It’s our birthday - and what a year!
Carole Patilla and Gill Hodgson, Co-founders of The Farewell Flowers Directory
Carole shows off a non-slip flower mat during a Farewell Flowers Directory photoshoot while Gill looks on at Waseley Hills Crematorium, Birmingham. Andrea Gilpin Photography.
A year ago today, on March 9th 2024, our directory opened for florist registrations and since then 200 florists have joined us to in our bid to change the world of funeral flowers.
Why start a directory?
A bee had long been buzzing in our bonnets about the quantity of plastic floral foam and waste in funeral floristry. We’d both worked individually for years as Fieldhouse Flowers (Gill) and Tuckshop Flowers (me, Carole), running workshops and courses to educate hundreds of florists about how to create personal, eco-friendly and beautiful farewell tributes, without using ‘the green stuff’.
We chose to share our floristry methods and approach because we wanted to get the plastic waste out of funeral flowers and both we knew that we couldn’t do this single-handed. Between our two businesses we only serve a tiny area of the country so we decided, independently, to help florists to serve the needs of their own local customers by making plastic-free flower choices available for funerals.
This is the seed from which the idea of a directory germinated. We wanted (and still want!) to make it as easy to find eco-friendly funeral flowers as it is to find their plastic cousins.
We’re delighted to have so many florists already on board with our Directory - here are just a few of them: Sarah of Severn Valley Flowers, Melissa of Bunch, Lisa of Gate House Florals, Gill, me, Karen of Green Daisy Flowers, Anna of Flowers by Anna Brian, Kate of Camomile and Cornflowers, Ruth of Oversley Flowers, Katharine of Zinnia Floral Design, Suzy of Earth Blooms and Jackie of Jacqueline Davis Flowers. Photo: Andrea Gilpin Photography at Waseley Hills Crematorium, Birmingham.
Drawing on our experience as game-changers
As the person who founded of Flowers from the Farm in 2011, Gill already knew that it’s possible to grow a whole movement from an idea. She’s seen how, by sticking her head above the parapet to promote the growing and use of local, seasonal, British grown flowers, she could enthuse and encourage hundreds of others to get on board and organise around an idea. British flowers, and the growing of them, has now become an accepted part of the floristry landscape - an unimaginable position when Gill started out on her mission. This change has been so significant that Gill’s efforts were recognised with an MBE for services to floristry in 2025.
Gill wanted to do the same for plastic-free, compostable funeral flowers and having worked with me for over a decade within Flowers from the Farm, we know that we can make a formidable team! We’re also delighted to have the ongoing support of Liz Anderson with our public relations work as we know from experience that she’ll always egg us on to greater things!
Rapid growth
The Farewell Flowers Directory quickly grew from a vague notion into a fully formed idea over the course of a few weeks before Christmas 2023. The New Year was spent building a website and we were delighted at the response from florists when we finally pressed ‘publish’ and launched to florist registrations in on 9th March 2024. We’ve increased our florist numbers 100-fold since we started with just the two of us!
But the Directory is about more than just the number of florists on board. It’s also about the work we’re doing in the public sphere to raise awareness of what funeral flowers can be when they’re made in more sustainable ways. We’ve been working with the funeral trade, the media and the public to start conversations about funeral flowers and to show how more eco-friendly choices can be a beautiful solution to the issue of plastic environmental pollution.
Thanks to everyone who’s bought plastic-free funeral flowers from our florists in the last year, and thanks also to all the florists for their efforts, enthusiasm and support! Give yourselves a cheer.
Gill’s reel today on our Instagram account gives a whistle-stop tour of our first year, including the achievement of being accepted to take funeral flowers to RHS Chelsea Flower Show for the first time ever this coming May!
Over to you Gill!