A First for Funeral Flowers at Chelsea

The Farewell Flowers Directory (TFFD) is primed to stage the first ever display of funeral floristry at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2025 and it will do it with the support of New Covent Garden Flower Market.

In an historic first for the RHS Chelsea Flower Show, TFFD, a not-for-profit that aims to connect people to independent florists offering personal and compostable arrangements and eventually remove plastic from funeral floristry, has been invited to stage an exhibit of funeral floristry at the heart of Chelsea’s Great Pavilion.

The creative display will demonstrate that you do not need to sacrifice beauty for sustainability. To spread the core messages, it will feature exclusively British-grown cut flowers and foliage and be entirely free of plastic floral foam and single-use plastic.

TFFD is the brainchild of Gill Hodgson MBE of Fieldhouse Flowers in Yorkshire and founder of Flowers from the Farm, and florist and funeral floristry tutor, Carole Patilla

of Tuckshop Flowers in Birmingham. It is an online listing that describes itself as a “positive, practical response to the huge issue of plastic waste in funeral floristry…on a mission to change the world of funeral flowers one compostable arrangement at a time”. As well as its environment-friendly approach, the florists and growers behind the movement also want to personalise the funeral experience.

Gill says: “An unsustainable circle has evolved in funeral flowers over recent decades. In founding The Farewell Flowers Directory, we aim to break the chain. We want to make people aware of the many talented florists creating fully compostable, plastic-free floral designs and inspire more florists to make the switch. We want to demonstrate just how beautiful, personal and sustainable funeral flowers can be.

“Funeral flowers don’t have to look funereal, they can be anything you want them to be. We hope that our Chelsea exhibit will help start conversations and let people know that they have a choice. You can choose to celebrate and reflect a life with fresh, seasonal materials that are natural, beautiful and resonant with meaning. And you can choose for your tributes to tread lightly on the planet.”

The Chelsea installation by TFFD will take the form of an artistic interpretation of a funeral scene. Its centrepiece will be a soaring arrangement of vibrant, wildly 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.

There are powerful mental wellbeing benefits associated with flowers and gardens and the process of working with flowers can be soothing at a stressful and difficult time.

Florists from TFFD take the time to talk with the family and draw out the details that will inform their designs. Many are happy to incorporate flowers from the family’s garden or welcome families to choose flowers from their plot or even join them in the studio to help create the flower arrangement.

“As funeral florists, we know that personalised and thoughtful funeral flowers make a difference because people write, call or even pop by to thank us," says Carole. "People often say how the beauty of the flowers helps to get people talking, provides a point of beauty to focus on and makes the experience of funerals that little bit easier.”

Founded in 2024, TFFD already has around 200 member florists across the UK. Its Chelsea exhibit has also been generously sponsored by the Institute of Cemetery and Crematorium Management (ICCM), Green Funeral Flowers by Tuckshop Flowers and Workplace Bereavement.

Covent Garden Market Authority

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