The Farewell Flowers Directory wins gold at the Chelsea Flower Show
A remarkable display featuring a wicker coffin bursting with flowers won The Farewell Flowers Directory an RHS Gold medal at the 2025 Chelsea Flower Show.
“We’re so delighted that we did the thing people told us we couldn’t do: we took funeral flowers and a coffin to RHS Chelsea and won Gold!”
Carole Patilla, Co-founder of The Farewell Flowers Directory
The team with their winning display.
The Farewell Flowers Directory, founded by Gill Hodgson (Fieldhouse Flowers) and Carole Patilla (Tuckshop Flowers), connects people to independent florists who can supply beautiful, personal funeral flowers free of floral foam and single-use plastic.
The directory has over 190 member florists across the UK. To qualify for a listing, you must be a UK florist that offers at least one plastic-free and compostable tribute which includes some UK-grown material. You must also have a website with a page featuring your compostable funeral arrangements and showing where you source your flowers.
It’s an approach which supports florists wherever they are on their sustainability journey. The directory’s FAQs help florists source more sustainable flowers and identify floral foam alternatives that are genuinely compostable. Its blog and YouTube channel contain tutorials and resources about wreath weaving, creating casket sprays and working with winter botanicals.
Queen Camilla with Gill Hodgson of The Farewell Flowers Directory
Visitors were encouraged to think about their own funerals. The resulting yellow tags formed part of the exhibit
The overflowing casket.
GOLD! The Farewell Flowers Directory from L to R - Gill Hodgson, Carole Patilla and Nicola Hill.
The Farewell Flower Directory’s winning Chelsea display extended that support to consumers. According to Carole, the first ever display of sustainable funeral flowers in Chelsea’s 112-year history doubled as a public education piece.
“Our display shows that flowers, thoughtfully and sustainably designed, can move people; they can reflect and celebrate a life; and they can tread lightly on the planet,” she says. “We hope that our Gold medal exhibit will raise awareness of sustainable funeral flowers and help bring about change in the industry.”
Artist Susan Nichols created the poignant mourner and his dog.