Hops are also called seed cones or strobile.

Did you know that the modern hop has been cultivated from a wild plant?  Dating back to the first century AD, they were described as a salad plant with roots back to Egypt.

The words beer and ale mean the same to most of us, but the word ale was originally reserved for brews produced with malt not hops, and liked by the Anglo-Saxons and English. Beer was made by brewing hops and possibly originated in Germany. 

It might have started life as a salad green before finding it’s way into beer, but I’m so pleased to have such a delightful flowering foliage to incorporate into floral design.  Some say it is a weed, but as a student of the Constance Spry School of Floristry, it was she who said, ‘the difference between a weed and a flower - is a matter of opinion’. 

In the language of flowers, the hop represents passion and pride.