British Flowers Week is a New Covent Garden Market campaign to encourage the nation to celebrate our amazing native flowers and participate by placing British flowers in their windows!

We caught up with Liz at the start of the week to learn more about British flowers and how we can all get involved in the week’s activities, running from 15th - 21st June 2020. 

Why is it important to celebrate British Flowers Week?

Along with tennis, cricket and football, the British people’s identity is indelibly linked to flowers, especially the ones in our gardens… In fact I would go so far as to call it a love affair with Nature! 

In the way that cricket and football are both national pastimes, the age old Chelsea Flower Show celebrates not only our love of plants’ but our love of eccentricity! One of my favourite sights is the walking bushes staggering onto public transport at the end of the flower show each year, as Britons from far and wide struggle home with their freebies. 

What tips do you have for people wanting to get involved from home? 

New Covent Garden Market is offering a prize for the best dressed window showing your home or British-grown flowers and my suggestion is to get creative, do something fun such as a flower garland, or an unusual arrangement that actually speaks to who you are whilst reminding us that locally- sourced plants and flowers will keep the British landscape strong, abundant and rich.

This year, our Summer Bouquets reflect the soft summer colouring that denotes this time of year - the pastel yellows, pinks and lilacs. These hues always remind me of vases filled with garden roses that come in all those glorious colours and never clash, no matter how many you cram into the vase! Most of the flowers we have used can be grown in the garden and we hope will provide inspiration for your next trip to the garden centre.

What key themes should people be thinking about when it comes to a celebration of British Flowers? 

British Flowers Week represents an opportunity to reconnect with the garden - if not our own, those of our neighbours or our local parks. It is also a wonderful opportunity  to remind us that London was named a National City Park last year - the first in the world. 

It is a point of pride for me that London is the greenest city in Europe and I will certainly be putting some energy into supporting this initiative and taking it further in whatever way I can. I see London becoming an incredible place to live and work, in harmony with nature and the elements. This is a future worth leaving to our children.

To find out more about British Flowers Week, head to: 

Instagram: @marketflowers #britishflowersweek #newcoventgardenmarket 

Website: https://www.britishflowersweek.com/