At this year’s RHS Hampton Court Palace Garden Festival, the RHS has collaborated again with Flowers from the Farm (FFTF) to stage the RHS Flower School. The FFTF members have beautifully decorated the marquee, both inside and out! They’ve not only used locally-grown, seasonal, sustainable cut flowers and dried flowers, but they’ve also created a mini flower farm using plants in front of the marquee.
Programme of Events
Throughout the week, the RHS Flower School is hosting a free programme of floral demonstrations. The morning line-up at 11am each day features members of Flowers from the Farm who grow and create their floral designs using flowers from their own plots, including Toria Britten of Wildly Beautiful Flowers and Leigh Chappell of Leigh Chappell Flowers. The afternoon slots at 2pm will feature some of London’s finest floral designers including Simon Lycett and Shane Connolly.
In addition to the floristry demos, there will be two new daily features. At 1pm, growers will be giving Introduction to Sowing and Growing talks. And at 4pm, Flower Farmers’ Question Time will take place, when a panel of growers will take to the stage to answer questions from flower lovers and budding flower farmers.
Visitors wanting to get hands-on with British flowers will be invited to make their own buttonholes and flower corsages in the 12 noon and 3pm floral workshop sessions. Scroll down for lots more photos…
Inside
Outside
So many of the FFTF members I know are midlife women who’ve changed careers. If you would like to know more about flower farming, make sure you visit the show and the RHS Flower School this week! The show is taking place until Sunday, 9th July. For more information, simply head over to The RHS and Flowers from the Farm websites.
(Images | Rona Wheeldon)
