Sustainable funeral flowers open minds at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show

Designed and created by The Farewell Flowers Directory, an exhibit of sustainable funeral flowers is being staged for the very first time in the 112 year history of the RHS Chelsea Flower Show.

Featuring exclusively British-grown flowers, foliage and a willow coffin and entirely free of plastic and harmful plastic floral foam, the spectacular installation by The Farewell Flowers Directory will demonstrate that you do not need to sacrifice beauty for sustainability. The not-for-profit wants to bring funeral floristry out of the shadows and open conversations about what funeral flowers and funerals can be.

The centrepiece of the installation will be an arrangement of vibrant, wildly natural seasonal garden flowers that will burst out of the open willow coffin and cascade across the tranquil graveyard scene. Watching on will be the wirework forms of a man and his dog by artist, Susan Nichols. Nestled nearby in the grass by the gravestones will be personal funeral flower tributes including walking boots filled with garden-style flowers, a wreath of living plants, a violin holding flowers and a casket spray arrangement designed to be divided and shared with family and friends.

The Farewell Flowers Directory team is encouraging people to think about what their wishes for their own funeral might be. Visitors will be invited to complete the sentence “I’d like my funeral to be…” by writing their thoughts onto colourful tags that will decorate the perimeter of the exhibit.

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.

Mathew Crawley, Chief Executive of the ICCM said: “The Farewell Flowers Directory champions a simple but transformative idea: funeral flowers can be personal, beautiful, and environmentally responsible. This exhibit will be more than just a showcase of flowers – it’s a statement that grief, remembrance and sustainability can exist together in harmony.”

Gill Hodgson MBE, Co-founder of The Farewell Flowers Directory said: “Funeral flowers don’t have to look funereal, they can be whatever you want them to be. We want to let people know that they have a choice. You can choose to celebrate and reflect a life with fresh, seasonal materials that are natural, beautiful and resonant with meaning. And you can choose for your tributes to tread lightly on the planet.”

Carole Patilla, Co-founder added: “Funeral flowers can be gentle, bold, reserved or naturally, beautifully wild. They might feature a pair of flower-filled walking boots, a wreath of vegetables to celebrate a keen grower, f lowers from your garden or a collection of posies that can be shared after the service. We want to create arrangements that capture a life, a time and a place as sustainable as possible. People often tell us how the beauty of the flowers helps to get people talking at a funeral. They provide a point of beauty to focus on and makes the experience of funerals that little bit easier.”

Staging the RHS Chelsea exhibit will be four members of The Farewell Flowers Directory: 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. During Chelsea week, they will be joined at the show by funeral florists listed on the Directory from around the UK. 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.

The Farewell Flowers Directory is a not-for-profit that aims to remove plastic floral foam and single-use plastic from funeral floristry. Its online listing service connects people to independent florists who can offer beautiful, personal and plastic-free funeral flowers. It was founded in May 2024 by florists and flower farmers Gill Hodgson MBE and Carole Patilla (pictured below) and has over 190 member florists across the UK.

Plastic floral foam has become a significant environmental issue. First invented in the 1950s it was quickly adopted by the floristry industry as a quick way to secure flowers in flower arrangements.  Plastic floral foam is a single-use plastic and cannot be recycled. It will never biodegrade but breaks down into microplastics which contaminate the soil and watercourses