Flower Festival at Salisbury Cathedral
- Su Whale
- May 12
- 2 min read
One of the hotly anticipated flower festivals of 2025 is being held at the magnificent Salisbury Cathedral in Wiltshire this week, the first major flower festival in the building since 2022.
Entitled ‘The Spirit of Water’ it’s been designed as a companion piece to the Cathedral’s summer art exhibition, ‘Living Water,’ a contemporary and contemplative exploration of the power of water.
The Festival organisers are promising an inspirational array of arrangements looking at water in all its different forms. Visitors will be able to journey along a ‘river of flowers,’ see how a world would look without water and admire a seabed including hundreds of sea creatures made by local community groups.
Pulling all this together is a design team led by the Cathedral’s Creative Director of Flowers, Michael Bowyer MBE. A Salisbury resident himself, he is also an RHS and NAFAS judge and former President of the Society. Working alongside him is Debbie Wadge, also a NAFAS judge and a team of talented flower arrangers from the South-West area which also includes floristry tutors and students from nearby floristry colleges.
As Salisbury Cathedral is committed to working sustainably, expect an absence of floral foam and single use plastics, instead all the designs are to be created using fully sustainable practices, a problematic yet exciting challenge in building of this size.
Examples from Winchester Cathedral, illustrating how both large and small spaces can be transformed with flowers
Festival Opening Times: 13th - 18th May
10am every day, with closing times varying, the latest being 16.15
There is one evening opening , Thursday 15th May 18.30-20-30
Ticket Prices: Adults £17, Young person (5-18) £7, under 5’s free
Tickets must be prebooked online, timed entry only.
For more information on the Festival and to book tickets, visit www.salisburycathedral.org.uk/flower-festival
Images Envato Elements, Su Whale, Salisbury Cathedral
Su Whale is a florist and freelance writer with over twenty-five years' experience in the floristry industry. She is the author and publisher of three best-selling books: Cut Flowers, 4th edition (2020) Cut Foliage, 2nd Edition, (2021) and Houseplants (2019), all bookshelf essentials for the professional florist.
