What I’m loving this month…

1. Cashmere-infused, slouchy comfort in a go-with-everything hue

2. Our new floral Loving Cup in Bordeaux - the perfect Autumn vase?!

3. A spirit-lifting rhinestone-embellished cashmere-blend neckerchief

4. For running errands (or even gardening) hands-free in style

5. THE more-is-more trainer of the season

6. A barely there navy wool layering essential

Willow Loves (6 more!)

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How is it September?! It’s not as though we feel cheated out of summer, as it certainly felt like a long, hot one this year. The dry, scorched gardens are starting to green a little, and I noticed a crisp edge to the air during the mornings this week. The seasons are changing, and so are our routines. With the shock of the alarm in the morning, an empty house during the day and time indoors in the evening, it feels like change is here. I’m not sure I’ll ever get used to the extremes that the back-to-school feeling brings – summer colliding with autumn, carefree days replaced with diarised routine…

In many ways, September feels like a new year reboot. This year, I’m feeling ready, and actually quite excited – for the garden planning, for new-season knitwear and denim, for the dahlias, for kitchen suppers, and for something flower-related and very exciting I’m launching in just over a week. There’s a lot happening, and I can’t wait to dive into it all.

I hope you find something that inspires in this edition and wishing you a very happy September.

With Love,
Willow

*This is monthly free edition, but every week, I send out emails to my paid subscribers with flowery, fashion, food and wellness content - ideas to inspire, create and nurture. Plus videos, chat and much more. I hope you will join us!

PS. this is a long read so might be best to read in app/web browser (just in case it cuts off in your email).

PPS. A note on our edits - all brands are carefully chosen. For some, we may receive a small commission if you purchase an item.

Willow Loves!

What I’m loving this month…

1. Cashmere-infused, slouchy comfort in a go-with-everything hue

2. Our new floral Loving Cup in Bordeaux - the perfect Autumn vase?!

3. A spirit-lifting rhinestone-embellished cashmere-blend neckerchief

4. For running errands (or even gardening) hands-free in style

5. THE more-is-more trainer of the season

6. A barely there navy wool layering essential

Willow Loves… (6 more!)

(scroll to the end for our paid subscribers)

The Autumn Wardrobe Update

13 new season sartorial essentials to invest in or update…

Cashmere Baby T-Shirt, Very Wide Leg Trouser, Technical Bomber Jacket, Flowing Lingerie Midi-Dress, Flexi Tie Mary Janes, Elastic Sporty Ballerina Flats, Puff Sleeve Denim Shirt.

Boogie Silk Pant, Mariselle Silk Paisley Print Dress, Beaded Swing Clutch, Leather Belt In Vanilla Cream, Jabbar Ruche Trainers, The Chelsea Jacket.

For styling tips with links click here.

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Hopping Mad

Have you noticed that the hedgerows are suddenly full of hops? Garlands of tiny, lime-green, dangly, acorn-shaped balls weaving themselves into the hedges? I absolutely love them and now is their moment.

They do make driving at the moment rather dangerous however, as I’m on permanent hop-spotting duty. A telegraph pole on the A40 wrapped entirely from top to bottom very nearly put me in an early grave! But luckily, you can also buy not just forage them. I bought mine from here.

The aim is to buy them now, when they are in season and then let them dry. They’re so pretty for Christmas decorating; they might even replace the traditional spruce garlands this year.

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My Last Supper

Our guest this month is Vivien Wong, co-founder of the sweet-snacking-super-start-up, Little Moons - ice cream mochi which is made by enrobing beautiful gelato in a sweet soft dough called mochi, traditionally from Japan. Initially supplied to high end restaurants such as Nobu and Sushi Samba, Little Moons is now available in supermarkets.

Vivien chooses her last supper of dreams in balearic bliss with her mother’s cooking and of course, some little moons for a sweet treat...

As always we ask:

What would you have for your last meal on earth? A drink, a starter, a main course and pudding? You never get full and you can be wherever you want in the world…

My last meal would definitely be a long one. I’d invite my immediate family and my closest girlfriends - the ones who feel like family. The people who’ve seen me at my worst and stayed, and, perhaps even more rarely, the ones who’ve genuinely celebrated my wins. I would also include all my dogs, past and present.

We’d be barefoot on a sandy beach in Ibiza at sunset. I’d be wearing a completely impractical pink Valentino kaftan and far too much sparkly jewellery.

We’d start with very cold Alfred Gratien champagne, a completely unnecessary 1kg tin of caviar and really good crisps cooked in olive oil.

My non-alcoholic drink would be freshly squeezed Thai orange juice. There’s something about oranges in Thailand - they’re slightly more citrusy but somehow also perfectly sweet. I’ve never found orange juice quite like it anywhere else.

For a starter, I’d have my mum’s Hokkien mee with belacan sambal and her belacan fried chicken wings. It’s the food I grew up with and probably the food that tastes most like home to me.

Main course would be another of my mum’s dishes: pork cooked in black vinegar with fragrant Thai jasmine rice, alongside roast duck from Four Seasons on Queensway and stir-fried choi sum grown in my own garden.

And pudding would be very simple: perfectly ripe sliced mango, Musang King durian from Malaysia and a pair of Raspberry Little Moons cut in half.

So essentially: Ibiza, my favourite people, my mum’s cooking, a ridiculous amount of caviar and Little Moons for pudding. I can’t think of a better way to go.

Visit littlemoons.com| Follow @thevivienwong @littlemoonsmochi

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Recipe - Pear and frangipane galette

By Tart London

A rustic, buttery galette filled with sweet, tender pears and a rich, almond frangipane. The finishing touch of bourbon wash adds a hint of depth and warmth, elevating this simple dessert to something special.

Sweet pastry
2 – 3 pears
Egg wash
Brown Demerara sugar, for dusting
1 tsp cinnamon

Frangipani:
70g soft butter
170g caster sugar
170g ground almond
2 tbsp flour
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla

Optional:
2 tbsp bourbon
2 tbsp brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla

First make the frangipani:
Add the almond flour, sugar, vanilla and butter to a bowl of an electric mixer with a paddle attachment. Mix until light and fluffy. Scrape down the bowl. Add the eggs, one at a time, until fully incorporated. Scrape down the bowl. Add the flour and mix until just combined.

To make the galette:
Heat oven to 180c. Roll out the pastry and place on baking parchment. Spoon on the frangipani leaving a good inch of pastry on all sides. Thinly slice the pears and spread over the frangipani.

Fold up the sides of the pastry, brush with egg wash and sprinkle with demerara sugar and cinnamon.
Place the bourbon, sugar and vanilla in a small pan and simmer for a couple of minutes, poor over the pears and dot with a few pieces of butter.
Place the tart in the oven and cook for about 40 minutes.
Serve either straight away or can be served cold.
Reheats fine if you want to cook it in advance.

Visit tart-london.com | Follow @tart_london

September Arts & Culture

What to see, visit & plan this month…

1. New season telly for when the nights draw in: look out for The Gentleman Series 2 on Netflix, The Blame on ITV, Number 10 on Channel 4, Pride and Prejudice on Netflix.

2. Sign up to Create Academy for my courses and SO many more to learn more creative skills this season (currently 20% off)….

3. Get tickets to see Gillian Anderson in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf at Soho Place from 21 September

4. Visit the Schiaparelli: Fashion Becomes Art at the V&A before it closes on 8th November.

5. Go and see As You Like It at Shakespeare’s Globe from 9 September until 25 October

6. Book The 90’s: Art & Fashion, Tate Britain from 8 October

7. Book ahead for Kristin Scott Thomas star in The Cherry Orchard at Harold Pinter Theatre from 3 October

8. Plan ahead for Painting the French Riviera at The Royal Academy from 2 October

Where else should we go this month or book ahead for?

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PS. Willow Loves (6 more!)

Summer essentials, to make getting dressed easy, breezy, fun!

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Is anyone else feeling torn between the slight melancholy that summer and family time is over and actually excited it’s a new school/work year — welcoming some structure, some new season denim and perhaps even throwing on a jumper?

We have our big September edition coming out Sunday so…

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It does feel like this is the end of summer (sob) and that the focus, after this weekend, is getting back into the swing of a new season - back to school, work, big plans and fresh starts. But for a few precious days longer, let’s linger in the August bliss. And I also the joy of dahlias incoming!

We’re taking a break this week - normally the Friday before a big monthly edition but this week we’re taking today off and will have a Seedling dispatch next Friday followed by our big September Edition next Sunday - full of ideas for fresh starts and new season fashion, flowers and food…

I also have something very exciting and seed-related launching in September… I can’t wait to share!

Don’t forget - we’re having a summer sale on Seedling subscriptions.
If you haven’t already, please do join us now for 20% off annual subscriptions until 1st of September using this special link.
Our prices will rise a little after that so now is the time to lock in your membership, and we promise you’ll love it (or you can cancel the subscription at any time).

Happy long weekend!
Love Willow x

PS check out my favourites shop with all my current loves, from fashion to beauty and home loves too.

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3 Little Ideas for Bank Holiday Happiness…

1. wearing this Dôen dress and having a romp around the garden with family and friends… (this jumper is also a great companion to the dress as the weather cools).

2. stealing an hour to myself to write down all my plans for the ‘new year’ in a big notebook and fill out September diary dates so I am feeling on top of things in my giant Smythson diary. I always feel like it’s a new year in September. It’s that back-to-school feeling that never leaves. Does anyone else?!

3. making this sponge cake for my boys and anyone else who might pop in over the bank holiday weekend and lay the table with Botanica print linens.

What are your plans this weekend?

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Recent Posts…

I thought I’d share some recent posts in case you’ve missed them - ALL my beauty faves, the August garden including how I’m planning drought-resistant planting for 2027, some great reads and an interview with the incredibly chic and creative Zoë de Givenchy …

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Happy bank holiday weekend! See you on Sunday for my flower video…

W x

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Share The Seedling

We’ve had a slow week after a very fun and busy weekend in Wales celebrating my Mama’s birthday. Her garden, as usual was looking ravishing. Like when I went back in July, it was the scale of the flowers that I cant get over; I’m so envious of the 9 foot cardoons and giant enveloping clouds of Crambe Cordifolia. I’ve vowed to myself that next year, my garden will look a tiny bit more like hers!

This post is very garden inspired: I’m talking cut flowers, seed collecting and my plans for next year’s garden.

In other news, we’re having a summer sale on Seedling subscriptions. If you haven’t already, please do join us now for 20% off annual subscriptions until 1st of September using this special link. Our prices will rise a little after that so now is the time to lock in your membership, and we promise you’ll love it (or you can cancel the subscription at any time).

In this week’s dispatch - picking in my mother’s garden, harvesting seeds at home and planning my 2027 garden - a focus on the late summer garden and drought-resistant planting for the future, plus a delicious and beyond simple in-season recipe…

Happy weekend!
Love Willow x

PS check out my favourites shop with all my current loves, from fashion to beauty and home loves too.

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Picking

I was in Wales last week celebrating my mother’s birthday and very happily, my job was the flowers. We had a gorgeous hour or so chatting and picking our way though her garden - I don’t think anything makes me happier in life.

Secateurs in hand, I decided to go heavy on the roses, they were so beautiful and she had so many so they formed the backbone of the arrangements . I was particularly drawn to the soft pinks which I love mixing with very hot, bright dahlias. And a couple of retro deep red, hybrid tea roses.

Lots of dahlias, wild clematis and bolted coriander for an airy wispiness. We had them in the dining room for the whole weekend, adding in tall taper candles in bright colours for the special dinner and it looked so pretty and joyful. If I do say so myself! What do you think?!

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Harvesting

Chazzy has been collecting seeds like a squirrel preparing for a very long winter over the past few weeks. He is a man on a serious mission. He’d made a beautiful, very aesthetically pleasing station in the greenhouse and then realised that seeds need to be kept cool in the dark so has now whittled up a whole new, just as beautiful, station in his office. If you haven’t started collecting seeds, now is the time. There really is nothing more rewarding - flowers for free! There are a couple of things to remember;

• Wait until the the seed pods have turned brown and dry and are starting to open; and

• the seeds themselves are hard and fully formed, rather than green or soft.

• Collect them on a dry day, ideally once the morning dew has dried.

• Leave them somewhere cool and dry for a week or two before storing, so there’s no residual moisture that could cause mould.

I have been collecting sweet peas (especially excited about finding some white wild ones), nasturtiums, poppies, cosmos and ammi; and I will carry on collecting through September and October.

I also have something very exciting and seed-related launching in September… keep your eyes peeled! I can’t wait to share…

Garden Planning

Every year I’m convinced I’ll remember what I’ve got planted in my borders and every year, without fail, I forget. This year, over the next week or two, before real life resumes in September, I’m going to sit down and draw and paint what I’ve already planted, label everything and then make a plan for what I want to swap out and replace.

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I have adopted a holiday mentality at home - waking and going to bed late with a siesta in the middle. Dog walking late in the evenings, reading cook books whilst lying on the rocker, dead heading while Chazzy collects seeds in the almost-dark, eating my body weight in tomatoes and marmite toast (too hot to make anything else). It’s utterly heavenly. I keep getting emails about ‘back to school’ and panicking about the alarm clock returning at 6am. The idea of real life returning feels horrifying!

I’ve had a lot of questions about skincare recently and August is National Wellness Month so this week I’m sharing my favourite wellness and beauty go-to’s and latest finds. From make up and massage oil to fake tans and holiday suncreams, it’s all there…

Love Willow x

PS check out my favourites shop with all my current loves, from fashion to beauty and home loves too.

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Things I Put On My Face

I mentioned my ESK discovery last week; sorry to repeat myself. In case you missed it, it’s an Australian skincare brand that my facialist friend Lee told me about (you can book an appointment with him here). I was feeling fed up with my pigmentation and he suggested I start using this set to tackle it. For now, it’s seriously streamlined my daily routine. I love how quick and simple it is.

The only downside of the ESK cream is that it’s only SPF15. When I want more protection, I use Dermalogica Dynamic Skin Recovery, which I’ve used for years and love.

Dermalogica Microfoliant — I feel like I want to exfoliate more in the summer, when you’re wearing more suncream during the day. This is a great everyday-er.

Barbara Sturm Hyaluronic Serum — a lovely, lightweight hydrating serum that I put on before makeup when I don’t want to use a heavy moisturiser. A summer favourite.

Before a special night out, I love these Collagen Gold masks. Very firming and give that lovely glowy boost. For a weekly pick-me-up, the Dermalogica Multivitamin Recovery Mask is my all-rounder. When my skin feels blocked and needs a really good deep clean, this Angan Black Lava Mask is very decongesting.

For hormonal moments, I reach for Made of More Night Soufflé.

Two skincare gadgets I really love are the Zip Halo (use code WILLOW for 10% off) and the Current Body Face Mask (use code WILLOWCCB for 10% off) that I try and use every night, for ten minutes and really do think make a difference.

Things I Take to Feel Better

I always felt I was quite low maintenance until I rounded them all up just now, I cant believe how many I have. I pick and mix from the below but mostly take the Omegas and magnesium to help my back, the ashwagandha for sleeping, the Lions Mane as an ADHD medication alternative and Berocca for when sleep has been elusive!

Here are Ancient + Brave Wild Collagen Powder, Ancient + Brave True Skin Alchemy Capsules, Ancient + Brave True Biome Sachets, Ancient + Brave True Hydration Sachets, Wild Nutrition Vitamin D, Wild Nutrition Lions Mane Plus, Wild Nutrition Ashwagandha Plus, Solgar Magnesium Glycinate, Solgar Omega 3-6-9 and Berocca.

Things I Put On To Feel Pretty

(More in this week’s special beauty & wellbeing dispatch - my make-up must haves, sunny day saviours, hair heroines and body & tanning besties… over 50 tried and tested products I LOVE…)

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For most of this week I’ve been on holiday in the Isles of Scilly, but by the time you read this I’ll be home again. I’ve had two wonderful, very happy weeks away with my family by the sea. I arrived feeling exhausted and completely worn out, but after two weeks of doing very little; walking, reading, chatting, biking, minimal work and completely slowing down, I feel like myself again: energised, creative and calm. And desperate to play with some dahlias! It’s been so hot at home and I'm hoping our garden will still have things flowering. Is it still boiling with you?

I haven’t done a huge amount to write home about this week but there have been a few (little) things that have bought me so much joy so I thought I’d share them with you for today’s post.

I hope you have a wonderful weekend, with love x

In this week’s dispatch from Tresco - simplifying my skincare routine, a new magical body oil, sailcloth suitcases & my favourite new cocktail…

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Magic Oil

I’ve had the same two treatments at the Tresco Spa every year for the past four years, and somehow they just keep getting better. I always have the ILA Kundalini Massage followed by the ILA Ananda Facial.

The treatments themselves are extraordinary. I genuinely haven’t experienced relaxation like it. A huge part of that is Nella, the therapist, who I honestly believe is a magician. The other part is the products she uses, which are utterly delicious. There was one body oil that smelt so heavenly I had to buy a bottle to bring home. Four days later, it’s already half empty because everyone in the house has become completely obsessed with it too.

Simplifying my skin routine

I’ve recently started using products from an Australian skincare brand called ESK. The packaging is far from exciting, but the products themselves are brilliant.

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I hope you’ve had a lovely week.

I’m away on holiday with my family, which is heavenly. We’re on Tresco in the Isles of Scilly, where I’ve been coming since I was tiny. It doesn’t give the thrill of going somewhere new, but there’s something very lovely and reassuring about returning somewhere you know so well that always stays the same.

I love going on the same bike rides, having the same morning coffee routines at the Ruin, the same competitive cowrie shell hunting - I find it wonderfully reassuring and instantly relaxing. Other than the morning coffee outing, there’s no planning - just lots of reading (me), eating, Waboboa balling in the sea (boys), smelling the geraniums, walking and hunting for shells. And talking about the weather, obviously. My bikini has had more outings than my coat so far this year, so I’d say we are winning!

So for this week’s Seedling, I’m sharing what I’m loving on and off the islands - from the botanical to the beach, what to wear and what to eat. And if you want to read more on Tresco, I also created a guide last year that has my favourite haunts (you can read it here).

Wishing you all a very happy weekend and happy hols!

Love, Willow

PS check out my favourites shop with all my current loves, from fashion to interiors.

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In this week’s dispatch from Tresco - a new love for Aeoniums, shell-spiration, where & what to eat, what to pack & wear in all weather conditions…

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Aeoniums

This is the first year I’ve really noticed the aeoniums on the island. These wonderfully weird, sculptural plants are everywhere; towering above the scented geraniums in terracotta pots, emerging from the sides of the roads and growing out of stone walls.

I’ve had a few in pots at home for years, but now I want more. I’m going to have a go at planting them in the borders as well. They don’t like the cold, so will need lifting before the frosts arrive, but I think it’ll be worth it. I love the contrast of their bold, architectural shapes against all the soft, airy flowers I usually grow.

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Mosaic shell-spiration

I am still trying to work out what tiles to put in our new shower room. I’ve been looking at beautiful mosaic tile inspiration and been considering it and then found this on the walls at the island village school yesterday. I’m sure it’s highly impractical in a shower but isn’t it so beautiful? I love the shells mixed in with the coloured glass.

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Eating

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So, I’ve decided to metaphorically put my life jacket on first in an attempt to keep myself sane and my spirits high.

Here’s what’s helping me this week and during the summer stretch…

Happy weekend, happy hols!

Love, Willow

PS check out my favourites shop with all my current loves, from fashion to interiors.

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In this week’s dispatch - all the little rituals - tips & links that are getting me through the summer stretch…

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A daytime bath

One of Wolf’s friends came to stay last week and brought me these bath oils as a thank-you gift. Ever since, I’ve developed a glorious new habit.

A bath, in the middle of the day whilst watching Netflix.

It feels wildly indulgent and I cannot recommend it enough. The boys genuinely don’t know what’s happened to me. Me, lying down, in the middle of the day and on a screen? I’ve officially lost the plot.

For night time bathing, Olverum is my usual go-to. However these salts from Dreem Distillery have recently taken the top spot. My sister-in-law, Ruth, introduced me to the brand a couple of years ago when it was just starting out. The founder, Hayley, began by making CBD drops in her kitchen to help people sleep and they were so brilliant that the business has now grown into a full range of CBD delicious-ness. They smell insanely good and also knock me out the moment my head touches the pillow. Magic in a jar.

A good book

The kind that you can’t stop thinking about and would steal any moment to read just a few pages. Callie Coles (read our interview with Callie here) has just released a new book, Tangled and it’s next on my list.

I am also about to go on holiday and am taking Lisa Jewell’s new thriller, It Could Have Been Her, and an ‘edge of your seat love story Crash Into Me by Robinne Lee.

We’ve also included so many of your favourites (and my wishlist) in Summer Book Club in case you’ve already done these!

Please tell me what you’re reading?

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A rom-com obsession

I have a new obsession of watching teen summer tv shows (in the bath during the day preferably) - in a nutshell, pure escapism. Beautiful people having emotionally complicated summers set in beautiful, sunny beachside locations.

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The beach essential - a wide-brimmed hat
The chic swimsuit for beach to lunch style
The wafty, white skirt of the summer
Shells for post-beach or on the beach if you dare

A towelling set for practical beach style
Never lose your sunnies again
A perfect pretty purse for coins for sun loungers
The beach cover up of the season
A roomy raffia friend for happy beach…

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There is nothing better than reading in summer - preferably fiction to escape with in the pages of proper, actual books - on the beach, while dozing to the sounds of waves crashing and children playing, little splots of salt water splashes blurring the letters on thumbed down pages.

We’re sold… but what to read? Nothing too dramatic, depressing or taxi…

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Ooh, it’s been another scorcher of a week! Properly boilingo. I went back to Wales for the weekend which was heavenly. My parents’ garden was looking completely exquisite. The scale of the plants in their borders is breathtaking - it makes my own garden at home feel rather annoyingly piddly in comparison - giant cardoons, monumental clouds of Crambe cordifolia and dancing Verbena Boriensis tower above you; every corner bursting with life and inspiration. Needless to say, there wasn’t much actual gardening happening. Just a lot of watering and deadheading. We spent our days hiding from the heat, cooling off in the river before emerging in the evenings for long walks through the woods. I love that dappled evening light beaming through the trees so much.

I'm home again now with a house full of teenagers and, despite the chaos, I'm really enjoying slowing down. No 6am alarm. No frantic school runs. Just slower mornings, endless cups of tea and peanut butter cups and more time to read and potter around the garden. What are you up to this weekend? I hope wherever you are, it’s wonderful.

Happy weekend!

Love, Willow

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In this week’s dispatch - collecting seeds has never been so satisfying, my new obsession - the stripey Zara Home collab, a luxurious sun cream, a magical new summer top that goes with everything, & more …

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Katherine Pole for Zara Home

Have you seen the latest Zara Home collab? It’s a homeware collection, mostly bedding, that draws inspiration from 18th & 19th-century French and English quilts, traditional Provençal costumes, and interior textiles from the archive of Katharine Pole, a British textile collector. It’s so good, I genuinely want it all. I adore a red and white stripe; our home is slowly starting to resemble a circus tent and am obsessing over the stripy bedspread.

Seed Saving

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1. Diamanté! Crochet! Colour! Could be my more-is-more sandal of the summer…

2. Green polka dot bougie pants we didn’t know we needed until now

3. A magical mermaid-esque, floaty dress for long summer nights…

4. Tales for the teens! anything to get them talking…

5. Bejewelled safety pin ear candy

6. Colour blocking swimwear in the sunshine

Willow Loves (6 more!)

Summer essentials, to make getting dressed easy, breezy, fun!

Read more

We’ve packed it with enough inspiration to see you through July and August, leaving plenty of time for the important things: lazy afternoons, sandy toes, long lunches in the garden, impromptu suppers with friends, and, hopefully, a little well-earned doing absolutely nothing at all.

July always seems to arrive in a glorious whirl. School plays, speech days, sports days, diaries to untangle, holidays to organise, and inboxes slowly filling with those wonderfully reassuring out-of-office replies. We spend months wishing for sunshine, only to discover that a proper heatwave requires a slower pace of its own - one that encourages early mornings, shady corners and an extra scoop of ice cream whenever possible.

Some of you may already be away, others will have enjoyed Fourth of July celebrations, and many are counting down the days until schools break up and summer holidays begin in earnest. Wherever you happen to be reading this, here’s hoping you can steal a little of that carefree holiday feeling, whether it’s found by the sea, around the table with family and friends, or with a quiet moment in the garden.

Wishing you a wonderfully happy summer. We’ll see you again in September, refreshed and full of new ideas. And for our Seedling paid subscribers, we’ll be back with more this week!

With Love,
Willow

*This is monthly free edition, but every week, I send out emails to my paid subscribers with flowery, fashion, food and wellness content - ideas to inspire, create and nurture. Plus videos, chat and much more. I hope you will join us!

Willow Loves Summer!

What I’m loving this summer - colour, embellishment, more is more…

1. Diamanté! Crochet! Colour! Could be my more-is-more sandal of the summer…

2. Green polka dot bougie pants we didn’t know we needed until now

3. A magical mermaid-esque, floaty dress for long summer nights…

4. Tales for the teens! anything to get them talking…

5. Bejewelled safety pin ear candy

6. Colour blocking swimwear in the sunshine

Willow Loves… (6 more!)

(scroll to the end for our paid subscribers)

Beach Bound

10 Summer Classics for on and off the beach…

The beach essential - a wide-brimmed hat
The chic swimsuit for beach to lunch style
The wafty, white skirt of the summer
Shells for post-beach or on the beach if you dare

A towelling set for practical beach style
Never lose your sunnies again
A perfect pretty purse for coins for sun loungers
The beach cover up of the season
A roomy raffia friend for happy beach days
70s sunnies for the sand

Interview

Zoë de Givenchy on the garden that inspired a botanical tabletop collection…

As founder and creative director of Z.d.G., Zoë collaborates with master artisans across France, Italy and Spain to breathe new life into centuries-old craftsmanship, creating collections that feel both timeless and wonderfully relevant. Her latest collection, created in collaboration with the Palace of Versailles and Le Potager du Roi, draws inspiration from the extraordinary historic kitchen gardens, with beautifully crafted tabletop and garden pieces that celebrate their enduring legacy.

Supporting the World Monuments Fund, the collection is also a deeply personal project for Zoë, reflecting a longstanding family connection to the organisation’s work in protecting cultural heritage.

We spoke to Zoë about the inspiration behind the collection, the importance of preserving traditional craftsmanship, and why the pieces we surround ourselves with have the power to shape how we live…

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Geranium Cuttings

It’s prime pelargonium time! Mine are living their best life in the greenhouse at the moment. They weren’t fans of full sun, so we moved them into dappled shade and they’ve never been happier. Now they’re full of fresh, healthy growth, it’s the perfect moment to take cuttings. It’s one of the easiest and most rewarding gardening jobs you’ll do—and best of all, gardening for free!

Step 1.
Choose healthy, fat shoots from your geranium plant and remove them from the parent plant by cutting immediately below a bud or node. A node is a nobble where a stem will sprout from.

Step 2.
We want the growing power to go into growing new shoots, not into the existing ones so remove the flower buds and leaves from the bottom half of each cutting and cut the stem just below a node. When you are left with just one main stem (with the two nodes) you have a cutting!

Step 3.
Fill a little pot with compost.

Step 4.
Then make a hole with your finger or a pencil and insert your cutting around the edge of the pot. You can have two or three cuttings in each pot.

Step 5.
To create a greenhouse effect, I like to put a plastic bag secured with an elastic band over the top of the pot and snip some tiny holes in the plastic. Keep the cuttings inside in a well lit position.

Water every couple of days.

Summer Book Club

There is nothing better than reading in summer - preferably fiction to escape with in the pages of proper, actual books - on the beach while dozing to the sounds of waves crashing and children playing, little splots of salt water or pool splashes blurring the letters on thumbed down pages.

We’re sold… but what to read? Nothing too dramatic, depressing or taxing. Something uplifting, inspiring and even, funny, a page-turning mystery or period romp.

Here are our top picks for summer reads as voted / approved by Seedling readers. Please do let us know in the comments what you’ve loved and other recommendations…

1. The Correspondent by Victoria Evans
   The multi-award winning hit, this is a surprisingly absorbing and moving story about Sybil Van Antwerp who at seventy-three, is slowly losing her sight and always writing letters As Pandora Sykes says, ‘What a novel! Tender, dry, sharp...devastating, but still feel good’ and will make you want to start writing letters again.

2. Yesteryear by Caro Clare Burke
   As darkly funny as it is shocking and gripping, Yesteryear is more than a look inside the trad wife era - an electrifying examination of tradition, fame, faith and the performative nature of womanhood

3. Whistler by Ann Patchett
   The new international bestseller from the author of Tom Lake and The Dutch House, Whistler is a stunning piece of writing and a moving, luminous story about how family, memory and love endures

4. Strangers by Belle Burden
   The much talked about, instant best-seller - an empowering, must-read memoir of the end of a marriage and the start of a personal revolution

5. London Falling by Patrick Radden Keefe
   The story of how London teenager, Zac Brettler, fell to his death from a luxury apartment building on the banks of the Thames. The author follows Zac’s parents on a dark journey to find out what brought him to the balcony that night – and how a teenager’s life of make-believe drew him into the city’s terrifying underworld

6. The Calamity Club by Kathryn Stockett
   From the author of The Help, comes a rip-roaring adventure of found family, complex sisterhood and tested moral compasses.

7. The God of The Woods by Liz Moore
   Some said it was tragic, what happened to the Van Laars. Now, fourteen years later, the family’s teenage daughter has gone missing in the same wilderness as her brother - a beguiling novel with a relentless grip. You won't be able to put it down.

8. Heart the Lover by Lily King
   A surprise visit brings the past crashing into the present, forcing the narrator to confront the decisions and deceptions of her youth. Exploring how first love shapes a lifetime, this is a touching and deeply affecting love story about time and regret and will have you hooked from page one.

9. Finding Grace by Loretta Rothschild

   Blending a page-turning moral dilemma with a sweeping love story, Finding Grace explores the price of secrets and asks whether it's ever too late to tell the truth - a stunning debut novel

10. Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy
    A family on a remote island. A mysterious woman washed ashore. A storm gathering force: A novel of breathtaking twists and dizzying beauty - a page-turning story about the impossible choices we make to protect the people we love.

11. Margot’s Got Money Troubles by Rufi Thorpe

    The unputdownable and hilarious novel that inspired the Apple TV series.As the child of an ex-pro wrestler and a Hooters waitress, Margo Millet's always known she'd have to make it on her own. When she finds herself pregnant by her English professor and in need of cash fast, she comes up with a plan…

12. The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah
    Soon to be a film, this stunning novel has captured the hearts of millions of readers with a heartbreakingly beautiful story is about what it was like to be a woman during World War II, when women’s stories were all too often forgotten or overlooked. And once you start with Kristin Hannah you won’t stop…

13. Land by Maggie O’Farrell

    ‘You will never understand how the land remembers, how deep the roots grow’ - a spellbinding story of separation, longing, recovery and survival as a family makes a new home in the aftermath of tragedy - from the author of Hamnet and so many literary masterpieces

14. Cleopatra & Frankenstein by Coco Mellors
    From the author of last summer’s hit, Blue Sisters, this was her debut novel - an addictive, humorous, and poignant debut novel about the shock waves caused by one couple's impulsive marriage

15. The Artist & The Feast by Lucy Steeds
    A best selling and captivating novel of love, art, food, desire and thwarted ambition, which builds intensity over one scorching French summer in 1920s Provence

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The Bomb Lolly

Bomb Lolly by Ella Risbridger

“Bomb, and her little cousin the Bomb Lolly, were such a fundamental part of my childhood summers I am always surprised they don’t form a more solid cornerstone for summer culture as a whole. I actually have never met anyone, outside of my immediate family and thefamilies we grew up spending summers with, who understands properly about Bomb and Bomb Lolly.

When I talk about it people like to tell me I mean bombe, and listen, I suppose I sort of do: bombe is the fancy Italian semi-spherical gelato-type number that did big business in the eighties, and Bomb Lolly is like if that fancy Italian left, like, Milan to run a commune in the mountains. No ice cream, just whipped creme fraiche mixed with berries; water, a little sugar, a little lemon juice depending on thetartness of your fruit; and handfuls of crumbled meringue swirled through. It’s most like, I suppose, a kind of frozen pavlova, either in a bowl or in lolly moulds (depending on if it’s B or B.L.). Any berries you want. The sound of the summer.” Ella Risbridger

MAKES 12 LOLLIES, SOME FOR NOW, SOME FOR LATER

500g frozen berries
400ml creme fraiche
100g sugar
250g meringue (shop-bought is fine; recipe on p.146)
100g white choc chips

Blitz the frozen berries with 100ml water until smooth. Whip the creme fraiche with the sugar. Crumble the meringue into the creme fraiche.

Layer the berries and creme fraiche meringue either in lolly moulds (perfect) or swirl together in a Pyrex bowl (also perfect, less of a lolly). Freeze until set.

Summer Arts & Culture

What to see, visit & plan this month…

1. Visit the David Austin Roses workshop at Daylesford on the 29th July

2. Don’t miss the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition until 23 August

3. Visit the Henry Moore exhibition at Kew Gardens

4. Visit Opera in Holland Park over the summer

5. Visit the Schiaparelli: Fashion Becomes Art at the V&A

6. Get tickets to Wilderness and The Big Feastival for live music and more in The Cotswolds

7. Visit a Giffords Circus this summer when it’s nearby

8. Go and see To Kill A Mockingbird at the Wyndham Theatre unit 12 September

9. Visit The Tate Modern for Frida Kahlo, Julio Le Parc and Tracey Emin exhibitions

10. Go the Regents Park Open Air Theatre for Shakespeare and more

Where else should we go this summer?

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PS. Willow Loves (6 more!)

Summer essentials, to make getting dressed easy, breezy, fun!

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There is a certain kind of beauty in objects that quietly spread joy and don’t seek attention - that simply belong - for now and future generations. The sort that comes from thoughtful craftsmanship, time-honoured traditions and collections chosen to be lived with every day. It’s a philosophy that sits at the heart of everything Zoë de Givenchy creates.

As founder and creative director of Z.d.G., Zoë collaborates with master artisans across Europe to breathe new life into centuries-old craftsmanship, creating collections that feel both timeless and wonderfully relevant.

Her latest collection, created in collaboration with Le Potager du Roi at Versailles, draws inspiration from the extraordinary historic kitchen gardens, with beautifully crafted tabletop and garden pieces that celebrate their enduring legacy.

Supporting the World Monuments Fund, the collection is also a deeply personal project for Zoë, reflecting a longstanding family connection to the organisation’s work in protecting cultural heritage.

We spoke to Zoë about the inspiration behind the collection, the importance of preserving traditional craftsmanship, and why the pieces we surround ourselves with have the power to shape how we live.

Tell us about your early years. How did your upbringing shape your love of beauty, craftsmanship and travel, and how do those early influences continue to inspire your work today?
My mother, of course, was the first person to form and shape my appreciation of beauty in all its forms. From learning the names of plants and pressing flowers and - yes - talking to trees! From as early as I can remember, I had many pets and a kitchen garden and would help with the flowers in the house every weekend with my mother. I also loved helping her entertain: setting menus and themes and exciting surprises. Her Christmasses are legendary, and that inspired my passion for dressing the house for Christmas - always with winter flowers - and throughout the seasons.

Congratulations on your new collaboration with Versailles and the historic kitchen garden, Le Potager du Roi. Can you remember your first visit? What struck you most, and what emotions did the gardens evoke?
My first visit was with my then fiancé (now husband) Olivier nearly 20 years ago as we were planning to be married in the Potager! Unfortunately, given the ancient cellars of the Chateau de Versailles are beneath, it wasn’t feasible (or safe!). So my first encounter with the Potager was an intensely romantic one and I think this is why my overwhelming feeling for it today remains one of romance and admiration.

Versailles is one of the world’s most iconic cultural landscapes. How did you approach creating a collection that honours its extraordinary heritage while still reflecting your own distinctive aesthetic?
This for me was the easy part! The Potager is rich with legend and storytelling. It’s not just a question of heritage for me, it is also a story of whimsy and romance, and a very human story of our first connection to plants and learning how to use them for nourishment and pleasure. In the early 18th century the French court was studying plants keenly to understand how they grow. I learnt from the gardeners at the Potager that it wasn’t fully understood at that time how root systems worked and that plants took in the bulk of their nutrients and water that way. Jean-Baptiste de la Quintinie, who designed the garden, wrote the first defining book in growing vegetables and fruits. I am lucky enough to have one of his first editions of this book in the library at Le Jonchet. A gift from Bunny Mellon to Hubert, congratulating him on his work in the garden’s massive restoration in the 90’s. It was one of the first ever modern gardening books as we know them today.

The collection celebrates summer and life outdoors, with pieces for both the garden and the table. Do you have one or two favourites, and what makes them especially meaningful to you?
The individual vegetable plates to me have so much character and each have their own legendary story. For example, the humble green pea that took the court of Louis XIV by storm! Nobody had ever tasted peas before, and everyone was quite obsessed with them. Ladies were known to be stealing them and gorging themselves late at night in their private apartments.
Also the scarf is very special! I worked with French silk makers, Brochiers, whom printed my adaptation of an 18th century map of the Potager on French silk and hand rolled the edges. It’s a very beautiful piece that makes for a very special gift. All the accessories in this collection are of course like everything we do made by heritage French artisans and masters at their craft. Each piece is a treasure - yet I wanted to be completely practical too. The gardeners hat, for example, has an adjustable band inside, the secateurs have a thoughtful leather handle and sheath, and the gardening gloves have a soft suede palm but a smooth leather top. Divine to work - or just look beautiful - in the garden!

Travel has always been an important source of inspiration for you. Do you collect objects on your journeys? Is there a particular piece that holds a special story?
Indeed it does - but I must say just as meaningful for me is time in places that are regular places of retreat or quiet contemplation. The keeping of traditions, comfort in the familiar is just as important to me. Being at home in the countryside can be just as inspiring as a grand tour somewhere exotic.

Your own gardens are as inspiring as your interiors. What role does gardening play in your daily life, and are there other gardens around the world that have left a lasting impression on you?
Meaningful time in nature, in the wild, and in and around gardens is truly essential for me. I crave it if I don’t have it. One of the most recent gardens I have come across in recent years is the Valsanzibio Gardens in the Veneto just north of Venice. It’s an allegorical garden and each garden has a distinct meaning or lesson to share. The rabbit island, the hermits cave - not to mention the 600 year old boxwood maze - just extraordinary and emotionally charged.

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A recurring theme throughout your work is the preservation of traditional skills and craftsmanship. Why do you think preserving these skills feels more important than ever, and what can beautifully made objects teach us about living well?
I really believe that in a world of increasing proximity to and reliance upon technology and AI, we all crave experiences that are more human and made by humans. Things and experiences that invoke a feeling. I also think that we want fewer things but better things - and true luxury is always handmade.

This collection brings together the work of exceptional artisans across Europe. Could you tell us about some of the makers behind the pieces, and why supporting their craft is so important to you?
Put simply: if more of us don’t pay attention to supporting these arts they will be lost. And it will be impossible to regain these skills as they are not written, they are so often transferred from one generation to the next.

You’re renowned for creating wonderfully welcoming homes and tables. What do you think is the secret to making guests feel instantly at ease?
The hosts’ ease and comfort! Make sure you have time before your guests arrive to stroll through and put your finishing touches to the drinks, the table, and adjust lighting and music. Then pour yourself a drink!

When setting a summer table, are there flowers, foliage that you always return to for the summer season?
Always local to wherever I am - so if it’s the countryside, mostly field flowers, or armfuls of garden roses or mounds of white hydrangea Annabelle. And I never forget to add flowers in the bathrooms and bedrooms. Wherever the eye lands, flowers must be!

Your work celebrates beauty not as luxury, but as something woven into everyday life. Are there small daily rituals, whether in the garden, at the table or in your home -that you couldn’t imagine living without?
Hot tea in a fine porcelain cup, crisp linen and madeleines at 4pm. Deadheading my roses with the sound of the birds and sprinklers in the distance, early morning before anyone is up. Setting a beautiful lunch table in the pool house with our French faïence, bowls of fresh cherries and cold rosé, glasses chilled on ice in a classical ZdG French verrière. The sound of the children playing in the background.

Your life beautifully weaves together gardens, craftsmanship, travel, food and home. Looking ahead, what do you hope we protect most carefully -not only for future generations to inherit, but as a way of living?
Our appreciation of time, using it wisely and intentionally. Respecting it and appreciating the luxury of something handmade for this reason. Because in the end, without respect for one another, for our heritage, our values and appreciation of our natural world we won’t have much left.

This collection brings together the work of exceptional artisans across Europe. Could you tell us about some of the makers behind the pieces, and why supporting their craft is so important to you?
Put simply: if more of us don’t pay attention to supporting these arts they will be lost. And it will be impossible to regain these skills as they are not written, they are so often transferred from one generation to the next.

Let’s Play Favourites

Flowers: Dahlias for colour, Roses for scent (and romance), Lily of the Valley for charm
Artists: Miro, Twombly, Dufy, de Staël.
Interior Designers: Billy Baldwin, Henri Samuel, Alberto Pinto
Scent / Fragrance: Trudon
Travel destinations: Next up - Egypt and India
Place in France: Most underrated: Brittany
Garden: Highgrove
Book: Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
TV series: All Creatures Great and Small
Film: A Room with a View
Wellness ritual: morning meditation, Pilates and matcha
Colour: Green
Beauty essentials: Sisley, Allies of Skin, Tata Harper are my three all time favourite brands always on rotation
Music: Pulp Fiction Soundtrack
Season: Summer or Autumn - I can’t decide
Restaurant: Wilton’s in London, Voltaire in Paris and Nobu Malibu in LA
Meal: forever my husband’s roast chicken
Mentor: I have many - alive and dead - some I have met others I have not!
Era or decade: 18th century some days, 1960s other days

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Over to Rose, our brilliant Oxford insider…

There is a particular kind of madness that descends upon you when you fall in love with a city. Not a person, not an idea — an actual place, with actual streets and actual pigeons and a canal that smells faintly of diesel and Philip Pullman novels. Oxford did this to me. Quietly, efficiently and with the sort of confidence that only somewhere perpetually sure of its own genius could muster.

I live in Summertown during the school termtime week — an apartment, a bike, a son who needs depositing at school each morning, a daughter who is finishing her A levels around the corner and a long suffering husband who after initial confusion (because technically our home is out in the Cotswolds) now realises this is where to find us during the week.

The rhythm of my Oxford days is pretty simple. After school drop-off, I pull on my yoga gear (Noble Yoga is my go to) and cycle to Yogavenue in Summertown for one of Alessandro’s hot yoga classes. Alessandro is the owner and looks exactly as you’d imagine someone called Alessandro who runs a hot yoga studio would look. The classes are brutal in the best possible way, the kind of sweaty reckoning that makes you feel approximately immortal by 10am. It’s not expensive or fancy but he’s one of the best teachers I’ve found out of London.

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Summer jewellery this season is dominated by beads and sparkly treasures and the necklace comes into its own, almost like you’ve uncovered treasures in the sand or dived down and found them at the bottom of the sea. Nothing better on lightly tanned summer skin! And such an easy way to jazz up my summer shift dress staples.

Here are 10 jewellery pieces I am loving and will wear long after the summer fades….

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This weekend our wonderful US readers celebrate the 4th of July. I adore Americans (most of them anyway!); whenever I travel there I have such a warm welcome and the enthusiasm is contagious. Fourth of July weekends always look like such fun from here - like a big love letter to The Great American Summer - boating, beach cook outs, long summer camps, hydrangea-lined washboard cottages, tailored shorts, lots of linen, hamburgers, hot dogs, nautical stripes and American flags flying everywhere - even on summer sweaters wrapped nonchalantly around tanned, bare shoulders…

Wishing you all a very Happy Fourth as they say in the USA!

Happy weekend!

Love, Willow

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In this week’s dispatch - summer jewellery faves, mood boarding my bathroom decorating, bird calls & more …

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Teachers’ presents

I’ve been making posies to give as thank you’s to the boys teachers this year so popped into Chippy Flower Farm on the way back from the office for a quick burst of colour therapy (and picking!). I sometimes find July not exciting flower-wise, all my faves are on the way out - but there was so much gorgeous-ness I’m going to have to re-address that mindset. Mini foxgloves, California poppies, ammi, hydrangeas, sweetpeas and, very surprisingly for me, serious excitement over the zinnias. I never thought those words would come out of my mouth but I am finally converted! I’m heading into my studio now for a play.

Summer Jewellery

Summer jewellery is dominated by beads and sparkly treasures and the necklace comes into its own, almost like you’ve uncovered treasures in the sand or dived down and found them at the bottom of the sea. Nothing better on lightly tanned summer skin! And such an easy way to jazz up my summer shift dress staples.

Here are 10 jewellery pieces I am loving and will wear long after the summer fades….

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As a child, she would stick cards she designed in her window - in the hopes that a Hallmark employee walking past would notice (the Hallmark HQ was just nearby in Kansas City). By the 1980s, creating handmade c…

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I’m sometimes taken aback in a heat wave in England with what to wear. I have my summer holiday wardrobe down to a tee, but for the every day in England when not lying on a beach or by the pool, it’s a little more tricky! But comfort is key, colour is non-negotiable and light-weight fabrics in generous shapes a no-brainer…

Here are 12 pieces I’m loving for easy breezy summer style…

From top row, left to right:

A rainbow-trimmed hat
Cotton terry top
Rainbow sandals
Palest blue silky skirt
Big tortoiseshell sunnies
A daisy-embroidered basket bag
Shell earrings
The red dress I keep getting asked about!
A simple colourful bead necklace
Cool blue cheesecloth separates
Rosewater spritz spray
Carry everywhere mini tote

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