RHS Gold & Royal Visit for The Farewell Flowers Directory
It’s RHS Gold and a Royal visit for the sustainable flower flowers exhibit by The Farewell Flowers Directory at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show.
The Farewell Flowers Directory has won an RHS Gold medal at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show, making history as the first ever display of sustainable funeral flowers in the show’s 112-year history.
Queen Camilla visited the landmark exhibit on Press Day and spoke with Gill Hodgson, Co-Founder of the not-for-profit, which promotes personalised funeral tributes and aims to remove plastic floral foam and single-use plastic from funeral floristry.
The spectacular display features towering stems of British-grown flowers that burst out of a willow coffin and cascade into a grassy graveyard scene beneath, as a wirework man and his dog by artist Susan Nichols watch on. Tucked amongst the gravestones a walking boots filled with garden-style flowers, a wreath of living plants, a violin of flowers and a basket of posies designed to be divided and shared with family and friends.
Carole Patilla, Co-founder of The Farewell Flowers Directory said: “We’re so delighted that we did the thing people told us we couldn’t do: we took funeral flowers and a coffin to RHS Chelsea and won Gold! Our display shows that flowers, thoughtfully and sustainably designed, can move people; they can reflect and celebrate a life; and they can tread lightly on the planet. We hope that our Gold medal exhibit will raise awareness of sustainable funeral flowers and help bring about change in the industry.”
The Farewell Flowers Directory hopes to open conversations and encourage people to think about what their wishes for their own funeral might be. Alan Titchmarsh was amongst the Press Day visitors to write his thoughts on colourful tags that read “I’d like my funeral to be…” and tie them on to the show’s perimeter to be joined by messages from show visitors across the week.
The ground-breaking installation is sponsored by the Institute of Cemetery and Crematorium Management (ICCM), Green Funeral Flowers Online Course by Tuckshop Flowers, New Covent Garden Flower Market and Workplace Bereavement.
The winning design team includes Gill Hodgson MBE of Fieldhouse Flowers in Yorkshire, Carole Patilla of Tuckshop Flowers in Birmingham, Georgie Newbery of Common Farm Flowers in Somerset and Nicola Hill of Gentle Blooms in Warwickshire. The will be joined during Chelsea week at the display by funeral florists listed on the Directory. The flowers and foliage on display have come from artisan cut flower growers across the country. Those closest to the show have been grown by Godalming Flowers, Surrey.