The Garden Museum is next door to Lambeth Palace, sitting on the bank of the Thames looking across to Parliament. It's a ten-minute walk from Vauxhall, Westminster, and Lambeth North stations. This year, they will host the inaugural 'Winter Flowers Week' in December, celebrating seasonal flowers and foliage through immersive floral festive installations.
What to Know About the Winter Flowers Week
Building on the success of our annual summer British Flowers Week exhibition, this new winter edition promotes a seasonal and environmentally friendly approach to holiday decorating. Our five floral designers will transform the museum into an unforgettable winter wonderland: with sustainability at the forefront, their floral installations will be created using only British-grown seasonal flowers and foliage, as well as environmentally friendly materials and methods.
Photo: @gardenmuseum
The inaugural Winter Flowers Week exhibitors such as Shane Connolly & Co, Carly Rogers Flowers, Hazel Gardiner Design, Tattie Rose Studio, and Floribunda Rose, who are all trailblazers in the floristry industry and passionate about improving sustainability are returning to the event this year. Winter Flowers Week will also include a Friday Late event on Friday, December 8, where visitors can view the installations while sipping a drink and enjoying performances and festive floral activities. Keep scrolling to meet the florists that will be part of this cool floral event.
Shane Connolly Is Participating in the Winter Flowers Week
Shane Connolly is a floral designer, international speaker, and five-time book author. He advocates for floral industry sustainability. Shane collaborates with the RHS to improve sustainability in floristry at their annual shows and also serves as a judge at RHS Chelsea. He has written five books and travels the world teaching his approach to flower design. Shane's clients include great public institutions such as The V&A, the RA, and the National Portrait Gallery, as well as a veritable who's who of British society. Shane has a Royal Appointment and has created floral displays for events such as His Majesty The King's Coronation in May 2023.
Photo: @gardenmuseum
"My favorite winter plant is Chimonanthus Praecox, the aptly named ‘wintersweet’. In fact, if I was allowed only one plant in my garden, it would be this.
It's not much of a looker, but it's a sniffer....blooming when nothing else does (for us, before Christmas until February) with a scent that wafts through the cold air to delight and entice. Few scents are more beautiful in my opinion. A single small stem will perfume an entire room. And that is exactly how I use it; a single stem or two in small vases, always punching above their weight in a beautiful and elegant way."
Carly Rogers Flowers Will Also Be Present in the Event
Artist and florist based in Camberwell, Carly Rogers, combines a love of flowers and plants with contemporary art, design, and sculpture. Carly's eye for design goes beyond the traditional floral arrangement and tells a skillfully crafted story, thanks to her Master's Degree from the Royal College of Art. Carly and her team have previously worked on botanical installations for the RHS Chelsea Flower Show, London Design Week, British Flowers Week, Sketch Mayfair in Bloom, and Chelsea in Bloom.
Hazel Gardiner Design
Hazel Gardiner, botanical artist, gardener, broadcaster, and Garden Museum Trustee, founded her own London floral studio 'Hazel Gardiner Design'. She strives to be seasonally responsive, creating designs for events, editorials, retail, and campaigns. The signature style is exuberant and naturalistic, frequently incorporating fresh, dried, and edible materials as well as planting. Hazel's clients have included the RHS Chelsea Flower Show, BBC Gardeners' World, Jo Malone, Levi's, and Sony Music.
Tattie Rose Studio
A close-knit team of family and friends, Tattie Rose, owner of Tattie Rose Studio travels throughout the country and internationally with highly skilled makers providing thoughtful, beautiful, and exciting flowers and botanical sets for parties, events, select weddings, and other interesting projects and commissions. This year, she'll be present in the 'Winter Flowers Week' being held in the Garden Museum in London.
Photo: @tattierosestudio
Floribunda Rose
Floribunda Rose is a floral design studio and flower school in Hampshire founded in 2014 by Sarah Diligent. They use and teach sustainable floristry methods in addition to championing and using British flowers. Floribunda Rose's teaching ethos is that floristry should be sustainable; the flowers, the mechanics, the business, and everything in between. Sarah and co-author William Mazuch wrote A Guide to Floral Mechanics to share their eco-friendly floristry methods. She shares that her favorite winter flowers are the helleborus and daphne.
"It’s almost impossible to pick a single winter flower out as my favorite as it changes across the season but the two that I would choose right now would be helleborus and daphne. Helleborus become a really useful focal flower in our wedding and event work through the winter and comes in such a wonderful array of colors. Daphne, I adore its fragrance!
Just a tiny stem can add so much to a tablescape. Fragrance plays a huge role in what we do at Floribunda Rose and because scent is uncommon in the depths of winter I think it’s even more appreciated now. Both of them make a wonderful addition to any festive table over the holiday season."
Photo: @floribundaroseflorist
Do you also love helleborus for a great Christmas? Read all about how to use it as a pot plant for the festivities and how it'll brighten up any ambiance.
Photo: @gardenmuseum
If you wish to attend the event to be a part of this marvelous group of floral experts and designers, make sure to buy your ticket in advance. It's a magnificent opportunity to not only see an array of beautiful winter flowers but also learn from great professionals.
