This year we had the privilege of being asked to decorate the famous 'RHS' letters at Tatton Flower Show.
Honestly, a bit of a pinch me moment as the new florist in town. It was the amazing Sarah from @northandflower who offered me this amazing opportunity.
Tight Turnaround
It was a tight turn around, so we needed to work quickly to create something special. I wanted to do something that celebrated the wonderful local landscape. Since joining the floristry world, I'd found it to be a little London-centric, so I wanted to diversify and really celebrate a new landscape that doesn't get as much attention as it should.
I wanted to do something that celebrated the wonderful local landscape
The Concept
Our piece was called 'Peak into the Peaks' inspired by the Peak District where I grew up. Our installation would represent the harmony of tended seasonal cottage gardens, allotments and the wild unruly landscape that surrounds us. Many people travel to the peaks for its stunning natural beauty, walks, or seeking rest bite in its idyllic and characterful villages such as Bakewell, Hathersage or Buxton. This installation aimed to encapsulate this experience and ignite the nostalgia for all those visiting Tatton this year. Below is a mood board that i created to share my initial vision !
There is a big focus on sustainability at RHS and it's tricky to keep cut stems going for 5 days of the show. I decided to focus on the cut flowers we love, before they were cut ! This meant we bought lots of beautiful plants and planted them around the letters.
The Process
I thought it might be helpful for future florists and enthusiasts to give some insight into how we created the floral installation for the RHS Letters at Tatton.
We're florists, not horticulturists, so the plan to use plants and not flowers was not as easy as planned. Deborah and I ran around local garden centres looking for the best flora we could find, and her great eye for colour was detriment to sorting through the masses and identifying the very best pieces for the installation.
When it came to the install we started with the hard landscaping. Here, the groundsmen onsite are digging the letters into the ground as well as kindly removing the top soil so we could plant all our lovely plants. In the next image, you can see our drystone (which was the star of the show) being collected from farmer Jones in Sutton. Luckily, Dave my step dad is a general builder so was able to get it up in no time! Go on Dave!
We needed all hands on deck for the next stage, and luckily we were not short of help. We were joined by the amazing Rebecca from Meadow at Moss Lane (left) who grows stunning flowers in Knutsford that were used in the installation. She brought this very nifty tool, and was very quick at planting. Deborah (centre) spent hours digging and was crucial to design and execution. Finally, Donna (right) who is a massive RHS fan came on the final day to support, bringing the best snacks which were hugely appreciated at this point!
We created the most amazing path using Shell on Earth which just looked amazing, loads of people commented on it as it sparkled in the sun. Shell on Earth is made from crushed welk shells and is a bi product, so very good for the environment! This was donated to Bridgewater RHS garden after the event.
The variations of flora we planted were; Scabiosa, Annabel hydrangeas, grasses, Sedum, Huec, Delphiniums, Dahlias, Lavender and much more.
So that was it! The experience was amazing and I would like to thank The RHS Tatton Flower Show for having us at this very special event, we had a blast!
Penny