…a perfectly choreographed floral team!

Take some stunning blooms, a group of brilliantly bold women on a mission, and drop them into the Chelsea Flower Show… and voilà — a gold medal that proves funeral flowers don’t have to be stuck in oasis, wrapped in plastic, or flown halfway around the world.

Although I was at Chelsea on a commission to photograph a lovely show garden by Nicola Oakey for SongBirdSurvival, I managed to grab half an hour on Sunday to head over and capture some images of the Farewell Flowers display in progress.

The surrounding displays were still very much a work in progress: bright yellow hoses snaked across the floor, red and white hazard tape was everywhere, and hi-vis vests were the official uniform. So getting a clear shot of such a large display was, let’s say…tricky. But with the help of Liz moving things here and there I managed a few!

Knowing how important it was to get hero images over to Liz, who was handling the comms, I hustled back to my Airbnb at 8pm. After a quick bite, I backed up, edited, and delivered key shots for both the SongBirdSurvival garden and the Farewell Flowers display.

Let’s just say the editing setup wasn’t exactly ergonomic: a low coffee table, a beanbag (no chair—note to self: always check if your accommodation has a chair!), and me, hunched over my laptop, racing to get everything done before resting for a four-hour nap.

By 5:45am, I was up and hauling my photography kit back across the very ornate Chelsea Bridge (it’s much cheaper to stay on the Battersea side!). My destination: the gardens for press day.

The brief? Stick to the SongBirdSurvival garden like glue and capture as many celebrities as I could. The only catch was we haven’t had a TV in over 20 years, so I couldn’t recognise most of them! Luckily, the charity team kept pointing them out as they strolled past.

I did recognise Joanna Lumley though—and we even had a quick chat about those wind-up plastic birds you used to get as a child…

The Farewell Flowers display wasn’t just beautiful—it carried a powerful message: to shine a spotlight on the Farewell Flowers Directory and prove that plastic-free, locally grown flowers aren’t just the greener choice for funerals… they’re also stunning.

Head over to https://www.farewellflowers.co.uk/ to learn more about their Gold Medal display and here you can search the directory for a florist near you.

Also, don’t miss Georgie Newbery’s funny blog post about her Chelsea experience on her Substack:
https://georgienewbery.substack.com/

Team:
Gill Hodgson – Fieldhouse Flowers
Carole Patilla from – Tuck Shop Flowers
Georgie Newbery – Common Farm Flowers
Nicola Hill – Gentle Blooms
Flowers supplied by – Godalming Flowers
Communications queen – Liz Anderson