It’s well known that, during the 1970s the market for British-grown flowers collapsed as improved refrigerated transport made imported flowers cheaper and every variety became available all year round; but in one area, more than any other, this made a huge difference.
Funeral wreaths and sheaves that had been filled with daffodils in spring, roses in summer, dahlias in Autumn and variegated berried foliage in winter changed slowly but inexorably into the ubiquitous displays of unchanging chrysanthemums, roses, carnations, and the lilies we see today.
The change was helped by the introduction in the 1950s of plastic floral foam (often referred to as Oasis, although other brands are available). Oasis made flower arranging very simple, and formulaic designs emerged allowing identical arrangements to be made by the thousand. It’s so sad that those final flowers that celebrate a life have lost their personality and that vibrant, unique lives are remembered with soulless, unchanging designs – but this situation isn’t the fault of any one particular group.
Funeral Directors are not horticulturalists. Told that a cheaper inexhaustible source of flowers was available all year round, it’s natural that they should have taken advantage of it. Florists, asked to provide an exact copy of an arrangement chosen from the Director’s brochure, have no choice to comply, leaving them unable to use their own imaginative skills and forces them to use a plastic product even though they may prefer to use a more sustainable method. Customers visiting the funeral director or florist are shown the, now standardised, photographs of possible arrangements – the same limited choice of arrangements is shown to every grieving family. Mourners at funerals only ever see the same designs and, in their turn, order the identical type when they themselves are bereaved.
It’s a dismal cycle that The Farewell Flowers Directory is tackling by signing up florists who can create compostable funeral arrangements and asking their florists to include some British-grown material in each such design. Along with Carole Patilla of Tuckshop Flowers and founder of the Green Funeral Flowers, we set up the directory, to help florists progress along their journey to better sustainability.
We leave the amount of British material that their design includes, to the florist. It’s possible to create beautiful 100% British funeral arrangements in every single month but we know that many families will request a certain flower that was their person’s favourite. We hope that, by using some British material, that florists who are accustomed to buying everything from the Dutch market, will see the quality of home grown flowers and foliage and be encouraged to use more. We have no objection to imported flowers being used, but we ask our florists to make their flowers souring policy clear on their own site so that families can make an informed choice.
The Farewell Flowers Directory is exhibiting at RHS Chelsea Flower Show in May, the first people ever to take funeral flowers to the show, with the aim to use the power of flowers to start conversations that are too often avoided.