THE GUANGZHOU GARDEN AT THE CHELSEA FLOWER SHOW 2021

After last year’s  interlude, our team at Elizabeth Marsh Floral Design was elated to spend our very first September meandering the imaginative gardens and displays of dreams at the long-anticipated 2021 RHS Chelsea Flower Show. 

With the driving forces behind our company being luxury and sustainability - or otherwise synonymously, creativity and consideration - our floral designers at EMFD are always on the search to inspire and be inspired by members of their cohort: one that has seemed larger than life in the last few days, particularly with the show’s 20 featured female floral designers.

A first stop in the Main Pavilion made us consider our principles of floral design and their relation to the RHS competition for floral design, complete with cutting-edge displays, each with acute detail and individual meaning. But with equal importance to creating displays that embody spaces and individuals alike is the sustainability aspect - one that has been a rapidly increasing priority for Elizabeth Marsh and her team. 

With the best in show going to Peter Chmeil and Chin-Jung Chen’s Guangzhou Garden, whose attributed ‘green lung’ featured as a representation of nature’s ability to heal the planet, our team immediately found familiar ground. 

“Climate change, the growth of mega cities and potential mass extinction of species requires a re-evaluation of planning policy.” - RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2021

As our founder, Liz Marsh, brings forth increasingly developed plans for her Golden Leaf of London project, this winner was a happy reminder of the floral industry’s moves towards allowing flower and plant lovers to connect to the environment on a deeper level. 

The idea behind the winning Guangzhou Garden, like the Golden Leaf, was born from a commitment to responsible city planning that connects its residents with the natural world. And the way in which it delivers this message, through an oasis constructed from strikingly intricate plantwork, makes the harmony between humans and the environment one to aspire to: as both citizens and fellow floral designers. 

“Bringing sustainability into the mainstream requires critical mass. It is the attention of the people that drives institutions to implement projects like ours. That is humanistic values being served by logistical ones: that is what we want to see in sustainable projects today.” 

- Elizabeth Marsh