First display of funeral floristry at RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2025

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First display of funeral floristry at RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2025

A historic first for the RHS Chelsea Flower Show, the Farewell Flowers Directory will be staging an exhibit of funeral floristry in the heart of the Great Pavilion.

The Farewell Flowers Directory was launch in March 2024. The founders and members are passionate about offering sustainable and compostable tributes.

Members demonstrating just how beautiful naturally designed funeral flowers can be without the use of floral foam or single use plastic, The Farewell Flowers Directory aims to change perceptions of funeral floristry and eliminate the plastic from funeral flowers for good.

The Farewell Flowers Directory is the brainchild of the floral duo, Gill Hodgson and Carole Patilla. Hodgson runs Fieldhouse Flowers in Yorkshire, and is the founder of Flowers from the Farm.

For the first time in its history, funeral flowers will be on display at the 2025 RHS Chelsea Flower Show. The show will feature an exhibit of funeral floristry to demonstrate that you don’t need to sacrifice beauty for sustainability.

Floral funeral scene

Located in the Great Pavilion, the floral installation by the Farewell Flowers Directory will take the form of an artistic interpretation of a funeral scene. The centrepiece will be a soaring arrangement of vibrant, wild, 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.

Funeral flowers don’t have to be shapes, letters or pictorial tributes – they can be anything you want them to be – from well-loved gardening boots filled with flowers, to wild arrangements inspired by country walks and anything in between.

Solent Stems are members of Flowers from the Farm and The Farewell Flowers Directory.