Award-winning Wiltshire-based florist Grace Farrimond has been selected to exhibit her floristry expertise at the highly prestigious RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2023 this May.
Grace, principal florist and founder of Young Blooms based at Winsley Farm in Bradford-on-Avon, is one of just a handful of independent florists selected nationwide to exhibit at the UK’s most well-regarded horticultural event of the year.
With more than two decades of experience spent working as an independent florist, Grace is hugely passionate about passing on her skills and expertise to others in order to open up the floristry industry more fully; over 10,000 accounts subscribe to her popular YouTube channel for practical tips and insight, while Young Blooms supports both a regional and national client base with bespoke, beautiful floral occasions for all occasions.
Working in close collaboration with Trowbridge-based carpenter Craig Cutlan-Wilson to bring her creative vision to life, Grace will be exhibiting a very unique interpretation of a strangler tree at 2023’s Chelsea Flower Show, which will be made using solely British flowers and incorporate compost produced daily out of food waste gathered from across Wiltshire.
“Built around a 7ft tall wooden structure, I believe this exhibit will be both visually-arresting and completely unexpected for visitors to this year’s Chelsea Flower Show,” comments Grace Farrimond, founder and principal florist at Young Blooms.
“Having the opportunity to exhibit for the first time at RHS Chelsea really is a dream come true for me as an independent florist. Bringing this exhibit to life is so far out of my comfort zone, it will truly stretch my creative abilities - and I am really excited for that challenge. I want to create something at Chelsea that looks like it’s been there forever, and deliver a striking contrast between a tree that’s most commonly found deep in Asian jungles and native British grown flowers that are, literally, home grown.”
The exhibit is fully compostable, with the aim of giving back to the land with it afterwards. Fully compostable and natural floral foam will be used to house all of the cut flowers, which will in turn be housed inside recycled cardboard wine bottle containers. The theme of Grace’s exhibit is one that is sure to resonate with many visitors after the unsettling global events of the past few years: resilience and survival, against the odds.
“Nature is truly incredible, and this installation should serve as an opportunity for us to admire it, in all of its unexpected imperfections,” adds Grace. “With my installation at RHS Chelsea 2023, I want to creatively capture the essence of resilience - the strangler tree can be created simply by a bird dropping a seed that ultimately spawns life against the odds. We’ve had to be so resilient as a society in recent years; this installation looks to recognise the importance of never giving up, even during dark or uncertain times.”
A two-time Creative Bath Awards winner, Grace Farrimond has carved out a strong professional reputation for creative excellence in floristry since founding Young Blooms in 2007, and demonstrated great resilience over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic by successfully diversifying from a traditional floristry service to a multi-channel skills provider, delivering online training courses and building up thriving communities of aspiring florists with a passion for creating joyful displays.
Grace has also previously been listed within f:entrepreneur’s list of #ialso100 inspiring female business leaders, and has been a finalist in the national Small Awards run by Small Business Britain.
This year’s RHS Chelsea Form Show takes place between Monday 22 May - Saturday 27 May in London.
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