Sweet Lavender Flowers, Ashtead Florist
10th February 2017
45 The Street, Ashtead, Surrey KT21 1AA
01372 276782
St Valentine’s Day is but one excuse in the year to visit one of my favourite boutiques on Ashtead high street:
Sweet Lavender Flowers.
Owner Emma, Neil and the girls, can always be relied upon to make honest and helpful recommendations – invaluable for chaps seeking to make their enamorata’s knees quiver by means of floral expression!
Their blooms aren’t expensive and you can often park outside. The new M&S is being built a few doors up, and the Post Office is only a few doors down. So the location is handy, and you can always park in the Ashtead War Memorial Hall car park, behind the parade.
Thrill-Seeking Flower Lovers!
Complimenting the banked display of fresh flowers, the floor is usually covered with bouquets being made up for collection – sometimes half the floor! Imaginative wedding bouquets and formal funeral arrangements, of course, but also bespoke arty creations using all manner of vases, pots and materials.
Indeed, this is a shop for thrill-seeking flower lovers! You really can walk in with an inkling of what you want to achieve, and discover exactly what that is when you proudly exit with it.
Fit For A Queen
The last time I went to City of London Freemen’s School for an awards ceremony, all the boxed floral gifts were by Sweet Lavender Flowers.
Her Majesty has also been seen clutching one of their bouquets during a tour of nearby Headley Court.
However, this is also a place where you can spend a fiver and still leave with some cool potted bulbs display, or a fascinating plant for the grandchildren to take home and give to their mother.
Something for everyone, in other words.
Award-Winning, Animal Fat-Free Belgian Chocolates
You may, like me, have a (fully denied) weakness for real chocolate. In the corner glass display cabinet with the English fondants are Belgian chocolates; as well as white and milk chocolate in fun tiger and penguin shapes, which are the length of an adult’s palm but under a pound each (and thus a reasonably-priced Friday treat option for tired kids).
“Belgian chocolates” can sound a little commonplace nowadays – but these ones really do taste good. I asked Emma why? She says they give a “clean” eat due to the oil content coming from the chocolate pod, which sits alongside the cocoa bean, rather than the usual added ingredient of animal fat.
I’m no vegetarian but I say, “Go pods!”
It’s justified on taste alone.
Beautiful Flowers, Beautiful People
Ashtead is a lovely village, where people still give a damn about other people and readily offer assistance when you need it. I believe that special people who make local lives better deserve a thumbs-up. This is the only reason I asked Emma if I could write about her shop.
Enough of words – let the flowers speak for themselves. Here are some shots I took during a recent visit. My thanks to Emma for humouring me – and may Sweet Lavender Flowers see out as many decades as it should please her.
Best wishes,
Giles
