A Chelsea Gold comes to Somerset in a first for the world famous flower show

A Somerset florist and flower farmer has returned from the RHS Chelsea Flower show as a gold medal winner. Georgie Newbery of Common Farm Flowers is part of the Farewell Flowers Collective who created a funeral scene in the Great Pavilion at the show, which was awarded the coveted Gold Medal. This is the first time funeral flowers have been arranged and displayed at RHS Chelsea in its 113 year history.

Over the last few months, Georgie has worked with three other florists to plan and create their interpretation of a funeral scene. Featuring a willow coffin decorated with natural, seasonal and all British flowers and foliage as its centrepiece, the scene also includes a wirework sculpture of a man and his dog visiting a graveyard, surrounded by personal funeral tributes, as examples of sustainable funeral floristry now available to people wanting to pay a floral tribute to a loved one. All the arrangements on display were made using sustainable floristry techniques, free of plastic floral foam and single-use plastic and fully compostable.

Georgie Newbery has been at the forefront of the British flowers movement for more than 15 years. She grows and cuts up to 100,000 stems a year, which are used in her own arrangements, as well as by other local florists, and also sold by the ‘bucket’ to people wanting to do their own floristry. Georgie does this alongside her work supporting others in the industry on the practices of flower farming, as well as teaching a wide variety of workshops and demos sharing her skills with those interested in learning more about sowing and growing local flowers and how to use them in a variety of different arrangements.

Georgie said, “The ethos of Common Farm Flowers is that if we look after the invertebrates then the rest of the food chain will look after itself, so offering sustainable floristry and cut flowers is something we have always done. Much of our flower farm is left wild and the areas we do cultivate are done so without the use of chemicals. We then apply this concept to our floristry, ensuring all our arrangements are fully compostable. It therefore made perfect sense to me to say yes to the opportunity to highlight how funeral flowers can also be arranged in a way that is kind to the environment.”

“Talking with visitors to the installation, from Joanna Lumley and Kirsty Alsopp to Alan Titchmarsh, made me realise how we had struck a chord with people who want an eco alternative when celebrating the lives of their loved ones. There were tears dashed and cathartic moments as well as stories told of lives well lived and loved ones lost. A florist always knows they’ve done a great job when the customer wells up with emotion when they see their flowers and making funeral flowers at Chelsea was just such another occasion for tears and laughter - death is part of life so it seems a shame to wrap it in plastic based funeral flowers.”

The Farewell Flowers Directory

The Farewell Flowers Directory is a not-for-profit that aims to remove plastic from funeral floristry by connecting people to independent florists offering compostable arrangements. Find out more at https://www.farewellflowers.co.uk/

The RHS Chelsea Farewell Flowers Collective team

The team who worked on the Farewell Flowers display at RHS Chelsea are all independent florists and leading British flower farmers: Georgie Newbery of Common Farm Flowers in Somerset, Gill Hodgson MBE of Fieldhouse Flowers in Yorkshire, Carole Patilla of Tuckshop Flowers in Birmingham and Nicola Hill of Gentle Blooms in Warwickshire.

Exhibition sponsors

The Farewell Flowers Directory exhibit was sponsored by the Institute of Cemetery and Crematorium Management (ICCM), Green Funeral Flowers by Tuckshop Flowers and Workplace Bereavement.