Beautiful flowers and awe-inspiring interiors are a match made in heaven. During Design Week at Chelsea Harbour some of us were lucky enough to catch Rob Van Heldon talking about his world famous flower arranging skills. 

He loves flower arrangements to look as if they’d just been picked from someone’s luscious walled garden, and placed casually in the nearest vase. (This happens to be my approach to flower arranging, so I am a bit partial to his philosophy.) Nevertheless, as you have probably guessed, such apparent ease of style also requires a lot of skill – not to mention an enormous amount of hard work when arranging for the very large scale events that he does. Elton John is one of his clients!

Here are his top tips to get you started:
1 – Mix flowers, greenery, and herbs together for a more casual arrangement. This also creates an combination of unusual scents.
2 – Change the water regularly to make the flowers last – and always use flower feed, it does make a difference.
3 – Invest in a range of vases and jugs so that you always have the perfect size and shape to display your flowers.
4 – Use candlelight with flowers; it adds to the romance!

Here is my top tip:
If you haven’t got the time or the inclination for fresh flowers, then buy a faux flower arrangement. There are some beautiful ones around to choose from.