"UK: "British Flowers Week is the new Mother's Day"

British Flowers Week (15-19 June), the campaign to promote British cut flowers, has now finished for another year – and it was the best one yet. The social media feeds for #BritishFlowersWeek were buzzing as the country’s growers and florists celebrated with flower workshops, demonstrations, pop-up stalls, limited edition bouquets and exquisite floral designs.

Last year’s Twitter reach of 1.5 million was left far behind as #BritishFlowersWeek increased its reach by 260% to 5.4 million. There were 2200 posts on Instagram and countless posts on Facebook including by Waitrose, GQ Magazine, The Ritz and even No 10 Downing Street.

“We would like to thank everyone – growers, florists, wholesalers and media – for making this year’s British Flowers Week the best one yet,” says Alastair Owen, Communications Manager at New Covent Garden Flower Market, the founders and coordinators of British Flowers Week. “Our hope is that this week of focused campaigning will encourage consumers to think about where their flowers come from and what’s in season – much as they do with their fresh fruit and vegetables.”

“The New Mother’s Day”
James Cock, owner of Cornish grower and wholesaler Flowers by Clowance, declared "British Flowers Week is the new Mother's Day" after recording a big spike in sales. The Paper Studio ran out of British Flowers Week gift tags and had to quickly re-print, distributing a total of 20 000 tags to hundreds of growers and florists across the country.

Media Interest
Support for British Flowers Week in the media has broadened this year to reach over
3 million people with mentions and features in regional, trade, national and even international media, including The Daily Telegraph, Gardens Illustrated, The Independent, RHS The Garden magazine, English Garden, Waitrose Weekend, The Daily Express, Country Living, Homes and Gardens, Yorkshire Life, Architectural Digest (US) and regional radio.

The Flower Market Photoshoot for British Flowers Week
Over the course of the week, the fifteen grand designs specially commissioned from five Flower Market florists – Zita Elze, That Flower Shop, Bloomsbury Flowers, Jay Archer, Jane Packer Flowers - for British Flowers Week were revealed on www.britishflowersweek.com, and spread like wildfire through social media.

British Flowers Week – The Events & Bouquets
Throughout the week, the nation’s growers, wholesalers and florists have been enthusiastically spreading the word about British flowers.

Flower farmers such as Green & Gorgeous and Plantpassion have thrown open their gates for tours, talks and demonstrations. Rural Floral took British flowers into schools and RHS Harlow Carr hosted British flower displays and hands-on workshop with growers from Flowers from the Farm in Yorkshire.

There were pop-up flower stalls in town centres such as Birmingham, Glasgow, Exeter and London, and super-creative florists have designed exclusive British Flowers Week bouquets, dressed window-displays, held workshops and staged British flowers photoshoots.

Hundreds of residents at care homes across London have received British flower posies thanks to the voluntary organisation, Floral Angels supported by students of Capel Manor College and donations of foliage from Porters Foliage and over 6000 stems of cut flowers from the growers at Flora Britain.

The Galleries
British Flowers Week headquarters were inundated with entries for the British Flowers Week Photo Competition, which now appear in four galleries of images and link to the campaign’s Instagram feed and its 2200 posts.

The winning photo was of four flower farmers - Susanne Loweth of Beamsley Blooms, Susan Dobson of The Yorkshire Dales Flower Company, Rachel Slater of Owl House Flowers and Jane Tucker of The Flower Fields – who came together to celebrate British Flowers Week with a Union Jack of peonies, lilac and cornflowers.

For more information
New Covent Garden Flower Market
www.newcoventgardenmarket.com