The Farewell Flowers Directory at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2025
In an historic first for the RHS Chelsea Flower Show, The Farewell Flowers Directory - a not-for-profit that aims to remove plastic from funeral floristry by connecting people to independent florists offering personal and compostable arrangements - has been invited to stage an exhibit of funeral floristry at the heart of Chelsea’s Great Pavilion.
The creative display will demonstrate that you do not need to sacrifice beauty for sustainability. It will feature exclusively British-grown cut flowers and foliage and be entirely free of plastic floral foam and single-use plastic.
Gill Hodgson MBE, Co-founder of The Farewell Flowers Directory said: “Funeral flowers don’t have to look funereal, they can be anything you want them to be. We hope that our Chelsea exhibit will help start conversations and 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.”
The Chelsea installation by The Farewell Flowers Directorywill take the form of an artistic interpretation of a funeral scene. Its centrepiece will be a soaring arrangement of vibrant, wildly natural seasonal garden flowers and foliage that appears to burst out of an open willow coffin held aloft on white birch pallbearers. 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 from walking boots filled with fresh flowers to casket sprays, wreaths and arrangements designed to be divided and shared with family and friends.
All the arrangements on display will be made using sustainable floristry techniques, free of plastic floral foam and single-use plastic and fully compostable.
There are powerful mental wellbeing benefits associated with flowers and gardens and the process of working with flowers can be soothing at a stressful and difficult time. Florists from The Farewell Flowers Directory take the time to talk with the family and draw out the details that will inform their designs. Many are happy to incorporate flowers from the family’s garden or welcome families to choose flowers from their plot or even join them in the studio to help create the flower arrangement.
Staging the Chelsea exhibit will be four members of The Farewell Flowers Directory, each independent florists and leading British flower farmers: Gill Hodgson MBE of Fieldhouse Flowers in Yorkshire, Carole Patilla of Tuckshop Flowers in Birmingham (both pictured above right), Georgie Newbery of Common Farm Flowers in Somerset and Nicola Hill of Gentle Blooms in Warwickshire.
“As funeral florists, we know that personalised and thoughtful funeral flowers make a difference because people write, call and even pop by to thank us," says Carole Patilla, Co-founder of The Farewell Flowers Directory. "People often say how the beauty of the flowers helps to get people talking, provides a point of beauty to focus on, and makes the experience of funerals that little bit easier."
Here are some examples of what people say about their flowers: “It was lovely to feel joyful every time I looked at them… my young son helping you pick them was so special.” “A beautiful bunch which could have been put together by my mother from one of our country walks. They felt very personal and were a surprisingly important part of the day.” “The arrangement was so reminiscent of the many canalside walks we used to have and was beautiful.” “It helped so much and made something that normally looks so rigid and formal into a truly beautiful, touching and perfect setting for my mother.”
The Farewell Flowers Directory exhibit is generously sponsored by the Institute of Cemetery and Crematorium Management (ICCM), Green Funeral Flowers by Tuckshop Flowers and Workplace Bereavement.
About The Farewell Flowers Directory
The Farewell Flowers Directory is a not-for-profit that aims to remove plastic floral foam from funeral floristry. Its online listing service connects people to independent florists who can offer beautiful, personal and fully compostable funeral flowers. It was founded in 2024 by florists and flower farmers Gill Hodgson MBE and Carole Patilla and has over 190 member florists across the UK.
Plastic floral foam has become a significant environmental issue. It was first invented in the 1950s and quickly adopted by the floristry industry as a quick way to secure flowers in flower arrangements. The problem is that 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.