October_2016_Web

“Open Church” at Chelsea Flower Show
Wins Gold
The exhibit was a simple church structure decorated with
over 30,000 stems of flowers in a delicate colour scheme –
varieties of roses, garden flowers e.g. dahlias, astrantia,
hydrangeas, allium, veronica, nerine, orchids, gypsophila,
chrysanthemum blooms, carnations. Greenery used
sparingly included senecio, eucalyptus, tillandsia, and
echeveria.
Kate The Florist said “For me, the fact that people could
walk through the Open Church was really important. It
meant that they were able to get close up to our work – the
open door encouraged people to come in and be involved”.
One of the features which drew the interest of visitors was
the curtains of wire holding test tubes filled with flowers
and foliage. Each individual length of wire was crocheted
using contrasting coloured reel wire.
“Gold” could have been “Best in Show” but for the choice
of not putting in a stone floor at a cost of £10,000.
I was privileged to see Interflora’s own account in the firm’s
magazine Mercury and what struck me from all the
photographs was the subtle use of apricot roses amongst the
pinks and mauves.
Ruth
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