Hello flower friends! So here’s something I’ve been thinking about recently. I've been making paper flowers for around seven years, and knew very early on that this was what I wanted to spend my time doing, something I wanted to share - something I wanted to change my life to accommodate. My classes tend to focus on one flower: I provide step by step instruction, everyone works through it and voilà! Fabulous flowers appear. It is a beautiful thing, and my students leave happy. Many come back time and again, and some have created a whole garden of flowers. I thoroughly enjoy this and have no plans to stop.
But the question I’m mulling over is: what happens next? Paper flower making as an ongoing creative practice is so fulfilling, and without an ounce of creativity, once you have the techniques, there are around 240,000 different flowers out there, all the inspiration you could ever need. But how about going in a different direction? How about looking at flowers through a different lens, and creating your own interpretation? My new class Form & Freedom is designed to explore this. The first session happens next Wednesday – eek! Details below.
Vibrant red campion growing in North Wales woodland
🌿 Nature Notes
Last year, several trees bordering the Tip Path were felled to lay a new hedge. Yes, my heart sank a little. The trees had grown together overhead to form the most pleasing green tunnel, the kind you walk through and feel the magic. And then, just like that, they were gone.
But something beautiful has happened. The hedgerow plants, freed from the shade, have shot upward with extraordinary vigour. Red campion, cow parsley, garlic mustard, blue alkanet, stitchwort, Herb Bennet and buttercups, all growing tall and reaching toward the light. It's one of the most beautiful stretches of path I've walked this spring. The hawthorn is doing what hawthorn always does at this time of year, putting on its annual spectacular, frothy white, slightly unruly, pretty magnificent. And the new hedge is coming along beautifully. Change, it turns out, had unforeseen gifts.
Speaking of red campion (Silene dioica) I spotted some in Wales last week in a patch of woodland I'm fairly certain also contained wellingtonias (giant sequoias – and the rest of the trees were matching them in height, it was extraordinary). The red campion was the most incredibly intense magenta; it stopped me in my tracks. People sometimes comment that the flowers in my Red Campion kit look pink rather than red, and honestly, in many specimens they are. But this was so vividly saturated, it was almost unreal. The kit is one I'm actually very proud of: two stems, three flowers each, and you end up with a lovely little posy. Red campion doesn't get nearly enough love.
✂️ From the Studio
In preparation for my visit to Hannah Nunn’s studio this weekend, I’ve been swooning over her wall paper designs and pairing them with my flowers. Oh, and dyeing boxes and boxes of paper (with plants!) to make some special new kits which I’ll be taking with me. They will be unveiled to y’all next week.
✏️ Learn With Me
Form & Freedom Wednesday 20th May · 10–4 · Studio 3, Hoylake · £95pp Lunch and cake included. All materials provided. Maximum 8 people.
Summer Evening Classes — Block One: Roses (and a Hibiscus) From Thursday 14th May · Thursdays 7–9pm · Studio 3, Hoylake · £120 per block Four weeks of roses — with a hibiscus thrown in for good measure. Block Two (Peonies) starts 25th June. Limited spaces, and you save £35 when you book both blocks together. Book here.
Paper Garden Masterclass: Exploring Autumn 18–20 September 2026 · Keswick, Norfolk · From £290 Almost full. Seed heads, dahlias, autumnal foliage — three days with Meg and me, and Katie's delicious food.
🌸 And finally.... May Flowers Giveaway — Hannah Nunn's Open Studio 16th May · Hebden Bridge! To celebrate our first collaboration, Hannah and I are running a giveaway — first prize is one of Hannah's beautiful lamps and my Bookcase Botanical Buttercup; second prize is a spring posy from Hannah and a kit of your choice from me.
"You'll never look at a flower the same way again."
I'm Ling Warlow — artist, educator, and wildflower obsessive based on the Wirral. I teach paper flower making in my studio and at workshops across the UK, and I write about creativity, nature, and the making life over on Substack. If you've ever looked at a poppy and wanted to understand it from the inside out, you're in the right place.
