The heart of the book is Blossom & Grow, a tiny florist in the heart of Dublin. The owner, Lara, is at heart of the story and we meet her family and all the customers who come through the doors of her beautiful shop.
Her marriage has been frozen since she lost the child she longed for when she was 24 weeks pregnant. She pours her heart into the flowers and the customers. She had q unique ability to translate their feelings into flowers. She’s a kind of healer, really, but she doesn’t seem to realise that she needs healing too.
What inspired you to have Lara start a new business, the florist shop, as opposed to any other type of coping mechanism to help her come to terms with her grief?
Her father used to bring flowers home for her mother every Friday when she was alive. After she died, he was heartbroken. He couldn’t stop buying the flowers so he brought them home for Lara. They became part of her healing and her close bond with him. She has always wanted to be a mother herself and finally manages to get pregnant but loses her baby 24 weeks into her pregnancy. Flowers healed her when she was a child who lost a mother. She opens a flower shop hoping that flowers will heal her now that she is a mother who lost a child.
Did you have much of an interest in flowers before writing this book or was a lot of research needed especially regarding flowers and their meanings?
I have always loved flowers. One of the first flower names I remember my mother teaching me was ‘celandine’. When I started working, I used to buy flowers for myself and she despaired. She wanted me to save my money for a mortgage. But I think, deep-down that she understood. She loved flowers too. She used to wryly quote the Chinese proverb that appears at the beginning of the book.
‘When you have only two pennies left in the world, spend one on bread and the other on a flower. The bread will sustain life. The flower will give you a reason to live.’
