I recently got married (yay me!) and one of the biggest stressors I found was trying to sort out flowers. It seems that as soon as florists hear the word ‘wedding’, the cost for flowers immediately jumps up a couple hundred quid and then you’re spending more money on flowers than you did on the actual wedding dress. Now for me, the flowers were not that important to me – I wanted very basic bouquets and maybe some small flowers for the dining tables. I didn’t need the whole venue to be turned into an enchanted forest of flowers and foliage. I also read a lot of wedding blogs that stated that the flowers are very rarely remembered – very few people can tell the difference between roses and daisies, and most people did not even remember what colour the flowers were. I therefore decided to only have flowers for the bouquets so that at least they would like nice in photos, but otherwise I didn’t see the value in them.
Which is when my Mom recommended the Covent Garden Flower Market. Now despite the name, it is actually based in Vauxhall, which is in South London. The market is mainly a wholesale market for professionals and florist industries, however it is open to anyone. Which meant that we could go down and see what flowers were on offer and also get a feel for the cost of them all.
This place is full of flowers. As you would expect. The flowers do change seasonally, so when I was looking in February/March 2023, I was spoilt for choice between roses, freesias and lilies. They also had ranunculi bunches, daisies and all sorts of green foliage, including snapdragons and baby’s breath branches. It was a little bit overwhelming but I did find that a lot of the wholesalers were selling the same sorts of things. Now I love peony roses, however as they are not pet friendly, I decided to go for some beautiful big roses. Peonies were also not in season for my wedding so I could only get them if I spent an obscene amount of money. The roses I picked however were gorgeous.
The wholesalers I did speak to were also very knowledgeable about their products and gave me lots of advice on what flowers I should be looking for and which would be best suited for the situation. I did not mention the word ‘wedding’ because again I was scared that it would jump the price up, but I must have had that ‘soon-to-be bride’ look about me because they all guessed it. Each wholesaler I spoke with talked me through the flowers and how to best care for them, how to get the flowers to last for longer and how to make them open up to full blooms. They even helped to show me different colour combinations and which flowers and foliage would best suit the aesthetic I was going for.
Price wise, it was actually very reasonable indeed. I first bought one bunch of Doncaster Roses (as I was told that these would bloom into thick roses, similar to that of a peony) and I got 10 stems for ÂŁ15. Which is actually very reasonable indeed.
I bought a few bunches when I first visited in February to do a trial run on how the flowers opened up and how long they lasted. They started off very small buds but within 2 days they had almost doubled in size. After 3 days, these roses were stunning. They really did puff up and out and became these massive flowers. They also lasted for just over 2 weeks…and that was me only changing the water once! Even after 2 weeks, they only just started to show signs of wilting, where the outside petals were getting a little crinkled and the heads were starting to droop a little bit in the sunshine. If I had really pushed it though I reckon they would have still been ok for about 3 weeks before they just started to fall apart. Needless to say…ÂŁ15 was an absolute bargain, especially when I think that the roses from the supermarket are ÂŁ5 and die in less than a week. I would take a trip back to the market just to get some truly beautiful flowers for the house.
The downside to this place is that it is a wholesale market first. Which means it is only open from 4am-8am on weekdays. I believe it is open until 9am on Saturdays but this can change depending on the season and time of year. So yes, i was up and in the car at 5am twice in order to get these flowers. That being said, the roads in London are absolutely dead and especially in the very early days of spring I did get to see the sun rise over a sleepy London, which in itself if a beautiful sight and is worth the very early morning. You can also get the tube or public transport to the market, as it is just around the corner from Vauxhall Bridge.
The market does also have a small café on sight so you can stock up on coffee and cake whilst looking at the flowers. Now they had zero vegan food options (bad market) but they did at least have oat and soya milk so I could at least have a cup of tea (slightly better market). It is also very affordable with the coffees and teas costing around £1.50 and the cakes seeming to be around £3, so it is quite nice to experience a small little coffee shop without any of the crowds. Despite the very early morning as well, the many members of staff around the market were all very helpful and cheery, which made the morning seem not that bad.
If you are visiting London and fancy doing something a little bit different, or if you are just very jetlagged or can’t sleep, I would highly recommend a visit. It is a lovely way to spend a very early morning and even if you don’t end up buying any flowers (which would be impossible given the selection they have!) it is very pretty to look at and take some gorgeous photos of.
Taylor Talks Vegan 