The studio
Stem & Field is a small botanical studio in Skipton, North Yorkshire. We arrange flowers for weddings, weekly homes, and the occasional editorial commission. The studio was founded in 2019 by Ottilie Thrift, who trained with McQueens in London and Saskia Havekes in Sydney.
We don't keep stock. Every bouquet is composed in the morning around what the day's growers cut and brought to the studio door. The week tells us what to make.
Founder
Trained in London and Sydney, with a horticultural diploma from RHS Wisley. Returned to Yorkshire in 2018 to be closer to the growers she'd been quietly buying from for years.
She still arranges every wedding personally, with one apprentice who has been with the studio since opening.
Halifax, West Yorkshire
Spring branches, hellebores, narcissi.
Selby, North Yorkshire
Cosmos, sweet peas, dahlias through summer.
Skipton, North Yorkshire
Old-rose specialists. Late June into October.
Hawick, Scottish Borders
Foliage, herbs, hedgerow material year-round.
Whitby, North York Moors
Coastal-grown peonies, anemones, ranunculus.
Threshfield, Wharfedale
Tulips spring, dried bunches November.
Practice
We don't buy from Holland or the Kenyan auction houses. Everything in the studio at any moment came from a grower we know personally and were quoted from at 5am that morning.
It means the studio looks different week to week. It also means we are honest about what is in season, and the bouquets we send out have a chance of lasting.
"It is the only florist I trust to send something I haven't approved by photo first. Whatever they send, the recipient cries."
— A regular subscriber, Ilkley