SOON AFTER I moved from New York City to Newton Valence, a small village in the UK, I quickly realized that (to misquote Phoebe Waller Bridges’ iconic “Fleabag” character) “Flowers are everything.” The great British obsession with gardening revolves around plants, garden design, and landscaping, but it’s the flowers that truly capture imaginations. Restrained Brits are known to swoon at the sight of a perfect cottage rose.

Florist Willow Crossley, a modern-day Constance Spry, takes this obsession to a new level and continuously evolves it. Her earthy approach — seasonal and natural — complements the stylish yet laid-back entertaining people enjoy nowadays, making her a favorite among the country’s fashion and design set.

Crossley didn’t plan on becoming a florist. She left her family’s quiet English countryside home to study at the London College of Fashion, followed by a stint at Harper’s Bazaar and Tatler. But she grew tired of the breakneck pace of the fashion industry. “I was at a point in my life when I was spreading myself too thin, working as a personal shopper, still in fashion, writing a book,” she says. “My husband, Charlie, knew I had really enjoyed working on the chapter of my book about flowers, so [he] booked me in a flower arranging workshop, and I just really loved it so much.” After creating floral arrangements for a few friends, word got out about her talent, and as Crossley says, “The rest is history!”

She now lives in an idyllic part of the British countryside called the Cotswolds in a fairytale farmhouse with her husband and three children. Unsurprisingly, there are flowers everywhere — dotted around the rooms in vibrant patches of color. As a starting point, she usually goes for walks in the nearby rolling hills to see what’s coming up. “I spend as much time as I possibly can outside, doing a lot of walking and picking wild garlic,” she says. “I plant loads of seeds, wake up my geraniums, and bring lots of spring bulbs into the house.” These walks, she reports, inspire her arrangements. “It’s mostly the way things grow, the shapes and color combinations that I see in nature that inspire me. Right now in the flowery calendar, I’m looking at the blossoms of catkins, these mad, droopy, beautiful creations that I love mixing in with tulips and paperwhites, which are now coming out as well. Solomon’s seal, foxgloves, peonies, they are all just my absolute favorites, and May is my favorite flower time.”