In celebration of British Flowers Week, growers from Flowers from the Farm are bringing beautiful, scented, British cut flowers back to the heart of Covent Garden in an exclusive collaboration with event florist, Simon Lycett, and the Royal Opera House.
The glass-domed Paul Hamlyn Hall of the Royal Opera House was once known as the Floral Hall, as it housed a bustling flower, fruit and vegetable market as part of Covent Garden Market between 1887 and 1956.
Seventeen flower farmers are working with celebrity event florist, Simon Lycett, to transform the Piazza entrance to the Royal Opera House into a spectacular, fragrant meadow of summer flowers. Thousands of stems of romantic British blooms grown within sixty miles of the capital are to feature in the floral installation including cornflowers, lupins, foxgloves, nigella, alchemilla mollis, sweet williams, poppies, sweet peas, larkspur, honesty and snapdragons.
Visitors to the Royal Opera House retail store during British Flowers Week will be able to buy freshly made British flower bouquets from the flower farmers at the exclusive Flowers from the Farm pop-up flower shop.
Upstairs at the newly opened Piazza Terrace Bar on the 5th floor, stylish diners will be able to purchase British flower buttonholes and corsages to show their support for British Flowers Week and the British cut flower movement.
Taking part in the British Flowers Week collaboration with the Royal Opera House are 17 growers from across the South of England:
- Anna’s Country Flowers, Kent
- Blacker and Moore, Kent
- Blooming Green, Kent
- Blue Hen Flowers, Kent
- Country Blooms, Kent
- Crosslands Flower Nursery, Sussex
- Flower Sisters, Kent
- Garden of England Flowers, Kent
- Hannah’s Garden, Kent
- Little Park Flowers, Berkshire
- Orchard Farm Flowers, Sussex
- Pig Pen Flowers, Surrey
- Pitfield Barn Flower Farm, Sussex
- Rosebryar, Middlesex
- RubyBlooms, Kent
- The Nightingale Garden, Kent
- West End Flower Farm, Hampshire
There is a long association between the Royal Opera House and the flower markets of Covent Garden, as seen in the many architectural details of the 1858 building. Flowers also feature prominently in many operas and ballets, such as the Rose adage in the ballet The Sleeping Beauty or the evocative cherry blossom in the opera Madama Butterfly.
Throughout the week visitors will be able to enjoy a free exhibition capturing flowers used in opera and ballet productions, botanically inspired food and drink offers and flower themed events suitable for young and old. See www.roh.org.uk for listings.
For more information:
Flowers from the Farm
www.flowersfromthefarm.co.uk