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British Flowers Week 2023

The Garden Museum’s annual British Flowers Week exhibition is back this summer, championing British-grown flowers, sustainable floristry and the immense talent in floral design found across the country. Five florists hand-picked by the Garden Museum will build immersive floral installations around the museum, transforming the space with the scents and colours of beautiful British-grown blooms for five days.

The exhibiting floral designers – Botanical Tales, Lucy Vail Floristry, Mahal Kita Flowers, SAGE and Yinari – will create sculptural flower installations using seasonal, sustainably-sourced, British-grown flowers, arranged with environmentally friendly materials and methods.

The theme for this year’s exhibition is ‘New Beginnings’, inspired by fresh starts, budding new growth, changing seasons and an optimistic step forward for the floral industry.

Scroll down to meet this year’s florists!

Dates


British Flowers Week 2023 installations


Meet the florists

Botanical Tales

Bex Partridge, founder of Botanical Tales, is a dried flower artist led by the cycles of the natural world. Bex captures nature’s fleeting beauty by growing and preserving flowers and foliage to be encapsulated in her designs.

Her ethereal installations celebrate the ephemeral beauty of her flowers, most of which are grown or foraged in her garden and surrounds before being dried in her floral studio haven in Devon.

She has written two books, Everlastings and Flowers Forever.

@botanical_tales


Lucy Vail Floristry

Lucy Vail Floristry is an award-winning luxury brand specialising in weddings, events and high-impact installations. Renowned for ‘bringing the outside in’ and bold use of colour, they can transform even the blankest of canvases into immersive botanical wonderlands.

From March to October each year they use mainly British flowers, most of which come straight from Floriston Flower Farm in Suffolk, which is run by Lucy’s family. Their aim is to not only create the most imaginative floral designs, but to also educate clients on the importance of using seasonal blooms by showcasing the incredible variety of British-grown flowers and foliage through their own projects.

@lucyvailfloristry


Mahal Kita Flowers

Mahal Kita Flowers is a creative floral studio based in Margate, founded by Antony Burger. Mahal Kita simply means “I love you” in his mother’s native tongue.

When his father was 30 years old, he visited an old friend in a small hospital in the middle of Wales. As he walked through the doors of the ward, he noticed a young nurse and he knew, without even having yet met her, that he would marry her one day. Two years later they married. She is Filipino and “Mahal Kita” was one of the first phrases his father learnt to speak in her language.

Mahal Kita Flowers is a love note to Antony’s heritage, and to his parents. Every time he uses any flowers with the words and brand of Mahal Kita he is reflecting the love of his parents and how they celebrate life, each other and all the events of the year.

@mahalkitaflowers


SAGE

Leaving restaurants and biology behind, SAGE was born to bring unique floral design to their community in Peckham and further afield.

Bored by the local offering, SAGE is inspired by more unusual flowers, foliage and form, moving away from traditional arrangements and the rules of classic floristry. Iona and Romy are advocates for young female entrepreneurship, diversifying and decolonising floristry. The duo use their platform to progress these topics, often appearing on panels, radio and television.

SAGE’s client list includes Prada, Miu Miu, BAPE, Nike, Fenty, Whitechapel Gallery, Saatchi Yates, Glossier, Supriya Lele, Saul Nash and many more.

@sage.flowers


Yinari

Nari was born and grew up in the countryside in South Korea, where foraging and picking wildflowers with her mother and sisters were intrinsic to her upbringing. This tradition of bringing nature home continues to influence her work to this day, being inspired by nature, the wild form of overgrown bushes, intertwined roots and stems. She moved to London in 2013, and here she continues to hone her style, mixing in elements of Korean aesthetics into wild, seasonal, sculptural arrangements.

@yinari__