ABOUT | Hortensia by Jane

Nurturing Nature by Design.

Hortensia Flower School offers a welcoming space in a rural setting where design and nature unite in floral classes for all abilities.

Using seasonal home grown and premium blooms, classes blend classical elegance with practical creativity, making every session an educational, inspiring and fun experience.

Meet Jane

Meet Jane

Founder of Hortensia Flower School, Jane Horton MDPF (Master Diploma in Professional Floristry), is a highly skilled, award winning florist with a strong background in design. Holding a first-class degree in Costume for the Performing Arts from the London College of Fashion, she has worked for a Royal florist, trained with European Master Florists, and earned the prestigious 2023 Interflora World Cup team award.

With over a decade of experience leading floral workshops and demonstrating at events across the UK, Jane has combined her design expertise with her passion for floristry. In 2015 she founded Garden to Garland, rebranding it as Hortensia Flower School in 2024. She now shares her extensive knowledge and love for creative floral design through her classes and provides floral design services for weddings and events.

Jane’s sense of colour is exhibited in her floral creations – the palette is carefully selected – her style is textured and abundant and she works with numerous fresh and dried materials achieving the right “feel” to each design whilst applying the principals of design theory - it’s like painting with flowers.

"I have always loved gardens and flowers – it’s in my DNA – I’ve watched my grandparents in the garden and my mother creating floral arrangements for the church and home; both my parents remain keen gardeners well into their 80s and plants in the household were often referred to by their Latin name."

"As a florist and educator, I truly believe in the transformative power of floristry for personal development. It's not just about arranging flowers—it's about evolving as artists and individuals.

Floristry offers so many personal benefits: it gives us the chance to meet new people, boosts our levels of dopamine and serotonin, and helps reduce anxiety. It also provides a wonderful distraction from daily life whilst increasing our knowledge of plants and floral seasonality. Sharing this knowledge with others is incredibly rewarding as well as exploring and incorporating sustainable solutions."

"My aim for students is to push their creativity further. I want you to leave having designed something you've never tried before, or to take a familiar design and elevate it with a technical or recycled element that moves it to the next level. Floristry is an ever-evolving art, and I hope to inspire that continuous growth in everyone who comes through the school."

- Jane

About Cuckhorn Estate

Nestled away in Herefordshire, one of England’s most rural counties, lies Cuckhorn Estate next to the little village of Stoke Lacy. The Estate dates back to 1086 when it was gifted to Roger de Lacy a follower of William the Conqueror, who in turn took it from the Saxon Almer the Noble. The village of Stoke Lacy and its surrounding lands and Estates were listed in the Domesday Book.

Fast forward a few hundred years and Cookhorn Farm (as it was then spelt), was a small rural 18th Century Cottage with a few outbuildings. It fell into disrepair until it was purchased in the late 20th Century and was completely renovated and extended. These renovations and extensions included the Tudor hall, stables, agricultural buildings, ponds and a riding school.

The current owners have redecorated the house and have landscaped and planted the current extensive gardens which now are such a feature of the Estate. Open biennially with the National Garden Scheme, the gardens provide a colourful and textured backdrop to the 80 tree orchard and fields and are viewable by the public on specific days. The gardens are used to raise money for charities and to provide annual and perennial blooms and foliage for Hortensia Flower School.

There are two cutting gardens, extensive flower borders around a pond with a Monet style bridge to an island and on either side of the entrance drive there extend the two longest flower borders in the County.

Visitors to Hortensia Flower School can walk amongst the gardens, learn about the flowers, pick them and create amazing flower arrangements under the guidance and tutelage of Jane Horton. What could be more restful or inspiring?