A non-profit organisation, the Farewell Flowers Directory connects people to independent florists who can offer beautiful, personal and fully compostable funeral flowers.
Founded in 2024 by florists and flower farmers Gill Hodgson MBE and Carole Patilla, the organisation works to demonstrate the beauty of naturally designed funeral flowers, without the need for floral foam or single use plastic.
For the first time in its history, that beauty will be on display at the 2025 RHS Chelsea Flower Show. The show will feature an exhibit of funeral floristry to demonstrate that you don’t need to sacrifice beauty for sustainability.
Floral funeral scene
Located in the Great Pavilion, the floral installation by the Farewell Flowers Directory will take the form of an artistic interpretation of a funeral scene. The centrepiece will be a soaring arrangement of vibrant, wild, natural seasonal garden flowers and foliage that appears to burst out of an open willow coffin held aloft on white birch pallbearers.
Watching on, will be the wirework forms of a man and his dog by artist, Susan Nichols. Nestled nearby in the grass by the gravestones will be personal funeral flower tributes from walking boots filled with fresh flowers to casket sprays, wreaths and arrangements designed to be divided and shared with family and friends.
The floral display will feature exclusively British-grown cut flowers and foliage, and will be made using sustainable floristry techniques, free from plastic floral foam, single-use plastic and fully compostable.
Gill Hodgson MBE, Co-founder of The Farewell Flowers Directory said: “Funeral flowers don’t have to look funereal, they can be anything you want them to be. We hope that our Chelsea exhibit will help start conversations and let people know that they have a choice. 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.”
The RHS Chelsea installation will be created by four members of the Farewell Flowers Directory; Gill Hodgson MBE of Fieldhouse Flowers in Yorkshire, Carole Patilla of Tuckshop Flowers in Birmingham, Georgie Newbery of Common Farm Flowers in Somerset and Nicola Hill of Gentle Blooms in Warwickshire.
There are powerful mental wellbeing benefits associated with flowers and gardens and the process of working with flowers can be soothing at a stressful and difficult time.
“As funeral florists, we know that personalised and thoughtful funeral flowers make a difference because people write, call and even pop by to thank us,” explains Carole Patilla, Co-founder of The Farewell Flowers Directory. “People often say how the beauty of the flowers helps to get people talking, provides a point of beauty to focus on, and makes the experience of funerals that little bit easier.”
The Farewell Flowers Directory exhibit is being sponsored by the Institute of Cemetery and Crematorium Management (ICCM) and Green Funeral Flowers by Tuckshop Flowers.