Best friends and florists Kate Bellamy and Hannah Dye are working together in Alton – a venture they have dreamed of since they were four!

Kate said: “When we were younger we used to do gardening shows for our parents. Hannah’s dad was a cameraman so captured a lot of our childhood in the garden on film.

“Our childhood was mainly spent outside in the garden – building dens, pressing flowers, making rose perfume and writing to the fairies – so nature and flowers have always been part of us.”

Now 37, they met at playgroup in Rowledge aged three and lived on the same street until they were seven, when Kate moved to Glastonbury. She did broadcast journalism at university in Farnham – dad Guy Bellamy was a journalist on the Farnham Herald.

Kate said: “My floral career started when I ran a flower stall in Somerset when I was 19. I had been working there for about two weeks when the guy who owned it said he wanted a break and did I want to run it? Without a thought, or a whole lot of skills, I said yes immediately.

“I worked in journalism, comedy and television production, but I was missing the pure joy I got from flowers. For the last six years I have been running my floristry events business, Kate Bellamy Floral Design.”

Hannah did media and cultural studies at university in Nottingham before a marketing career in theatre and the arts, then as a marketing manager for a large retailer. Family brought her to Alton, then Kate moved there in 2021.

Kate said: “Both of us have dogs and so we spend a lot of time together walking around the Alton countryside and talking about how we both want to really pursue working together. We decided to really test our friendship by going for it!”

Kate and Hannah use own grown, locally grown or ethically sourced seasonal flowers. They are running a pop-up flower shop at Printy Banana in Goodfellows Alley off Alton High Street from February 11 to 14, for Valentine’s Day and – on February 13 – Galentine’s Day, a celebration of friendship, when they will host a workshop at which people can enjoy prosecco while making a flower crown.

To book visit www.katebellamy.com/workshops