Our signature style was first inspired by the Sussex garden and woods that surrounded Melissa’s childhood home - the simple charm of local wild flowers, picked and arranged in jam jars and displayed on the kitchen table. From these uncomplicated beginnings JamJar has diversified into something of a high wire florist culminating in the design and creation of the London Gate for the RHS Chelsea Flower Show in 2019.
JamJar was established in 2009 by Melissa Richardson, who previously founded and ran the successful London modelling agency Take Two for almost three decades. Melissa now works hand-in-hand with fellow Director and co-conspirator Amy Fielding, along with Head Florist Talena Rolfe and Studio Manager Ella Bandtock. Production and creative support comes from Finn Alexander and a host of talented freelance florists, artists and model makers.
1. Tell us about your background and journey.
I grew up in a beautiful place in Sussex. The house was large and very old and had not been lived in for some years before my father took a lease on it. The gardens too had been abandoned or used for growing vegetables in the war. When we moved in in the mid 50’s I was a baby and the house was very cold with many leaks in the roof and the walled gardens had been left to run wild.The house never improved much but the gardens were my fathers passion project. They became a magical place with herbaceous borders, rose beds, orchards, drifts of daffodils and crocuses in spring and giant gunnera growing beside the deep hammer ponds. Beyond the walls were endless farms and mixed woodland filled with wild flowers in Spring and mushrooms in Autumn.
We could wander or bicycle for miles without ever meeting anyone else. It was a magical place to grow up. Once I had finished school however, I couldn’t wait to get away from the country idyll and live in London. I went to the Drama Centre and then, while waiting for my big break that never came. ( i.e. the National Theatre to invite me to direct Tempest or similar) I started a photographers agency with my friend from drama school.
After a year or so she ran away to India with a dashing lover and my career began to morph, first into a photographers stylist, then a casting director and finally I went to work in a model agency which I loved. After the agency I was working in went bust, we decided to set up Take 2 Model Management in 1982 when I was 27 with two friends.
The agency was very successful and continued to trade until 2009 when, tired of the way the fashion business was evolving and finding we were not making as much money as we used to, we decided to close the agency. That’s when I started the flower business from my kitchen table. Just to keep me out of mischief.
2. What attracted you to flower business?
My childhood growing up in those lovely gardens. I had started buying the flowers in New Covent Garden market every Monday for the model agency and fell in love with the old fashioned traders and the glorious selection of flowers and foliage. I thought I would like to be a florist. Never imagining....
3. How would you describe your style and aesthetics of flower arrangement?
When we started JamJar Flowers the fashion was for exotic flowers who had flown halfway around the world and were arranged in quite an artificial style, often in giant martini glasses with masses of floral foam. I had a yen to return to the flowers of my childhood.
The idea to call the business JamJar Flowers was because I thought the most beautiful flowers were the ones we had collected from the woods and arranged in JamJars on the kitchen table. I wanted to go back to the natural unfussy seasonal arrangements from my childhood.
4. Which flower do you think describes you the best?
Definitely a tulip. I am completely at the mercy of my moods. Nobody, not my husband, business partners or children, least of all me, knows whether I will be standing up all tidy and soldier like in my vase in the morning or sprawled across the kitchen table with all my petals unfurled showing my sepals at dawn.
5. How did the pandemic affect the floral industry?
The first obvious effect of the pandemic was the complete absence of events. As a florist without a flower shop 80% of our turnover came from events and weddings and installations. We thought, after the first lockdown was announced, that would be that, and our business days were numbered. I think we reckoned we could survive until October. However, where there is a vacuum, ideas flood in.
I have been so impressed by our team who have been endlessly inventive, creating and curating virtual events for press launches and thinking of myriad ways to keep the business buoyant. Our online shop JamJar Edit has also done very well. As the pandemic progressed and lock down lengthened people turned to nature to soothe their troubled souls.
Our botanical pressings and flower presses etc all did very well and that side of the business saw a cheering increase in sales. Another very good side of the Pandemic has been the increasing amount of British growers. It has been really fun buying British seasonal flowers and we are growing a lot of flowers for pressing ourselves which is pleasing too.
6. Where do you look for inspiration?
Nature has to be the first inspiration. We try not to follow too many florists on Instagram as you can end up inadvertently copying them but gardens and gardeners like Forde Abbey, Arthur Parkinson and Charlie MacCormack are all a pleasure and a joy to follow.
Inspiration comes from many quarters. Books and paintings and museums inspire us. For me my favourite inspiration comes from the people I work with. Their enthusiasm, talent and passion for what they do fills me with renewed energy and passion for my job all the time.
7. Which is your favourite book and why?
An impossible question. I am a tulip remember. Different books for different moods. Some favourites are I Capture the Castle: Dodie Smith. To kill a mockingbird Harper Lee.
Any book written by Elizabeth Jane Howard.
1984: George Orwell seems particularly relevant right now.
I also like reading poetry a lot so maybe my favourite book might be Other Men’s Flowers by A Wavell. That covers a lot of different moods.
Interviewed By - Anshika Maurya
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