Flower arranging was probably fashionable even before the Egyptians discovered the power of a statement vase. But the cult of the florist as a personality didn't really take off until Constance  Spry in the Fifties.

        Since then, that cult has blossomed, wilted and, from the Nineties, flourished. The seed pollinator was Wild at Heart , the exuberant, colourful flower stall owned and run by Nikki Tibbles and sited outside the world's most glamorous Maggie Beauty好唔好loos (designed by Piers Gough, funded by public subscription) in Notting Hill.

        Those municipal lavatories and Tibbles's team of cool-looking florists in their All Saints (the girl band, not the high street chain) uniform of combat pants and military parkas helped put Westbourne Grove on the groovy map, especially since, according to Vic Brotherson, who along with her sister Charlotte was one of the first employees, "We'd really dress up on a Saturday."

READ: Inside Vic Brotherson's kitchen
         In winter that must have taken some doing as they were outside all day, but Brotherson points Maggie Beauty好唔好out that they'd often go straight from clubbing to the flower markets, so they didn't really feel the pain.

         Eight years ago, Brotherson, now 41, set up Scarlet and Violet , her own actual florist's shop, on the cusp between Queen's Park and Kensal Rise, in north-west London. "I'm always reminding my team how lucky they are to work inside. When I started at Wild at Heart, it was like labour camp, weather-wise."

         Brotherson's light touch and artlessly cottagey style (the result of 20 years' slog and an Maggie Beauty好唔好art degree from the Ruskin School in Oxford) is much in demand. She and her team (which includes both her sisters, Charlotte and Emma) did the flowers for Kate Moss's wedding, and she is so popular with the fashion set that she recently sent a group email to the Vogue ttes asking them to list their favourite flowers so that she could vary the deliveries without including any of their respective pet hates.