Latest news with #GillHodgson
BBC News
21-05-2025
- Entertainment
- BBC News
Funeral flowers bags Gill Hodgson gold at Chelsea Flower Show
An East Yorkshire florist has helped create the first display of funeral flowers at RHS Chelsea Flower Hodgson MBE won a gold medal for the display she made with non-profit group Farewell Flowers Hodgson said Queen Camilla, who stopped to speak with the team, "really showed an interest and was full of congratulations"."We are the first people ever to take funeral flowers to Chelsea Flower Show so that alone is different", added Ms Hodgson. The display, which is about 10ft (3m) high, includes foxgloves, peonies, buttercups and white lilac flowing out of a willow coffin, with a graveyard underneath and a man sitting on a bench with a dog at his feet. The winning design team includes Ms Hodgson, of Fieldhouse Flowers, Carole Patilla of Tuckshop Flowers in Birmingham, Georgie Newbery of Common Farm Flowers in Somerset and Nicola Hill of Gentle Blooms in Hodgson, who lives near Pocklington, said there was "a lot of hugging" and "a couple of tears" when the women saw the certificate at the display on Tuesday morning."People are drawn to the height and beautiful flowers without realising until they get closer that it's actually a display of funeral flowers," she said."Suddenly, they realise how beautiful they are without thinking it has to be mournful or macabre." The group aims to remove plastic floral foam and single-use plastic from funeral Patilla, also a co-founder of The Farewell Flowers Directory, said: "We're so delighted that we did the thing people told us we couldn't do: we took funeral flowers and a coffin to RHS Chelsea and won gold."Our display shows that flowers, thoughtfully and sustainably designed, can move people; they can reflect and celebrate a life; and they can tread lightly on the planet."The installation was sponsored by the Institute of Cemetery and Crematorium Management (ICCM), Green Funeral Flowers Online Course by Tuckshop Flowers, New Covent Garden Flower Market and Workplace Bereavement. Listen to highlights from Hull and East Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, watch the latest episode of Look North or tell us about a story you think we should be covering here.
Daily Mail
20-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Chelsea Flower Show visitors break down in tears over 'moving' funeral display in a festival first
Chelsea Flower Show is usually a happy occasion characterised by peonies, Pimm's and lots of smiling faces. But a new display this year is leaving some visitors in tears. For the first time in the show's 112-year history there is a funeral floristry exhibit showcasing a willow coffin, gravestones and a wire sculpture of a man and his dog. Nestled nearby in the grass are personal flower tributes including walking boots filled with garden-style flowers, a wreath of living plants, a violin holding flowers and a casket arrangement designed to be divided and shared with family and friends. The centrepiece of the installation, created by The Farewell Flowers Directory team, is an arrangement of 'vibrant, wildly natural seasonal garden flowers'. Gill Hodgson, co-founder of the company, said: 'Funeral flowers haven't altered for 50 years. The designs haven't altered and they're based in floral foam which is plastic. 'We want to let people know that they have a choice. 'Funeral flowers don't have to look funeral, they can be whatever you want them to be. 'You can choose to celebrate and reflect a life with fresh, seasonal materials that are natural, beautiful and resonant with meaning. 'And you can choose for your tributes to tread lightly on the planet. There's not a single piece of plastic here – not a plant pot or a cable tie.' The flowers on the display are sitting in glass jugs full of water to help them keep their shape and structure of the design. The team is encouraging people to think – possibly for the first time – what their wishes for their own funeral might be. Among those to shed a tear at the display include florist and TV presenter Simon Lycett. 'So many people have come down and cried,' Ms Hodgson said. 'Simon Lycett came and burst into tears. 'I don't mean to sound rude if I say we don't mind people crying but I think it's nice that people can be moved. 'It's not that they're sad, but they've been moved.' The display was awarded a gold medal by RHS judges this morning – the highest accolade for garden design and execution. 'We had some great feedback from the judges who said all the right things about how we've done exactly what we aimed to do,' Ms Hodgson said. 'We wanted to bring funeral flowers to Chelsea but it no way be macabre or dark.' The display, which located inside the Great Pavilion, is also completely sustainable and plastic-free. The group aims to banish single-used plastic from funeral arrangements, especially plastic floral foam. This is a type of porous material used in flower arranging to provide support and hydration, and is commonly used in floral signs such as 'Mum', 'Dad' or 'Nan'. 'Around 80 per cent of funerals are now cremations and the proportion is going up every year,' Ms Hodgson said. 'And at a cremation the flowers tend to get seen less. At a burial you'd put them on the grave but t the crematorium, those flowers are seen for about 20 minutes. 'Then, after they've been moved outside for a few days they get put in the skip. And it sits there forever. 'Floral foam was invented in 1954 and every bit that's ever been made is still sitting there.' The ground-breaking installation is sponsored by the Institute of Cemetery and Crematorium Management (ICCM). Mathew Crawley, Chief Executive of the ICCM said: 'The Farewell Flowers Directory champions a simple but transformative idea: funeral flowers can be personal, beautiful, and environmentally responsible. 'This exhibit is more than just a showcase of flowers – it's a statement that grief, remembrance and sustainability can exist together in harmony.'
Telegraph
20-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
The Chelsea Flower Show debut ‘moving visitors to tears'
The Chelsea Flower Show's first funeral display has been awarded a gold medal on Tuesday after provoking an emotional reaction from visitors. The display, complete with a coffin and gravestones, is the first time in the show's 112-year history that funeral forestry has been on display in the Great Pavillion and has left many visitors 'in tears'. Gill Hodgson, the co-founder of Farewell Flowers Directory, a not-for-profit organisation that designed the installation, said she hoped its success would remove the taboo around celebrating funeral flowers. 'We thought it would be a hard sell to bring funeral flowers to Chelsea as everyone is out for a lovely day and enjoying themselves,' she said. 'Many people have come down and cried and burst into tears. People are saying 'it's 10 years since my mum died and I'm still missing them'. ' We don't mind people crying. I think it's nice that people can be moved.' She said traditional flower displays at funerals were 'awful' and 'have not changed for 50 years'. 'We've learnt how awful funeral flowers are,' she said. 'People think of the rigid letters, like 'Mum', and they see them again and again at funerals and think that's all there is. It's old school. They have not changed for 50 years.' The funeral display was one of just 55 installations to win a gold floral medal. It features exclusively British-grown flowers, foliage and a willow coffin, and is entirely free of plastic and harmful plastic floral foam. The centrepiece of the installation is an arrangement of vibrant, wildly natural seasonal garden flowers that burst out of the open coffin and cascade across the tranquil graveyard scene. Nestled nearby in the grass by the gravestones are personal funeral flower tributes. 'We want to make it personal, rather than have flowers that could easily be a clone of somebody else's,' Ms Hodgson said. Pointing to a display of flowers planted inside a summer hat, she said: 'A lady who loved fashion would have loved that on her coffin. People at the funeral would say 'that just looks like Margery'.' Other personalised tributes include flowers formed around a violin, designed for 'a man who loves his music', and walking boots filled with garden-style flowers for a 'farmer or a keen rambler'. In total, there are four grades of awards presented – gold, silver-gilt, silver and bronze – to the exhibits at the event. It takes 30 judges, six panel secretaries and three moderators to judge all the exhibits in the Great Pavilion. Carole Patilla, the other co-founder of the directory, added: 'Anything connected with death and dying tends to be very taboo in our society and we shy away from it. 'Funeral flowers aren't celebrated or discussed because when people think about them, they think of a very particular type of arrangement. That's what we're trying to get away from.'
