Get to know Florist and Model, Louis Hartley. From the family business in central London, Louis talks us through a typical day and how floristry allow him to express his creativity.

“Floristry has always been in my family; in the 60s my grandad had a shop in Ladbroke Grove called Flower Corner. I grew up around Portobello Market and can remember going down to the markets with my grandad. After studying Graphic Design at University I realised I didn’t want to take that direction so put my creativity into the family business and started doing modelling on the side.

I work closely with my cousin Ellie in her shop, there’s always music on and it’s refreshing being surrounded by flowers. It doesn’t normally feel like a job, although the early monday morning drives to the market at 3.30am are tough after a big weekend. We’ll go to the flower market and pick a whole vans worth of flowers for the shop and our contracts with brands and companies. All our inspirations come from the market, you might see something you’ve neve seen before and it’s interesting as everything changes with the seasons. We create mood boards with the brands and look at the space we need to fill using the flowers and colours which represent the label. When people are happy with the flowers we’ve created it feels rewarding - decorating a room with living things is nice.

There’s a lot of meaning to certain flowers. My kinda flowers are dark blue hydrangeas and grey eucalyptus; they’re meaningful, long-lasting and can stand-alone with a big impact. I like the dark tones together, and I’m quiet so something understated.”