New Covent Garden Flower Market wins RHS Chelsea Gold medal and New Design Award with ‘Behind Every Great Florist’, the show-stopping debut design by Veevers Carter

·      The Flower Market travels a mile up stream to the RHS Chelsea Flower show to win Chelsea Gold & New Design Award with design by Veevers Carter, one of London’s most innovative floral design and  event styling companies

·      Flower Market’s floral tribute to HM the Queen is the most published image of the RHS Chelsea Flower Show

·      360˚ floral installation illustrates the bond between London’s Flower Market and its customers

In its first ever Chelsea appearance as an exhibitor, New Covent Garden Flower Market has scooped an RHS Chelsea Gold medal and the New Design Award for the dramatic floral installation – ‘Behind Every Great Florist’ – that is taking the RHS Chelsea Flower Show by storm, and making the news pages worldwide.  Designed and created by Veevers Carter, one of London’s leading florists, event companies and a devoted customer of the Flower Market, the exhibit illustrates the close ties that bind Flower Market traders and their customers in flowering London and is a spectacular tribute to HM the Queen.

Why is this so cool?

Well, the Flower Market’s expert wholesalers have been quietly supplying the cut flowers, foliage, plants and floral sundries for award-winning Chelsea show gardens and exhibits for decades, but had never exhibited before this year. Every single stem on the ‘Behind Every Great Florist’ installation has come from the flower and foliage wholesalers at New Covent Garden Flower Market, including beautiful British-grown flowers.

“We are absolutely thrilled and proud to have won a coveted Chelsea Gold medal and the RHS Chelsea New Design Award on our first ever exhibit at the show,” said Helen Evans, Director of Communications at Covent Garden Market Authority (and past guest of the Slow Flowers Podcast–listen to our interview here).

“We wanted our exhibit to highlight the vital relationship between London’s iconic wholesale Flower Market and the talented independent florists who flower London. As a devoted customer of the Flower Market for over three decades, Veevers Carter instantly understood the concept and their design for ’Behind Every Great Florist’ encapsulates this in a spectacularly creative way.”

“We are absolutely overwhelmed that our installation for the Flower Market has been awarded not only an RHS Chelsea Gold medal but also the New Design Award,” said Ming Veevers-Carter, Creative Director of Veevers Carter. “’Behind Every Great Florist’ has been such an exciting and inspirational project, and our combined creative team of florists, designers and production staff have worked incredibly hard over the past six months to make it a reality. The response to our Chelsea debut has been just staggering, and I am so proud of what we’ve achieved.”

On the Royal tour of the RHS Chelsea Flower Show, New Covent Garden Flower Market was honoured by a visit by HM the Queen, who was photographed in front of her three-metre-high floral portrait, containing 10,000 cut flowers and and foliages.

‘Behind Every Great Florist’ is the story of two sides intrinsically bound together in flowering London: London’s famous wholesale Flower Market on one side and its customers, independent florists, on the other. On the Market side, the Flower Market is represented in a vast wall of 112 market buckets, iconic symbols of the Flower Market, each densely packed with fragrant green and white flowers and foliage echoing the massed displays at New Covent Garden Market. The uniformity of the rows breaks down towards the middle, as the buckets and flowers are pulled into a central core. Emerging on the opposite side, the Florist side, the flowers erupt in a breathtaking riot of colour; tiers of fragrant floral tapestry forming the iconic portrait of HM the Queen, representing the exquisite craft and creativity of London’s great florists.

Among the varieties of flowers and foliages on the Market side: philadelphus, freesias, arums, hydrangeas, lilies, guelder rose, lilac, freesias, tulips, phlox, lisianthus, phalaenopsis, hyacinths, carnations, roses, spray roses, gerbera, alstroemeria, euonymus, chrysanthemums, chincherinchee, skimmea, camellia, senecio.

On the Florist side, the massed tapestry of flowers includes hydrangea, delphinium, gladioli, clematis, sweet peas, anemones, lilac, carnations, lisianthus, gentians, phlox, cymbidium, gerberas, sweet williams, bouvardia, roses, arum lilies, chrysanthemums, snapdragons, ranunculus, alstroemeria, hyacinths, freesias, mokara and flag iris.

About New Covent Garden Flower Market        www.newcoventgardenmarket.com

New Covent Garden Flower Market is the UK’s largest Flower Market and supplies 75% of London’s florists. The Market flowers London and its customers range from small high-street shops, florist studios and flower stalls to high-end corporate, hotel and event florists.

New Covent Garden Market is currently going through an exciting redevelopment project. It will see the Flower Market relocate a few hundred metres down Nine Elms Lane where work has already started to build a new, better home for flowers. The new Flower Market will open in January 2017 and will ensure the wholesalers continue to flower London, and the RHS Chelsea Flower Show, for many years to come.

About Veevers Carter      www.veeverscarter.com

Veevers Carter is one of London’s largest and most prestigious floral design and events companies. Established in 1984 by Ming Veevers Carter, the company has a fully-fledged team of florists, designers and operational staff that, alongside their sister company Event Concept, can realise an event of any size to an exceptional standard.

Veevers Carter works with some of London’s most sought-after venues and have built an enviable client list of corporate organisations, event organisers and private individuals both in the UK and internationally. This is among one of the most exciting projects the two companies have ever worked on.

It’s a busy week and I wanted to devote yesterday’s blog post to our podcast interview with Sarah Statham of Simply by Arrangement.

So here, for Thursday, June 18th, are beautiful British-grown flowers in the hands of top floral designers! The New Covent Garden Flower Market commissioned these stars of British floral design to interpret and create designs using the best domestic crops available.

Thanks to the team behind British Flowers Week for sharing these gorgeous (and inspiring) creations:

DAY THREE June 17th

Welcome to Day Three of British Flowers Week 2015, the third year of the industry-wide, nationwide campaign in support of British cut flowers, founded and organised by New Covent Garden Flower Market.

Please enjoy the work of Stephen Wicks and Mark Welford of Bloomsbury Flowers, using British alliums.

DAY FOUR June 18th

Jay Archer of Jay Archer Floral Design and the British Lupin are the fourth sweethearts of British Flowers Week. Jay has created three wonderful designs exclusively for this pro-British Flowers campaign:

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This week we have lots of great news to share and I hope you find the episode stimulating as you think of ways to promote your own floral endeavors.

First up, this week I’m unveiling the second infographic in the Slow Flowers series. This piece is called “Get Your Local On,” and it endeavors to capture our philosophy of domestic flower sourcing in a single snapshot. I don’t believe in the black-and-white of things; life is just more chaotic than that, especially when you’re dealing with Mother Nature, climate, environmental forces and living plants.

However, this visual guide explores the continuum from local and regional sourcing to national/domestic sourcing. As I’ve said many times (and I can’t take credit for this but I do like to repeat it), I recommend taking a pebble-in-the-pond approach to floral sourcing. Start close and work your way from there when needed. But please support America’s flower farms!

“Get Your Local On” couldn’t have become such a visually effective piece without the design magic of Willo Bellwood and I want to acknowledge her talents here! If you have a use for this graphic in your own business, please feel free to download the digital file to produce your own copies.

June is here and I wanted to share my personal invitation for you to join the third Field to Vase Dinner, which Slow Flowers is co-hosting at flower farms across the country.

This month’s event will take place on Friday, June 19th at Pajarosa Flower Farm in Watsonville, California. Rose farmer Paul Furman is our host and Teresa Sabankaya of Bonny Doon Garden Co., a past guest of this podcast, is the celebrity floral designer who will use all local flowers to install an insanely beautiful tablescape for the meal.

Tickets for this amazing, floral-centric experience are $175 but I want to offer the listeners of this podcast a special promotional code to save $35 off of the ticket price. Click here to reserve your tickets and use SLOWFLOWERS during checkout for the discount.

And don’t worry if you can’t make it to Monterey Bay in June. There are dinners scheduled on flower farms coming up now through October, so check the full schedule for dates that will celebrate local flowers in Colorado, New York, Washington, D.C./Virginia, Washington State, Oregon, California and Michigan.

Okay, now to our guest today. Please meet Helen Evans, director of business development and support at London’s New Covent Garden Market.

When I was in London last month, Helen graciously toured me through New Covent Garden, the premiere center for wholesale cut flowers and plants in London’s Vauxhall district.

New Covent Garden Market is the largest fruit, vegetable and flower market in the UK, claiming on its web site: “We are passionate about food and passionate about flowers and pride ourselves on being the focus for food and flowers in London.”

With over 200 businesses, employing over 2,500 people, the Market supplies 40% of fresh fruit and vegetables eaten outside of the home in London and is used by 75% of London florists.

Helen is one of the key persons behind the very exciting program called British Flowers Week, which will enter its third campaign beginning next Monday, June 15th. Listen along as we discuss the state of domestic flowers in the UK – and you’ll find many parallels to what’s happening in the U.S.

On our early-morning visit, while walking through the floors of the enormous warehouse, I learned from Helen that only 10 to 15 percent of flowers sold here are British Grown. Yet the demand and the quantities to supply them are increasing as the wave of homegrown sentiment sweeps through the country, much as we’re seeing with American grown products.

It was completely fortuitous that two Slowflowers.com members joined us that morning. Jimmy Lohr and Jonathan Weber of GreenSinner in Pittsburgh were on their own Chelsea-London excursion. Helen graciously included them in the visit. When we sat down for tea and I turned on the recorder, it led to a completely impromptu interview. You’ll hear Jimmy and Jonathan’s voices jumping in to comment – and that added to the fun of the conversation.

I love how Helen describes the ambitious vision for New Covent Garden Market, to become a destination where people can buy, make, sell, learn and share. That mission is one I do not see happening with any intentionality at many U.S. Wholesale Markets, although I have to say it is very much in line with the mission of the farmer-owned Seattle Wholesale Growers Market.

Yet, with just a few changes of focus, there would be no reason why any wholesaler in our country couldn’t pull this off! I know we’re in the midst of a huge cultural shift in how flowers are sourced and marketed – and those who read the tea leaves and shift more quickly will be the ones who get to redefine the industry practices that others will emulate.

As you could tell, by the end of my conversation with Helen, I was thoroughly inspired to launch American Flowers Week – so stay tuned for news on that big dream. (and a note to the men from GreenSinner – as my witnesses, you two are in on that dream, too!)

Here’s a bit more about Helen Evans:

Helen has been at New Covent Garden Market for nearly 20 years.  It’s that sort of place.  Her work is to spread the word about the market, its flowers, its customers, its growers.  The market is not just about moving boxes.  Its about sharing information.  What’s new, what’s in season.  How would it work better.  So, brochures, website, social media – above all, talking.  Helen does a lot of that.  The product is great but for Helen its the people that matter.  Bringing them together.  Sharing.

Here’s a bit more about British Flowers week:

British Flowers Week is the brainchild of the team at New Covent Garden Flower Market, the UK’s largest Flower Market and the hub for British grown flowers and foliage for centuries.

Originally designed in 2013 as a social media campaign for the floristry trade, #BritishFlowersWeek was quickly picked up by florists, growers, wholesalers and media the length and breadth of Britain.

Last year, the hashtag #BritishFlowersWeek achieved a staggering Twitter reach of 1.4 million with British flowers content posted online, on social media, in print and on the radio.

This year’s campaign will involve the British Flowers Week Photoshoot online and on social media, The Garden Museum event, displays at RHS Harlow Carr as well as flower farm tours, flower workshops, flower demos, school flower crown days across the country. For more information visit www.britishflowersweek.com

Starting next week, one new image will be revealed to the media each day, which I’ll  share on the SlowFlowers FB Page as well as here on my web site. You can follow along by searching for the #britishflowersweek hashtag, too.

And please join me next week on June 17th for the second podcast episode devoted to British Flowers, in which you’ll meet Sarah Statham of Simply by Arrangement, a floral designer and floral educator who is active in the #britishflowersweek activities taking place next week in the UK’s Yorkshire region.

She’ll have even more photographs and stories to share about the distinctly local and regional efforts of the flower farmers and florists in Yorkshire – as a way to take the conversation out into the United Kingdom to differentiate from what has been otherwise a mostly London-centric campaign.

Thanks again for joining me today for another wonderful conversation. Yes, I am devoted to celebrating American flowers and the designers and farmers who are changing this entire industry for the better. But I’m also thrilled to introduce you to ways we can borrow ideas and inspiration from places like the U.K., where many parallels occur between our two marketplaces.

Listeners like you have downloaded this podcast more than 52,000 times. THANK YOU to each and every one of you for downloading, listening, commenting and sharing. It means so much.

Until next week please join me in putting more American grown flowers on the table, one vase at a time. And If you like what you hear, please consider logging onto Itunes and posting a listener review.

The content and opinions expressed here are either mine alone or those of my guests alone, independent of any podcast sponsor or other person, company or organization.

The Slow Flowers Podcast is engineered and edited by Andrew Wheatley and Hannah Holtgeerts. Learn more about their work at shellandtree.com.