All For Love London were delighted to reveal their installation for this year’s British Flowers Week at the Garden Museum.
British Flowers Week ran from 11-16 June and was a week long floral exhibition that celebrates Britain’s best blooms and supports the country’s flower industry.
In partnership with founders New Covent Garden Market, which is the UK’s premier flower supplier, the exhibition saw florists, flower growers, wholesalers and flower fans unite.
The Garden Museum played host to five of Britain’s top florists showcasing their innovative creations based around this year’s theme ‘Memories’. As one of the chosen florists, All For Love London’s CEO and Artistic Director Ruth Davis used this year’s theme to recall special family moments from her childhood.
“For me, there are so many flower related memories in my memory box, as they have always played a significant part in my life - with or without me knowing! Many of my happiest memories as a child would be spent with family at my Grandparents’ house in Lancaster. My Grandad would grow sweet peas outside his greenhouse, up against the wall adjoining his neighbour’s garden. They would climb up rickety bamboo canes he had had for 50 years or more and towered over me. We would water them together and then he would pick some of the delicate flowers for me. I always remember feeling so special that he was willing to part with his prized, precious beautiful flowers that had taken him so long to grow.”
“After he had picked armfuls of sweet peas, Nanna would divide them into three bunches, one for their table, one for my mother with stems wrapped in damp kitchen roll and tinfoil and one bunch for my windowsill, likewise wrapped, to survive the journey home. He did this for me from the age of 5 to the age of 25 and I would leave their house each time in the summer, proud as punch with my precious little bundle of homegrown sweet peas. When at University and away from home Nanna would send me little hand written flowery notelets, and if anyone was visiting me, a little bunch of sweet peas, (if in season), delicately wrapped in damp kitchen roll. Their scent to this day catches me off guard and catapults me right back to being there with all my family.”
“My grandparents passed away the year I started All for Love London, five years ago. My Nanna was my biggest supporter, even when I was starting out and had no work at all, she would tell me she ‘had faith’ and that one day I would be making and creating large pieces of floral art for everyone to see. She saw a future for me in flowers that I couldn't at times see myself. So, in turn, it seems only right to share this special moment at The Garden Museum with her and with my Grandad and dedicate this installation to them both.”
“I have taken over a compete archway in the Church using the full height and shape of the arch cavity to create my installation. It’s at once an ambitious and yet simple design- the scale is pretty epic at around 7m tall but the content is just one flower- over a thousand English sweet peas! Just like the little girl looking up at Grandad’s trellis, I want people to crane their necks and look up as far as they can to see the sweet peas growing- the sheer size of it to dwarf them as they look up. I have handmade a rickety trellis out of bamboo canes to fill the space, and then grow thousands of British sweet peas up them, as tall as can be.”
The exhibition was the first time contemporary floral design has been given centre stage in a London museum.
Commenting on the exhibition Ruth says: “British Flowers Week is a fantastic opportunity to celebrate all things flowers and to encourage everyone to enjoy their natural beauty. It’s a dream come true to have been selected as one of the five florists to participate in this year’s Garden Museum exhibition for British Flowers Week. It’s such a wonderful week in our industry, casting a light not only on floristry as an art form but the added emphasis on British growers is also brilliant for sharing the ‘home grown’ message amongst florists and suppliers.”
Full information at: https://gardenmuseum.org.uk/events/british-flowers-week-2019/ #BritishFlowersWeek
