Flowers from the Farm for the first time this year took a stand at the Manchester Flower Show, a long-standing celebration of all things floral that has recently taken on new popularity, and last week was held to coincide with the Jubilee Bank Holiday Weekend. Andrea Julyan tells about this.
For this year’s Manchester show, FFTF joined forces with the Co-op to showcase British-grown cut flowers in a time-lapse-inspired installation, "Seedling to Bouquet". The display followed the path of a tiny seedling as it grows, blooms, and finds its place in a colorful, scented, spectacular arrangement of British cut flowers. All the stages in the life of a flower were represented: from seedlings to crops in the field, from the abundance of the florists’ workplace to bouquets and arrangements, and finally of course to the compost heap – with real worms. A fair few snails were also inadvertently brought into central Manchester on various planters and watering cans.
Flowers were provided by artisan growers across the North West as well as some of the long-standing suppliers of the Co-op in Lincolnshire and Norfolk. A team of FFTF North West members put the stand together in a typical mix of Manchester weather.
"Flowers from the Farm florists and growers were on hand each day to talk to the public and were blown away by the enthusiastic and engaged response. As the display was out on the street, visitors were able to get right up close. So many people were interested too in the significantly lower carbon footprint of buying British grown flowers and of course, the whole display was built using sustainable mechanics with no floral foam," Andrea explains.
"With huge thanks to all the FFTF members who contributed to designing, planning, building, and manning the stand, and a special shout out to the North West growers who supplied so many beautiful flowers," she declares. "Thanks also to the Co-op and MM Flowers for organizing the supply of equally stunning blooms from the Co-op’s big family growers."
For more information:
Flowers from the Farm
www.flowersfromthefarm.co.uk