An impulsive suggestion has led to Fairford Flower Collective exhibiting at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show. I met them to find out more.
The idea that cut flowers should be seasonal and locally grown has been picking up pace in recent years and it’s a message that a group of Cotswold flower growers are taking to the Chelsea Flower Show.
Fairford Flower Collective are exhibiting in a new Floral Window contest, part of the Floristry and Floral Design section in the Great Pavilion. They’ve picked the British Blooms theme from a list that includes sustainability and pollinators.
“We want to show gardeners that there is still stuff in the garden in September,” explains Fi Passey, who runs wedding florists Corky and Prince from Kempsford.
The collective, which also includes Ruth Robinson, of The Cotswold Garden in Lechlade, Tessa Wardman, of Iris and Wilf in Fairford, and Beth Bruce-Gardner, of Honeymoon Fern, Fairford, came about by chance. Tessa, Beth and Fi were all looking for other growers in the area and contacted Ruth, a member of Flowers From the Farm, an umbrella group for British flower growers.
“We met at Beth’s house and just sat in the greenhouse and talked about flowers for about three hours,” says Fi.
It’s something that characterises most of their meetings, as I discovered when I met them in Ruth’s garden to discuss their Chelsea adventure.
The group are no strangers to exhibiting having won silver-gilt for their display, entitled ‘An Autumn Cotswold Garden’, at the 2019 Malvern Autumn Show.
Their Chelsea exhibit is part of a new format for the RHS show with each entry displayed in a three-sided ‘cube’ that is viewed from a walkway. The idea is that visitors will be able to see exhibits only from the front, giving a sense of discovery.
It was originally planned for the 2020 show, which was cancelled, and their entry has had to be redesigned after this year’s show was moved from May to September.
They’ve taken a William Morris quote – “We are only the trustees for those who come after us” – as their title and starting point, feeling that it reflects their ethos of sustainability.
They aim to show that there is an alternative to buying imported and often out of season flowers.
“We’re really about keeping it local and sustainability,” says Tessa.
The new September date is giving them the chance to showcase the flowers of autumn. The exact make-up will depend upon what’s looking good at the time but dahlias, grasses and salvias are likely to be included.
The colour palette will be orange, lime and purple with a few pastels to provide contrast, what they describe as ‘glorious autumn’.
All the flowers will be grown by the collective in their gardens and the allotment plots Tessa uses for her business.
Wanting to leave something for Chelsea visitors to discover, they are cautious about revealing too much about how the entry will look but did say that while the sides and bottom would be all their flowers, there would be something ‘not natural’ from the ceiling, designed to be a contrast.
“We’re going to try to think of some way, without detracting from the beauty and the art, to get the message over about making a different choice,” says Fi.
The RHS Chelsea Flower Shows runs from September 21 to 26. More information is available on the website.
We all need to think more sustainably. We used no imported flowers at our daughter’s wedding in June 2017. The flowers were utterly charming and universally admired. Thanks to my friends in Prestbury who let us pick flowers rfom their gardens.
I think they look so much more natural if they’re seasonal too.