THE SARAH RAVEN
COLLECTIVE
AUTUMN 2025
THE SARAH RAVEN
COLLECTIVE
AUTUMN 2025
Welcome to the autumn edition of the Sarah Raven Collective. The Collective is a curated group of tastemakers who have pioneered within their sector, often setting trends ahead of anyone else. All five have an ent repreneurial quality and push aesthetic boundaries, leading the path for others to follow. They have each created their own autumn planting tulip collection in collaboration with Sarah, who is passionate about garden colour - is there a better way to paint your garden with colour than with tulips?
Anna Potter, Florist & Author
Shane Connolly, Sustainable Floral Designer
Arit Anderson, Garden Designer, Writer & Presenter
Kim Murray Hotelier & Artist
Arthur Parkinson, G ardener, Garden Writer & Illustrator
Anna’s Swallows & Damsons
TULIP COLLECTION
Anna Potter is an author and co-founder of Swallows & Damsons, a UK based flower shop. Swallows & Damsons opened its doors in 2008 and has remained a little flower shop in the heart of the community, whilst designing and teaching world wide for clients including Gucci, Architectural Digest, Domino magazine, Food 52, Harpers Bazaar, The Telegraph, Gardens Illustrated and Town & Country Magazine. Anna has also authored two best selling books, The Flower Fix and Flower Philosophy
“The rich and warm tones of the tulips I’ve selected are my go to shades and forms for a dramatic still life style scene. Think tulips emerging out of a dark and moody backdrop of a Dutch Master style painting. ”
– Anna
Anna Potter, founder of the now extremely famous Sheffield florist, Swallows and Damsons, is one of my favourite florists in the world. I love her mix of nature and flamboyance and her incredi bly sophisticated use of colour and form, which shows you at every turn, her background in fine art. She is the dutch still life fl orist par excellence, but also has a deep love and fascination with nature which is the foundation stone for all that she does. sarahraven.com
Anna Potter
Arit Anderson’s Favourite
TULIP COLLECTION
Arit Anderson is a garden designer, writer and BBC Gardeners’ World presenter. She blends a background in fashion and wellness with a passion for plants and climate-conscious gardening
“Whilst I love the pastels that gently bring us into Spring, it’s tulips that can deliver that first pizazz of colour for the season. The orange glow in this collection is warming and rich and adds a glow to any border or container. It’s the undersides that each add a unique charm, from the brushstroke of burgundy on Prinses Irene, or the flash of green on
sarahraven.com
There’s no one more stylish in the colours and combinations of outfits than Arit Anderson. I’ve never seen her look other than exceptionally chic and stylishly flamboyant. We’ve become friends and I couldn’t wait to get her to put together a tulip collection, which ties in with her great style and panache.
Orange Marmalade there is more to this palette than orange. Dolls Minuet draws out the magenta tones whilst Black Hero grounds the collection. With a selection of perennials, scent, shapes and long vase life, this tulip compilation is most definitely bold and brilliant!”
Shane Connolly’s
DELIGHTFUL DUO TULIP COLLECTION
Shane is a renowned floral designer and ambassador for sustainable floristry. His clients range from great public institutions like The V&A, the RA and the National Portrait Gallery, to a veritable who’s who of the great and the good of British life
“I think the tulips chose me to be honest! I saw Verona Sunrise first and was completely blown away by its voluptuousness and how the baby pinks were tempered by the deep burgundypinks. The perfect spring fluff ball with serious intentions! I wanted to find something to break the fluff though and Dolls Minuet, with its simplicity and rich colour, is the perfect man in a suit to accompany Verona to the ball.”
– Shane
If planted deeply in your borders these two varieties should reliably return.
Shane Connolly, as you well know, is florist by Royal Appointment to The King and The Queen and whether it’s a small and intimate collection of bulbs like this one, or filling an Abbey, this man has and does it all. He always pulls on the British countryside and gardens to inspire his arrangements, large or small.
He fell upon this Verona sunrise tulip as soon as he arrived in the car park at Perch Hill last spring, then he just had to go out into the garden to find it’s perfect partner – and here they are together, as a duo.
Portrait of Shane Connolly by Britt Willoughby Dyer
Arthur Parkinson’s
FLOWER YARD BULB COLLECTION
Arthur Parkinson is a writer, illustrator and gardener, with five books to his name — the latest, The Hen Party, out in October 2025. He’s known for gardening in pots, raising rare-breed hens, and teaching flower arranging with Sarah Raven and independently nationwide.
Arthur shares his love of nature and environmental causes through Instagram, where he began while gardening at the Emma Bridgewater factory. He’s also co-founder of the Grow, Cook, Eat, Arrange podcast and a regular guest voice on the show
You’ll all know Arthur and I have worked together now for many years, and we’ve taught and arranged, and written together over all that time. He gardens in a small flower yard, I in a la rger space. But here you’ll see those two looks coming together in this small garden, richly abundant and colourful bulb selection.
“This a simple pairing of two classic but magnificent and robust tulip varieties. ‘Ronaldo’ is a sumptuous mulberry purple, turning to almost claret in the sunshine. ‘Request’ stands like a mythical wizard’s crown with pointed, slightly twisted petals, starting out orange copper before fading to light apricot, tall and proud at every stage. They compliment each other perfectly in the garden, pot and vase alike. Orange is a vital colour, symbolizing energy and rejuvenation, so I couldn’t resist including the crazed, bee-attractive fireworks that are the impe rial fritillaries in this collection too.”
– Arthur
Arthur Parkinson
Kim Murray’s Cromlix
TULIP COLLECTION
Kim Murray is wife to former number one tennis player Andy Murray, a mother of their four young children and a hotelier at Cromlix, the five-star country house hotel in Dunblane. She is also an artist and author and studied English literature at Sussex University
Kim Murray has become a passionate gardener, and just like us, loves wonderful colour and floweriness. We collaborated with her last year on this tulip collection, which is now planted en masse, at her hotel in Scotland, Cromlix. Here they are in all their glory.
“At Cromlix, we use a lot of bold and botanical prints inside the hotel in fabrics and wallpapers, so I wanted to choose bright, vibrant tulips for my Sarah Raven collection to reflect that. I love the strong colours, particularly of the Black Hero tulips which can range from a kind of deep maroon to almost black. They contrast beautifully with the pinks and oranges of the rest of the collection and, when they all come together, they are the perfect compliment to the house’s interiors.”
– Kim Murray
GARDEN STORIES WITH
Arit Anderson
AHOW DID YOU FIRST MEET SARAH?
I think we first met at Perch Hill when I was able to come to a press event. But it feels like I have known her much longer, a. because I have admired her work for years and b. we have a mutual friend Carien van Boxtel who adores Sarah.
QIF YOU HAD TO CHOOSE THREE DESERT ISLAND PLANTS – WHAT WOULD THEY BE?
Dahlias - carry me through for months and months
Tulips - get me through the early months
Mint - for mint tea
WHO INSPIRED YOU TO GET INTO GARDENING, AND WHEN?
I was a later comer to gardening, it was only when I got my own garden that I became hooked. My sister Michele played a huge part in encouraging me to study garden design. She is a gardener and was impressed by what her little sister had learnt in a short space of time. Michele and her partner Pete have been a huge support to me over the years.
WHERE DO YOU GARDEN?
I am based in the South East, in the Twickenham/Richmond area.
WHAT DOES GARDENING DO FOR YOU, BOTH PHYSICALLY AND MENTALLY?
Physically, I love the ache of a day in the garden, that means I have really been able to get things done!
Please contact us for more Q&A content with The Collective guests
about Sarah Raven
Since the publication of her first book, ‘The Cutting Garden’, Sarah has led the way in introducing a new kind of productive gardening. Her aim, to bring beauty colour and joy to every garden, combined with a practical and easy-to-achieve approach.
Sarah has published 14 books, and has a weekly popular gardening podcast Grow, Cook, Eat, Arrange which has achieved over 5 million downloads
For press requests, editorial opportunities, and images please contact: sam.bird@lizleanpr.co.uk
leila.willingham@lizleanpr.co.uk
Photography by Jonathan Buckley ©