British Flowers Week - a campaign run by New Covent Garden Market, the UK’s premier wholesale Flower Market - is returning for its 10th year between Sunday 12th and Sunday 19th June 2022. The week-long celebration highlights the beauty and variety of British cut flowers, foliage and plants, as well as the amazing work of the florists, growers and wholesalers who put British-grown flowers in the spotlight.

Everyone is encouraged to get involved by decorating their windows with British flowers to mark the week. Whether it’s with a single stem, a bouquet made from garden flowers or a spectacular display, a decorated window will signal support for the British flower industry this June.

In the past, we have run a series of virtual and face-to-face events each British Flowers Week. This year, we’re going online and aiming at a wider audience – and we would love to see the work of anyone and everyone who is involved in the sector or enthused by the incredible array of homegrown blooms, foliage and plants that’s in season right now.

Share your designs, share your shop windows and share your inspiration and we will help to tell the nation. Britain has such a strong heritage of wonderful floral art; it’s something we can all be proud of so let’s get it out there for everyone to see!

Don’t forget to copy and tag us on everything you do!  

#BritishFlowersWeek    #NewCoventGardenMarket      @MarketFlowers

Garden Museum

As in previous years, British Flowers Week will enjoy the support of The Garden Museum. The Garden Museum’s annual BFW exhibition is returning, in partnership with New Covent Garden Market, to unite florists, flower growers and flower lovers in a celebration of British-grown flowers and the immense creative talent in floral design to be found across the country.

Five of the country’s top florists will create show-stopping floral installations, transforming the Garden Museum into a five-day immersive floral wonderland filled with the heavenly scents and colours of beautiful British blooms. The floral sculptures will be made with seasonal, sustainably-sourced, British-grown flowers, using environmentally friendly materials and methods.

Responding to the theme ‘The Future’, this year’s installations will use floral design to explore sustainability, the future of floristry and its impact on the environment, and the intersection of nature, humans and technology.

Go to https://gardenmuseum.org.uk/exhibitions/british-flowers-week-2022/ to meet the florists exhibiting from June 5^th to 13^th.

Windows 22

This year, you can again expect to see decorated shop windows, hotels filling their lobbies with blooms and even edible flowers on dishes at top restaurants. Anyone who buys a programme when they go to see the fabulous new production of My Fair Lady in the West End will also see an advert for New Covent Garden Market in glorious technicolour!

HRH The Duchess of Cornwall is a big supporter and advocate of British Flowers Week and has created her own floral displays in previous years. The Duchess is also the patron of the Floral Angels charity, based at New Covent Garden Market, which recycles flowers used at weddings and events into smaller bouquets to send out to community organisations, such as care homes and hospices. 

This year’s trends

This year’s trend is for lots of colour, with oranges and yellows particularly to the fore, according to one of the Market’s leading customers, celebrity event florist Simon Lycett.

“I think everyone is ready for lots of bright and beautiful flowers in their gardens and vases and their events after the challenging two years we’ve all been through. And for people who want to buy British, there’s a real chance to introduce seasonal British flowers and foliage, whenever and wherever they are available,” said Simon.

“Orange is really big this year, and everyone is looking for orange and yellow shaded flowers to mix in with other colours to brighten up their lives. Wedding clients seem to be really inclined to a much brighter colour pallet than in past years, and even corporate events, who tend to play more safe, are following the trend and choosing colour.”

Beautiful bold Geum, Marigolds and Sandersonia are all in demand and orange roses are also proving very popular. For those hunting yellows, Achillea and Yellow Butterfly Ranunculus, Eremurus and daisies are proving the order of the day this season.

Increasingly, the trends are being driven by social media. “Colours that used to come into fashion 18 months after it had appeared on the catwalks are coming through far more quickly because so many more people have access to influential posts on Instagram, pinterest, tiktok and more,” said Simon.

“Fads and phases are much quicker to appear now as people see the colour pallets they aspire to across their favourite social media feeds,” he explained. “For some flowers, the impact has been huge; a few years ago for example carnations, chrysanthemums and dahlias weren’t fashionable, but they are all really popular now.”

How to get involved

• Create a British Flowers Week window with your own British flowers, foliage or plants, whether they’re from the garden, a local grower, florist or wholesaler, now is the time to get creative. Take it a step further with New Covent Garden Market’s downloadable toolkit which includes cut-out materials, posters and tips to get the most out of the week.

• Take a picture of your British Flowers Week window and share it on social media using #BritishFlowersWeek and tag @MarketFlowers to show support for British blooms. Displaying a bouquet is the perfect way to spread a little joy and encourage others to decorate their windows. New Covent Garden Market will be reposting the best displays throughout the week, so it’s worth keeping an eye out to catch all the beautiful windows from across the country.

About New Covent Garden’s illustrious Flower Market

The renowned New Covent Garden Flower Market, which spearheads the annual British Flowers Week, is home to 20 world class floral wholesalers including two Royal Warrant holders who supply flowers and plants to the country’s most prestigious households. The Flower Market is at the heart of the floristry industry in London and beyond, supplying the majority of London’s independent florists, from high street retailers to high-end event companies and with the market’s flowers ending up in royal palaces, shops, market stalls, hotels, offices, parties, homes, weddings and funerals. 

The market has been feeding and flowering London for 800 years. Many of the traders at the market are third or even fourth generation and these ladies and gentlemen are the thoroughbreds of the floristry world, holding an exceptional level of knowledge and expertise on flowers, plants, foliage and sundries through the decades – not just from Britain but from around the world.

“New Covent Garden Market is vitally important as a unique and indispensable one-stop-shop for everything that’s new and on-trend in flowers, plants, foliage and sundries,” said Simon Lycett.

“You can buy some of the flowers online, of course, but you don’t get to see how they look when combined in one place, and for me, buying online feels very uninspiring. When you see so many different flowers, colours and textures next to one other within the Flower Market, it inspired and sparks ideas - you begin to combine things you may never thought of putting together. That juxtaposition of products isn’t available anywhere else, and never on a screen!

“When you buy product online, you also don’t get to benefit from the incredible expertise and knowledge which is intrinsic to the wholesalers at New Covent Garden,” Simon added. “Through a quick conversation, you will not only find out what’s blooming and beautiful today, but what you can expect to be arriving in the weeks ahead and that’s so important to florists like myself as we are often planning for future events.  

“The market is also where you’ll find the quirky things – the non-standard, unusual and unique one-offs. Any florist who takes the time to come to the Market and search for those points of difference will find that helps them to stand out with ease from their competitors on the high street.”

To find out more about how to get involved with New Covent Garden Market’s British Flowers Week campaign, visit  www.britishflowersweek.com and follow @MarketFlowers on social media.