In association with Flowers from the Farm
The Flower Festival will run 23 – 25 September 2022
The Strawberry Hill House Flower Festival returns for a fourth successive year on 23rd-25th September with a spectacular showcase of the very best of British-grown flowers, foam-free sustainable floristry and the design creativity of the UK’s leading floral designers.
Curated by Leigh Chappell and Janne Ford, the Flower Festival is produced for the first time this year in association with Flowers from the Farm, the award-winning membership organisation championing artisan growers of local, seasonal British cut flowers.
With vividly decorated or gilded rooms, illuminated by beautifully shaped windows, complete with stained glass, Strawberry Hill House in Twickenham offers a breath-taking setting for the three-day Flower Festival. Shining a spotlight on the beauty, variety and versatility of the fresh and dried flowers and foliage’s cultivated by British flower farmers, the Flower Festival gives free creative rein to the invited florists to share their artistry, expertise and passion for sustainable floral design in design installations and floral demonstrations throughout the remarkable Gothic manor house.
The Flower Festival has developed a devoted following and become a highlight in the event diary at Strawberry Hill House, as festival manager, Claire Leighton explains: “Visitors were amazed. I spotted one visitor looking at the stairs and saying, ‘I didn’t realise flowers could look like this’!”
Flowers from the Farm Co-Chair, Meg Edmonds, says: “We see a perfect synergy between the creative vision of the Strawberry Hill House Flower Festival and Flowers from the Farm. The Flower Festival presents a unique opportunity to showcase the talents of our farmer-florists and the beauty of local, seasonal British cut flowers in creative floral design.”
The Flower Festival features designs by floral designers and farmer-florists including Electric Daisy Flower Company, Frances & Rose, Botanical Tales, Wild Bunch, Nettlewood Flowers, Bayntun Flowers, Christophe Berretot, Aelisabet Flowers, Lunabloom, Queen of the Meadow, Smokebush Floral Design, Twisted Sisters, Viridis Flowers, Lunaria, Myrtle and Smith, The Divine Flower Company, Joanne Truby, and Xyris Botanicals. Every stem of cut flower material at the Strawberry Hill House Flower Festival has been grown for the designers by members of Flowers from the Farm.
Throughout the Flower Festival, guided tours of the transformed House will be available, including an evening of tours and a much-anticipated floral demonstration on Friday, 23rd September by acclaimed florist and sustainable floristry advocate, Shane Connolly. Shane holds Royal Warrants of appointment to HM The Queen and HRH The Prince of Wales and is possibly best known for decorating Westminster Abbey with an avenue of growing trees for the wedding of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge. Shane says: “We floral designers owe a debt of gratitude to Nature and the planet; so, we must create designs that are beautiful without and within. Designing sustainably does not stop creativity and magic, so it’s time we stopped hiding behind the pretty flowers, acknowledge the huge environmental issues, and show how it can be done, with festivals like The Strawberry Hill House Flower Festival.”
There will be sessions showing visitors how they too can adopt more sustainable methods of flower arranging, plus a chance to quiz Strawberry Hill’s own gardening team about your horticultural hiccups; from reluctant rhododendrons to drooping dahlias and glean advice on how to grow gorgeous geraniums or impressive Italian Asters.
Visitors to the Flower Festival should make time to wander around the wonderful grounds. Horace Walpole was a keen gardener, writing the hugely influential essay The History of the Modern Taste in Gardening which was first published in 1780. Walpole’s five-acre garden has been faithfully restored to much of its original appearance, with a variety of beds, borders, walks, groves, lawns and woodland that would be wholly familiar to him today.
Tickets for the Flower Festival are available online now. Prices, tour and talk times can be found at www.strawberryhillhouse.org.uk/flower-festival/
The participating florists and growers will also be sharing blogs, tips, photographs and other content across social media, leading up to and during the festival, using the hashtag: #StrawberryFlowerFestival
The Flower Festival is proudly sponsored by Savills Teddington. Robin Chatwin, Head of Savills South West London says; “We are so pleased to have been invited to sponsor the Strawberry Hill House Flower Festival. Having recently opened our new Teddington Office, we are keen to get involved with the community and support local businesses and events. The Flower Festival will be a great opportunity for us to connect with local residents and we look forward to working with such a significant and long-standing part of Teddington and Twickenham’s history.
Strawberry Hill House & Garden
This venue has been open to visitors for over 250 years. Created by renowned writer Horace Walpole (1717-1797), Strawberry Hill is internationally famous as Britain’s finest example of domestic Georgian Gothic revival architecture.
Horace Walpole was a pivotal figure in 18th-century society, literature, art and architecture. The third son of Sir Robert Walpole, Britain’s first Prime Minister, Horace Walpole was a man of many talents with a large network of influential friends. From 1739-41, Walpole embarked on a Grand Tour and European influences can be seen in the design of Strawberry Hill House and the works that formed its vast collection of treasures. He was author of the world’s first Gothic novel, The Castle of Otranto.
Strawberry Hill’s 18th-century garden is one of the earliest in the English naturalistic style. Horace Walpole’s delightful essay on garden design is perhaps the most famous and influential piece of writing on the English landscape garden, first published in 1780 as part of his Anecdotes of Painting in England. In recent years, the House and Garden have been sympathetically restored to recreate Walpole’s unique vision and in the 21st-century his “land of beauties” continues to thrive as a haven for wildlife and visitors throughout the year.
Strawberry Hill House & Garden can be found at 268 Waldegrave Road, Twickenham, TW1 4ST. For more information visit www.strawberryhillhouse.org.uk
Twitter @strawbhillhouse / Facebook @StrawberryHillHouse / Instagram @strawbhillhouse
Flowers from the Farm is an award-winning not-for-profit membership association championing over 950 independent, artisan growers of local, seasonal British cut flowers. Its members farm over 1000 acres in total on cutting gardens, allotments, walled gardens and farmland from Inverness to the Isles of Scilly. The most sustainable cut flowers you can buy are from a local, artisan flower farmer, who grows flowers outdoors in their natural season. British cut flowers represent only 14% of the UK cut flower market with the majority of stems hot-housed and flown in from as far afield as Ethiopia, Kenya, Ecuador and Colombia. Flowers from the Farm is aiming to redress the balance.For more information on Flowers from the Farm and to find your local flower farmer, visit www.flowersfromthefarm.co.uk / Instagram @flowersfromthefarm / Twitter @Flowers_ft_Farm / Facebook @flowersfromthefarmpublic
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