RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2016 - Floristry

Floristry at Chelsea 2016

Chelsea Flower Show is all about the plants and flowers. Much is made of The Show Gardens and the Great Pavilion with the floristry often over-looked.

I regularly attend flower-arranging classes at Floral Design, in Swindon, and appreciate the way flowers can be manipulated to create more than your average floral display.

Florist & Young Florist of the Year Competition.

The theme for this year’s Floristry College, Young Florist of the Year and Florist of the Year, held by the British Florist Association, was Rio. The brief for the florists was to create a headdress for a Brazilian carnival.

The Young Florist of the Year finalists were displayed between Monday 23 and Wednesday 25th so I was unfortunate not to see them.

However, the Florist of the Year finalists were on display and they did not disappoint.

The overall winner was Di Marvell from Petals Florist in Margate with this gorgeous creation.

Congratulations to all the participants, the pieces were absolutely stunning . . . and so creative!

Here’s hoping Sandie doesn’t get too many ideas for next term!!

Floristry College of the Year Competition.

The Rio theme continued for the college competition but this time it was floats.

The theme for this year’s Interflora display was “Open Church” and it wasn’t hard to figure out why.

The white beams formed the timber frame of a church and the flowers were packed across the rafters. The glass window frames was solid mass of roses, orchids, peonies, alliums, astrantias, succulents and more, with more of the same oozing from the white urns. The look was completed with the hanging buttonholes.

New Convent Garden Flower Market was the talk of press with their 3m high, eye-catching display of the Queen’s head which used a staggering 10,000 flowers and 300m of ribbon.

And finally . . .

The display by the National Association of Flower Arrangement Societies was one of my favourites of the day. Entitled Victorian Revival – The Past Returns, the exhibit tells the story of the development of the Victorian plant hunters, the passion in Victorian society for indoor gardens, the introduction of exotic plants in the home, and the Victorian conservatory. The conservatory allowed women the opportunity to become skilled in flower arranging and horticulture.

I loved every element of it, the flower arrangements, the furniture used, the use of feathers and easel to add to the finishing touches AND not a flower or vegetable out of place = a perfect GOLD. (Just a shame that I couldn’t manage an image of the whole thing due to the crowds).