don't be scared, don't over arrange, be brave with them. Arranging makes me think of those really slightly pinched arrangements that my grandmother did in 1950, which are very kind of sturdy and this stem goes here and that stem goes there and kind of those are the rules. So that's why I call it decorating. I'm a floral decorator. That's what I call myself.

Dan: 3:27

If you look at Paul's Instagram page, there's a link in the show notes, you can get a quick feel for his work. It's stunning. I asked him about one arrangement I saw that was created for a summer party. It has shades of violet and pink and coral and he helped me out with some of the actual names of the flowers involved.

Paul: 3:46

So you've got kind of big scoops of delicious peonies and all kinds of roses and delphiniums and foliage, which foliage is so important. But I think it's one of my favorite ones this year. It's just got lots of clashing colors. There's no holding back. It's just a big summer tarty situation.

Dan: 4:07

Many of Paul's decorations are huge in scale. Some of them look like they're twice as tall as he is. I asked him what kind of scaffolding or architecture supports all those flowers, and he said it all starts with the urn.

Paul: 4:23

I love a big urn. Love love love an urn. It's classically shaped. Like it's dug up from Pompeii. And in that you'd urn you'd have a big bucket of what I call floral foam, which I try not to use too much of because it's not environmentally brilliant, but there are more eco versions of that nowadays, which I tend to use. And you can reuse it. It can be re-soaked. But anyway, so lots of floral foam. Chicken wire. Do you know what I mean?

Dan: 4:49

Yeah, yeah.

Paul: 4:52

Chicken wire. Chicken wire on top, which would be taped with an inch of its life over the bucket. And then in the oasis foam, we would have long sticks with tubes on them. So like a tube that would look like a champagne flute taped to a bamboo pole. It's very, very basic and that plunges into the floral foam and you have hundreds of those in there, full of water. Your flowers have conditioned so they've been drinking first. So they've drunk as much as they can. You fill the tubes up and start popping the flowers in, but your foliage first. As I always say, you get the foliage shape right and your flowers will follow through.

Dan: 5:32

And do you know before you start what the final decoration is going to look like, or are you kind of improvising as you go?

Paul: 5:41

It's a bit of both. I try and get in my client's head. You know, some clients just say, "Oh, go for it. Do what you like." And then other clients are like, "Can I show you a bit of that dress fabric again?" I'm like, "Ah, yeah." So I have a vague idea and, you know, they would have seen my portfolio of work. So they have a vague idea of the kind of... I just love that English country garden, very romantic, very seasonal look. So sort of spilling and you have your star performer towards the middle. This is flowery theory. Star performer, so your choice, expensive flowers in the middle, then what I call your supporting cast flowers further out. So I have a vague idea, but I mean, you could do 40 table centers with the same ingredients, and somehow they all look a little bit different. And I always say they're sisters, not twins. That's that's what I'd say.

Dan: 6:29

This is so good. I feel like I'm already learning, like, just the idea of foliage first, put your star performers in the center, supporting cast around. Like, I'm already smarter about floristry. How would you describe your style or your philosophy?

Paul: 6:46

Seasonality is utmost, you know, I try and use British flowers in the summer, but my philosophy would be just kinda keep it loose, keep it heavily grouped. Think how flowers grow in a flower border. They grow in heavy swathes and groups. So I try and keep flowers grouped together within a large arrangement so there's a more natural effect rather than dotted like kind of soldiers dotted about. So you keep them in heavy swathes. It's... do know what? It's it's so hard to explain, but I just shove it in until it looks right, which isn't very helpful.

Dan: 7:26

What is sort of the rhythm of a typical week for you?

Paul: 7:31

Okay. So on a Monday, I have a weekly contract round in London.

Dan: 7:35

What's a contract round?

Paul: 7:36

A contract round is so I would go to the flower market at silly o'clock, say 3 o'clock in the morning to the Covent Garden Flower Market.

Dan: 7:45

3 o'clock?

Paul: 7:46

3 o'clock in the morning. Never talk to me on a Monday afternoon. I'll murder you.

Dan: 7:49

Woah. And and there are people there already at 3 o'clock.

Paul: 7:53

Oh, yeah. It's all set up. It's have you ever seen My Fair Lady, the musical? It's a bit like that, but kind of a bit more modern. So you've got, you know, everyone's singing and doing a big dance routine there. I mean, almost. You've got the governors. You've got the porters. You've got your competitors. "Morning." You know, that sort of thing.

Dan: 8:11

But why so early?

Paul: 8:13

Because, you know, everyone's gotta get their flowers to where they need to get to. So they either to their shop to set it up or to get them to say a great big office. So someone big like, I don't know, Bloomberg for instance, all their flowers in all their offices have to be set up before they start trading before any staff arrives.

Dan: 8:31

Oh, so you the clock is ticking for you. Like, you have people that are waiting on Monday morning flowers?

Paul: 8:37

Yep.

Dan: 8:37

Ah, okay.

Paul: 8:38

This is what I call the contract run. So I do in Knightsbridge, Chelsea, Belgravia, Mayfair, just very high end clients from all over the world who live in beautiful houses, who just want stunning flowers. And my motto is nothing like last week and nothing like next week. So I make the flowers completely different every week. So a, they notice them, b, they enjoy them. But above all, they've got to last the week. So I get my flowers from the market. We jump in my van. We go off to the first contract, and it's all time reliant. But it's great. You know, you have security passes. You drive into great big lifts and go down five floors in a car lift. It's all a bit James Bond, but it's that's every Monday. So that's my Monday. And as my other half says, you only work one day a week.

Dan: 9:25

And so how many of those contracts do you have?

Paul: 9:28

I have about 15 on a Monday.

Dan: 9:31

15?

Paul: 9:32

Yeah. Which sounds kinda not very many, but...

Dan: 9:35

No, it sounds like a lot. I'm just thinking about, like, how quickly you have to deploy all those things. And even just, you know, driving around London, I'm sure is no easy feat.

Paul: 9:44

Yeah. I did it yesterday and I'm still recovering. But. That's because I'm old. But, no, that's great. And then the rest of the week, it's quoting for parties, it's meeting, it's a little bit of office work, which I hate. And then heading towards the weekend, maybe there's a great big wedding or a party going on. So we've gotta get that all, you know, all the props together, the crew together, lorries of flowers, and going off to do a big party, which is always thrilling and quite nerve wracking.

Dan: 10:13

So it sounds like the the contract rounds are kind of the bread and butter, you know. It's almost like a subscription business, you know. You can count on it.

Paul: 10:21

Totally.

Dan: 10:22

And then the events, I imagine, are fun and stressful and and they kind of supplement that core work. Yeah?

Paul: 10:28

Yeah. They're like the cherry on the cake, the events, where you can be really creative. Of course, I'm creative with my contract work, but the difference between contract flowers and event flowers is you put the contract flowers in on a Monday morning, and some of them have gotta be a bit tight because they've gotta open during the week. You can't have all your flowers open on Monday because they'll be dead by Wednesday. So you you've gotta judge it. Whereas event flowers, they've just got to be singing and dancing and razzle dazzling for that moment on that Saturday or Wednesday night for that event. And then the next day, it doesn't matter what they look like because the party's over.

Dan: 11:04

And I know you do a lot of weddings. Are you typically hired by the bride and groom or by their wedding planner?

Paul: 11:12

A little bit of both actually, Dan, because, you know, I work with lots of really super party planners who do really fabulous, glitzy, high end events and, you know, there's often an NDA involved, which is really annoying because then I can't plaster it all over social media.

Dan: 11:27

An NDA?

Paul: 11:28

Yeah.

Dan: 11:29

Wow. So that that's just normal in your world?

Paul: 11:32

Occasionally, yes. You know, when I'm at a dinner party and I'm sort of chatting away and my other half looks at me and goes, wasn't there an NDA involved with that story you're blurting out?

Dan: 11:42

I just love the idea that the flowers are wrapped in a curtain of secrecy.

Paul: 11:46

Yeah. It's really annoying, and it's normally something that you really love and would love to kind of... because I get lots of my work through Instagram and social media, so it's a it's a good calling card.

Dan: 11:55

I mean, first of all, should say, again, I wanna encourage listeners to go to the Instagram just so you can put a a visual to what we're talking about. Some of the photos there just have to be 6 figure budgets. Right?

Paul: 12:08

Yes. I mean, some of the budgets are eye watering and wonderful, and one can really be creative and throw lots of flowers at it. But, God, a great big chunk of the budget would go towards labor. So trucks, crew, you know, the clearing, the installing, it is, you know, labor charges massive as well.

Dan: 12:29

What have you learned over the, like, how is your approach to weddings different than it might have been twenty years ago? Like, what have you learned about how to prevent problems in the process?

Paul: 12:40

I say 'no' at the beginning if I have a funny feeling.

Dan: 12:43

Mmm. I mean, what sets off your your radar? Do you have a sense of what it is that makes you think, I don't wanna be part of this one?

Paul: 12:52

It's just simple as thinking that person's really ghastly. Gosh. Am I just digging a hole for myself here? No. I mean, if you it's really important for me to sort of really get on with them, and I love to exceed expectations. I want them to walk in and go, "Oh my god, Paul. I'm so thrilled" and burst into tears in a good way. So that's only happened once really when it was so really difficult, and I had to pull out halfway along and say, I'm sorry. I don't think I'm your florist.

Dan: 13:23

Wow. Only one client?

Paul: 13:25

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. They were just so awful, and the the goalposts kept moving. And I just thought, you know, am I actually gonna get paid, and I don't know. That's the lovely thing about working through a party planner. It's... you've got a brilliant buffer.

Dan: 13:41

Hey, folks. Dan here. So two things. If you'd be interested in hearing more about what it's like to work with clients who are super wealthy, you should also check out the interior designer episode of the show. She has some great stories about working in New York City, like the time she had to hire a crane to move a piano. On a different note, I'll be interviewing a humanitarian worker soon, someone who spent most of her career working on different relief and aid projects in the developing world, what would you be curious about? If any questions come to mind, ship them along to me at dan@whatitslike.com. I'd love to hear what's on your mind. And now, back to the show. What is the most stressful moment in the delivery of a gorgeous set of wedding decorations? Is it the wedding day or is it at some other point?

Paul: 14:41

Well, I mean, I have this recurring dream. There's a, you know, the phone rings and it's a bride at the altar saying, "Hi, Paul. I'm kinda just wondering where the flowers are." So that's kind of a fear thing of, you know, I make everyone repeat the date a million times. But, I mean, I remember doing a massive house in Knightsbridge. Beautiful, beautiful house. And these white stucco London houses with big white pillars and, you know, just heaven. They all look, you know, a row of them all look the same, and we had to do this massive arch outside, archway of flowers and foliage, stunning, and we just finished it. And we stepped back and thought, "Oh, god, that looks amazing." Just, you know, breathtaking. And suddenly, the door opened on the what I thought, well, the house next door, and out looked the bride's mother going, "Oh." And I'd decorated the front of the wrong house.

Dan: 15:32

What?

Paul: 15:33

I know. I know.

Dan: 15:33

Oh, man.

Paul: 15:35

And I just thought, well, can't they all just stand outside the arch next door? You know, the house next door.

Dan: 15:40

Could you just trade for a day?

Paul: 15:42

Yeah. Come on. No. No. So what we did was, it was the day before, so luckily we we rectified that. But I mean, back to construction, you know, things have got to be weighed down, what I call a stage weight, which is this great big metal things that you really wouldn't want to drop on your toe.

Dan: 15:57

So you're putting weights inside the urns to kind of...

Paul: 16:00

Yes.

Dan: 16:01

Make the... okay.

Paul: 16:02

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I learned that... My training was at Moyses Stevens, which is the royal family's florist and royal warrants, and, you know, you're always, you know, doing flowers for, you know, Princess Diana back in the day and wonderful people like that. Yeah. Gorgeous. But I remember doing Hardy Amies. Hardy Amies was a big famous English dress designer, and he did all her majesty the queen's outfits over the years. And I had the privilege of doing his memorial at Saint James in Piccadilly, which is a stunning church. It's sort of sixteenth century, ravishing. And we did these two enormous arrangements up at the altar. And it was fine. It was fine. Did it the day before, went back to check they're fine. And then I suddenly had a phone call from Hardy Amies' boyfriend saying, "Oh, we just walked into the church and we can only see one arrangement." And the flowers had drunk all the water and the weight had shifted and the whole arrangement had just fallen flat on its face.

Dan: 17:00

Oh, no. And this was how...

Paul: 17:03

Half an hour before guests were arriving.

Dan: 17:04

Oh, no. What did you do?

Paul: 17:06

So we just the way it landed, we picked it up, and all the flowers were like, ding, still smiling, all fine. We stuck some bricks in the back of it that I found in the churchyard, and it stayed up for the, you know, hour and a half it needed to. But from that nasty I mean, it's never happened since, but you you know, you learn.

Dan: 17:26

And so with a big event, are things almost guaranteed to go wrong but it's different things every time? Or or have you managed to figure out how to bulletproof, you know, 95% of them and it's only the rare occasion that something goes awry?

Paul: 17:41

It's the latter now. I mean, I just, we have so many walk grounds and checks and checks just within me and my team, you know, just double checking and double checking, swinging on things, and just wobbling and shaking things to making you know, just that's not going anywhere. And then with a big arrangements, we'll strap them. If there's a nice handy pillar, the altar, you know, we'll strap them to the pillar so that they're not going anywhere.

Dan: 18:05

So you must have a huge team working with you. I mean, this is just a ton of work.

Paul: 18:09

I do. I've got some really I mean, they don't work with me all the time. I have some really, there's a pool of fabulous freelancers who work in London who are just freelance gold, and and I'll if once the wedding's confirmed, I'll book them. And I know if I've got certain girls and certain boys who've been doing it for six hundred years like me, I know that the wedding's just gonna go swimmingly.

Dan: 18:31

So for a kind of extravagant class wedding, how many people from your team might be on-site on the wedding day or or the day before?

Paul: 18:41

Well, I literally just had I slightly got sort of post traumatic stress disorder as I speak. We've had the last six weeks out in the Cotswolds, beautiful stately homes, amazing marquees that take weeks to build. And I've had trucks and trucks, probably 12 freelancers. So yeah. No. Everyone you know, we'd go away. We'd be away for, like, a week. And I always call it the 'human experiment' because by, you know, day six, we're all kind of gibbering in the same language and, you know, we stay in the same hotel. We all eat and drink together. And it's, you know, lovely camaraderie, if that's the right word.

Dan: 19:18

I think I saw on your website that you had done some work for her majesty, the queen. Is that right?

Paul: 19:24

Yes. Yes. Over the years of various things when I worked at Moyses Stevens and then some parties as well. I I used to do a party for her every year. Lord Charteris who basically managed her purse strings, I suppose, would have a lovely dinner for her every year at Claridge's Hotel in Mayfair and it was always such an honor. And the banqueting manager is a really good friend of mine, and he'd say, "Come and stand here." So obviously when she arrived, it's kind of, you know, hushed and everyone's got to disappear and... but he said, "Come here and have a little look through this door." So you'd have a little look through a crack in the door and see her arrive. And she had this amazing thing. So she'd sit down and it was a bit like seeing God. I don't know why. Do you know I mean? It's somewhere between heaven and earth or I don't know. Pretty amazing. She'd sit down, really matter of fact, and then she'd get this velvet box out of her handbag and open it and get... And I thought, "What is she doing." And she got this gold hook out that she hung on the side of the table, and then she hung her handbag on it, and it was like a a handbag hook. And I thought that's a great present for the girl with everything, a handbag hook. It was so great to see.

Dan: 20:34

A handbag... But not just a handbag hook, but a handbag hook with its own carrying case, it sounds like.

Paul: 20:40

Yeah. Yeah. Like a sort of red velvet box. But anyway, so I mean, but she always loved very traditional, very simple, nothing, you know, ritzy or glitzy. She had just kind of really lovely, good, simple taste.

Dan: 20:53

Paul has created flower decorations for, obviously, some of the most high profile people in England. Now when his work takes him to other countries, he has to pay careful attention to how the norms are different.

Paul: 21:06

You know, in Italy, Italians view the chrysanthemum as a flower of mourning and grieving and death. So, well, you know... It's associated with funerals in Italy. But I think chrysanthemums are wonderful. They last forever. They come in amazing colors and people get quite snobby about chrysanthemums and carnations. But I think used properly, they can be absolutely lovely. So don't diss your garage flowers, it's just what you do with them.

Dan: 21:33

I wanted to pick up on something you just said. I know sometimes you're designing for weddings and sometimes you're designing for funerals. And it doesn't take a genius to understand the difference in tone and emotion of those two events, but I'm not sure I know how to translate the vibe of the event into the floral design. I mean, obviously you don't want a lot of hot pink at a funeral or something but beyond the obvious, tell us the way you think about that. How do you kind of map flowers to moments?

Paul: 22:05

That's a really interesting question. I mean, nowadays people, you know, let's go bright, let's go splashy and fun colors at a funeral or memorial.

Dan: 22:15

Oh, really? Okay. Yeah. I'm out I'm out of touch. Yeah.

Paul: 22:17

Yeah. You know, a moment of celebration, but that's not the you know, let's cheer everyone up and make it splashy and fun and bright and dazzling. But traditionally, I mean, if, you know, I mean... So lovely austere beautiful white lilies for a funeral or a memorial, beautiful white lilies. And then I I'm a big believer in the language of flowers. So in the greenery, you can use ivy, which means fidelity, and then rosemary, which means remembrance, and I think scents are very evocative. So I think keeping it very simple for a memorial, just maybe white arum lilies, lots of beautiful foliages in lots of different shades of green. So lime green, petrol green, British racing green, which is that lovely dark green. All the greens go together. You've only got to look out of the window and see, you know, good old mother nature throws them together quite well.

Dan: 23:11

Are there certain combinations of flowers or colors that just make you cringe when you see other people's work?

Paul: 23:18

Yes. Definitely. So for me, where I trained at Moyses Stevens who are just wonderful. You know, half the day you'd be out on jobs, half the day you'd be in the work room, and then you'd be learning at the flower school. I did a two year internship there. And we it was drummed into us that never ever ever do red and white together ever.

Dan: 23:37

Really?

Paul: 23:38

Yeah. Really bad luck. It's bad luck. It means blood and bandages.

Dan: 23:43

Blood... dear God.

Paul: 23:45

Blood and bandages, yeah.

Dan: 23:45

Okay, note to self for next Valentine's Day. Don't don't go there.

Paul: 23:49

Don't do red and white. I mean, remember, oh gosh, years and years ago, I did a party for Ivana Trump when she was Ivana Mazzucchelli after she married dear old mister Trump. She married an Italian chap and she had a big party in London and the party planner said, go for it. Just do a big English country garden. Think Downton Abbey. Do you know what I mean? All that.

Dan: 24:10

Mhmm.

Paul: 24:10

And so we did it all and Ivana arrived just before the party and said she hated the flowers and could we change them immediately? Luckily, the flower market was still open. We have to take all these beautiful flowers out. Ivana rest her soul, didn't like any of them and she just wanted red and white carnations, bless her. And so, you know, the client's always right. So we took all the flowers out, did lots of red and white carnations and whenever I see pictures of dear old Ivana, I think of her red and white carnations.

Dan: 24:38

That must have hurt you at a deep existential level to do the red and white carnations. I couldn't possibly say.

Paul: 24:45

But yes, it did. Yeah. But anyway, you know, the client's always right and if they're happy, I'm very happy.

Dan: 24:53

Earlier, you were mentioning the scent of some of the flowers you were working on, and I'm curious, how many different flowers do you reckon you could recognize blindfolded just from the scent?

Paul: 25:06

I mean, a good chunk of them. I mean, some flowers smell absolutely awful and you think, god, that's definitely one of these.

Dan: 25:12

Like what?

Paul: 25:13

I mean, so there's a flower called an Allium, which if you Google it, a-l-l-i-u-m for mother allium. It's related to the onion family. They're very popular. You'll see them in lots of flower arrangements and and on my Instagram that I use them a lot. And they're a beautiful, big purple round globe, and it's essentially an onion flower.

Dan: 25:35

Mhmm.

Paul: 25:35

But when they've been in a... I couldn't use them in a contract. After a couple of days, it smells like...

Dan: 25:40

By Friday, people are walking the other way..

Paul: 25:42

Yeah, yeah. It smells like your kind of soup that's gone off or I don't know. Well, it's just it's not a nice smell. And then ornamental cabbages, which are quite a thing, those in water, that's not a great smell. And stocks, that's another flower. Stock, s-t-o-c-k, which smells divine. But after a few days, because it's related to the cabbage family, in water, oh, it's a bit stinky.

Dan: 26:07

What do people think your job is like? And and what's the biggest difference between what they think and reality?

Paul: 26:15

My lovely niece got married a few years ago and my sister-in-law said, oh, I'll come and help. I'll come and help. I'm like, oh, you sure? She went, yes. Yes. So on a really big scary job, the best thing you can do is pick up a broom and sweep. You know, I can't be teaching you floristry when we've got half an hour before guests arriving, it's kind of, you know, high octane heart-in-mouth moments. But anyway, back to the other story. So my lovely sister-in-law was helping me at my niece's wedding and she was putting the flowers in the little botanical glass vases which was kind of snaking down the table and she's going, oh, I really love this. And I was like, yeah, it's great fun, isn't it? And I'm like, but actually putting the flowers in the vase is like that. That is sort of 2% of the whole thing. That's the that's kind of the easy bit. The rest of it is the, you know, everything else. So, so people think that I just skip around with petals all day, but I don't.

Dan: 27:09

Is it a physically demanding job?

Paul: 27:12

Yeah. It is. I mean, most florists have, you know, terrible backs. Event florists, you know, lifting and doing, but nowadays I do a lot of pointing.

Dan: 27:20

Because you've got the contractors you can rely on to do a lot of the physical work. Yeah.

Paul: 27:25

Yeah. And, you know, we have lovely lads who are sort of strapping and brilliant and, you know I mean, years ago when I first started, I would just take to do a huge wedding in the country. I'd just take one freelancer with me and work, work, work. But now, I make sure in the budget we've got enough for lots of staff, make it all beautiful, make the job run smoothly and everyone's happy at the end of the day and, you know, make just making sure we've got the budget for it.

Dan: 27:52

So Paul we always end our episodes with a quick lightning round of questions. Here we go. What's a word or phrase that only someone from your profession would be likely to know and what does it mean?

Paul: 28:04

Okay. So the word is tatting, t-a double-t-i-n-g, 'tatting'.

Dan: 28:11

Okay.

Paul: 28:12

'To tat'. So you've done the wedding flowers in the church the day before, but before the wedding I'm just going back to the church because I'm gonna give them a quick tat. So tatting is just checking that nothing's gone flopsy, nothing's gone a bit crispy or sad, so you're just giving it a once over, maybe shoving in another stem if one has gone a bit wilting, but to tat, tatting, that's my word.

Dan: 28:35

That's a great word. I love that. What's the most insulting thing you could say about a floral designer's work?

Paul: 28:42

Okay. So very often, I go on TV over here and there's a really big show called This Morning, which is a bit like Good Morning America. And I used to go on as there's their florist showing the viewers how to arrange things. And it's run by Richard and Judy who... Richard Madeley and Judy Finnigan who are like household names. And I was doing this I thought it was really amazing arrangement of flowers and vegetables together, and it was looking really beautiful. And Judy was saying, "Well, I think it's really ugly with the vegetables." "Why would you put flowers and vegetables together? Think it's really ugly." And it's live. And I thought, what can I say? So I went, "Well, Judy, it's nature's bounty." And I just thought that's this sort of shut her up a bit, but...

Dan: 29:27

That was well played. Nature's yeah. I like that.

Paul: 29:29

What can you say? I mean, beautiful. Vegetables are beautiful and fruit.

Dan: 29:33

Who calls someone's work ugly on live TV? That's my first question.

Paul: 29:37

I think she was describing the vegetables as ugly, not my work. Otherwise, I would have just bludgeoned her. No. They're very lovely. Quickly, he quickly added.

Dan: 29:47

What is a tool specific to your profession that you really like using?

Paul: 29:51

Gosh. Two things, if I can, am I allowed? This is like a desert island list, isn't it? My rose stripper, which is just a round, very basic plastic thing with little spikes on it. And you just run it down the stem and it takes all the thorns off the roses and that, you know, saves lots of colorful language, puncture wounds, you know, law cases. And the other one are my scissors. My scissors, my gosh. I mean, they're really good steel scissors and I'm... Do you know what? I was out in my van just now and I can't find them. So annoying, but they do turn up. So it would be probably my scissors.

Dan: 30:26

And are you attached to like a particular pair of of scissors? Like have you have you had your scissors for a long time?

Paul: 30:33

I did that and then you lose them and, you know, it's like having a good luck charm.

Dan: 30:38

So you try not to stay attached?

Paul: 30:40

Yeah. I mean, I do do a certain thing with some tape on them so no one steals them on a job, but I used to get sentimental about scissors.

Dan: 30:47

Right. When you see the way some of your decorations have all come together after all the hard work, I mean, do you ever find yourself getting emotional?

Paul: 30:57

Oh my gosh. Yes. Absolutely. I mean, I've had, as I said, lots and lots of enormous jobs at huge English stately homes over the last few months and driving away down the drive, you know, you know, like a Downton Abbey type house disappearing behind me and I'm thinking, I've done it. And it can really really just make you feel just yeah. Very emotional, really. Honestly, and that sounds very overdramatic. It it is there's something kind of, you know, you definitely give a chunk of yourself with the whole process. But it's, you know, I'm so lucky. I get to deal with lovely things, go to incredible places, meet lovely people. And I if I had to change it, looking back, I definitely I definitely wouldn't. Oh. Nearly got quite emotional then. No. It's been it's been fun.

Dan: 31:52

Paul Hawkins is a floral decorator in England. His Instagram is @paulhawkinsfloristltd. That's in the show notes if you forget. I wanna go back to the fleeting nature of the work and how Paul's job is to create art that's gone in hours. But of course, it's not that simple because it took years for Paul to develop the instincts that make that work possible. The knowledge of flowers and their scents and their lifespans and the relationships with suppliers and contractors and party planners. Before the hours of the performance came years of training. And the hours thing isn't really accurate either, is it? Because the art doesn't die so quickly. It lives on in photos and memories. That perfect instant when the beaming bride crosses under the dazzling arch, that will be revisited for a lifetime. So the years lead up to the hours, and the hours live on for years. The arch comes down, the moment stands, and that's why it's all worth it. Making 3AM runs to the flower market, translating a client's vibe into living color and form, strapping, weighting, and safety checking every installation, tatting everything before doors open, all to summon a show stopping decoration. Folks, that's what it's like to be a floral decorator. A shout out to recent Apple Podcasts reviewers, Hope for Humanity, Laurnova, and BearsFan3450. Thank you all. This episode, like all the others, was produced by Matt Purdy. I'm Dan Heath. See you next time.