Astilbe

At Floom we love flowers (obviously) but we also love ferns. Home doesn’t really feel like home unless there’s an asparagus fern or some such fluttering away in the corner. The problem is, you can’t really grab a bunch of fern stalks and stick them in a bouquet without it looking very strange…

Enter the Astilbe, a hardy perennial with beautifully feathery, fern-like flowers perfect for bringing a restrained garden sensibility to any arrangement. Despite its delicate appearance the waif-like Astilbe is actually incredibly sturdy and easy to look after - it originally grew in China and Japan but was introduced to the US and beyond by the famous German botanist George Arends.

Symbolically the Astilbe is supposed to represent patience and undying love - presumably because you could give someone an Astilbe plant before they went away for a long time, and it would still be alive by the time they got back…