Flo has always loved being around plants. His father owned a garden centre near their home in northeast France and Flo loved being there, helping him take care of every specimen. He then trained in horticulture and landscaping at the Ecole d’Horticulture et de Paysage in Roville-aux-Chênes, where he learned about garden design, landscaping and maintenance, honing the skills he still uses today. He also achieved a diploma in agriculture before moving to the UK with his British partner in 2013.

What is your role at Alaster Anderson?

I am involved in pricing projects, calculating how long to allow for each task, allocating resource and often giving our garden designers Alaster and Imogen feedback on the practicalities of their designs. My main role, however, is managing the sites where we are working. This ranges from scheduling deliveries with Alaster to make sure everything happens in the right order and that specimens arrive in peak condition for planting, to making sure we don't keep cranes waiting and that each site is ready with irrigation, holes dug, parking and access all sorted on time. There is a lot to juggle! I know Alaster also values how well I work on a building site with the demands of other contractors, communicating all the time with others to get the best outcome. I'm very easy going and understand that everyone has a job to do, so I make sure I understand the schedule and needs of every subcontractor in the garden. It means all runs smoothly and we don't get in each other’s way.

Is there a garden that has inspired you?  

It began with my father who made his own small garden look wonderful, with wild areas and big trees, and his garden centre where he worked very hard on presentation, created a waterfall and surrounded it with green plants. I also did a lot of gardening at my mum’s house, while one of my grandfathers was an excellent gardener and the other was a horticulturist who travelled to Holland to work in the first big commercial greenhouses in Europe. So gardens definitely run in my family!

What is your favourite plant and why?  

It’s a grass called Hakonechloa macra. I love it because it looks fabulous all year round. In summer it is very green and lush and moves in the wind in a very beautiful way, then shifts to absolutely wonderful autumn colours. It's practical, too.

What is your favourite project?

A garden in Knightsbridge where we have worked in two phases. We did the first planting from the soiling up and created a very exciting garden to a very high standard with amazing results. The property was then sold and after a false start with another garden design company, the owner commissioned Alaster Anderson to create something spectacular. That’s exactly what we’ve done, producing another type of garden altogether including a forest of birch trees. It’s a little crazy but looks stunning.

What is the most interesting thing you’ve learned at Alaster Anderson? 

I had never managed a team with such responsibility before joining Alaster Anderson but I'm finding I'm good at it and I enjoy coming up with solutions to tricky issues whether myself or as a team. As a team and a company we now have a reputation as problem solvers who do a great job, so it's paying dividends.

What do you love about your job?

Receiving new plants! When trees arrive and we open them up it’s amazing. I also love the reaction of our clients the first time they see their new garden, because at the scale we work and the changes we make it’s an extraordinary transformation. They know their money has been really well spent and watching their faces is priceless. So I really enjoy my job and I believe it’s so important in life to do that because, of course, you do it every day! I couldn’t be happier.

You can reach us on 0207 305 7183 or email at enquire@alasteranderson.com