Melissa Richardson – Favourite Things

Melissa Richardson is a florist, entrepreneur and founder of JamJar Flowers. In 1982, Richardson founded the leading modelling agency Take 2, having worked as a photographers agent, casting director and stylist. After 27 years, she closed the agency and started something new, founding JamJar Flowers from her kitchen table. What began as a small flower delivery service quickly expanded. Today, JamJar Flowers has two studios, an online shop and a small team of talented florists and artists. They have created a hanging ceiling of 60,000 flowers at sketch in London, two giant badminton players constructed entirely from flowers at Badminton House and have decorated the Gates of the Chelsea Flower Show for the RHS twice. 

These are a few of Melissa Richardson’s favourite things…

Children’s books

There is something incredibly comforting about rereading the books you enjoyed as a child. I love how they reintroduce me to my younger self, back when life was simpler and kinder. The smell and feel of these books are intense, and sometimes I find my name inscribed on the front cover in various handwriting styles as I struggled to find an identity for myself. When I was young, and at boarding school, we were given a choice of three sweets and allowed to read a book for an hour after lunch. I loved stepping into the different world offered by whatever book I was reading. Today, I like to read these books after lunch, just as I did when I was a child.

Trees

I am not a religious person, but trees evoke in me the same kind of awe as a beautiful church or a cathedral. Standing under a tree, staring up through its branches, makes me feel humble and uplifted. Surrounding the old house where I grew up in Sussex were remnants of the great oak forest that stretched for miles across the south of England all the way to the Beaulieu River where they were harvested to make the great ships of Henry V111’s navy at Bucklers Hard, his Hearts of Oak. 

Over lockdown, I read a couple of great books about trees (The Understory and The Hidden Life of Trees) and decided to really study trees as my husband, and I walked out to get our daily exercise. We found lots of amazing trees in London; the huge oak in our local Brockwell Park and the mulberry, now sadly gone, in the walled garden there, the copper beech on Hampstead Heath that was felled by a storm in May, just when it was in full glory. Obviously, I am mad about flowers, but trees are my new passion. 

Oysters

What is it about oysters? I love eating them on a windy beach with a little cup of vinegar after having them shucked for me, one by one, by someone with a terrifyingly sharp knife. I love the horny crumbly shells and the soft viscous flesh slipping like silk down my throat.

I love the way they smell and taste of the sea. I like sitting in hushed expensive restaurants with white napery and lemons wrapped in muslin, a little heel of brown bread, a lick of unsalted butter, a glass of chablis and the oysters lying on their bed of crushed ice. They are at once luxurious and simple. My last meal when I am condemned for some, as yet, uncommitted crime, will be six oysters and the promise of a pearl.

End of the day glass

My mother in law has this great collection of “end of the day glass”, also known as spatter glass. I have hankered after it for years. Traditionally this was made by the glassmakers in Murano and Bohemia at the end of the day when they were allowed to use up all the leftover glass from the day’s commissions. These were often little jewels of coloured glass which they could gather together to make wildly beautiful objects of their own, just for pleasure. It means every piece is unique, and as a florist, I really understand this. We often make up flowers from all the leftovers in the studio after an event; these are sometimes the loveliest things we make. You know you really enjoy your job when you go home with a bucket of leftovers and continue to do what you have been doing all day for the sheer fun of it.

Family

It is not very original of me, but I do love being with my family. Not just my own adorable husband and our children – who are not children at all, but three endlessly fascinating human beings – but also my extended family.

Most of the old ones have gone but I cherish the ones that remain and keep the memory of the rest very close. When we all get together, we are extremely noisy, and we talk all at once with our deep raspy voices and have a whole bag of jokes that nobody else really understands. When I am with them, I feel intensely alive but also safe and loved. 

Enjoyed Melissa Richardson’s favourites? Explore the full Favourite Things archive here.