Welcome to Black Knight Flowers. I am Sophie Leathart and I have been a free-lance florist for 30 years. I trained at Moyses Stevens in London working at The Inn on the Park Hotel and the Claremont Club.

I have created floral arrangements for numerous weddings and themed parties, including a ’60s party and a party themed around famous pop groups. I use seasonal flowers and foliage and take inspiration from my walks around my home. I work mainly in the South East and London but recently decorated Canongate Kirk and Oxenfoord Castle in Edinburgh. You can take a look at some of my work in the galleries accessible from the front page. I have demonstrated and run workshops.

My love of all things floral began at an early age and I pressed flowers, both garden and wild, sticking them in to scrapbooks and learning their common names. I can remember my first trip to Kew Gardens with my mother and I still have the flowers I collected (they had fallen from plants) in my scrapbooks. I visited the RHS Chelsea Flower Show in 1977, the year of the Queen’s Silver Jubilee, for the first time. My abiding memory is of a crown incorporating Saintpaulias (African violets).

For the past two years, I have turned my mind to all things horticultural becoming RHS qualified. I garden, grow plants and run a cutting garden . I helped set up the Cayeux Iris display at the Chelsea Flower Show in 2016, where we won a gold medal. I also helped plant the Outside Inside for NAPS garden at the Hampton Court Flower Show designed by Emma Bannister. It was awarded a Silver Gilt medal.

In 2017 I took on the job of setting up the Cayeux Iris display for Chelsea and we managed to secure a second Gold Medal. I am now a trainee Iris grower. I love all flowers and if you would like me to quote for any floral work, including planting plans for gardens, please do not hesitate to get in touch.