No one here at the GFG-Batesville Shard volunteered to do this gig, so we’ve sent along the work experience lad. Probably the last we’ll see of him. The venue is the Royal College of Art. Coco de Mer stock a range of mischiefmaking Valentine’s Day gifts — if you’re just waking up to the imminence of the Great Day of Lurve.
Archive: 6 February 2013
British flowers for British funerals
At Lower Blakemere Farm in Herefordshire, Heather Gorringe has been growing British flowers for British funerals since just last year. She says:
Most flowers for funerals are just too formal, too regimented, and often just too white. Our flowers will look as if they have been gathered from our garden (and many of them will have been). They’re a tiny bit wild: They’re natural, green, and they’re gorgeous, and they’re handpicked and prepared in our floristry.
All our flowers are proudly sown and grown on British Farms, and this means that very often our flowers are much, much, fresher than their foreign competitors.
Why ship flowers half way around the world when we can grow them here?
We asked Heather if she could supply flowers for a midwinter funeral and she told us she certainly can. Some of her flowers are grown in polytunnels, but “we compost our flower waste, we recycle our plastic and shred our cardboard.”
Strikes us as one of those ideas that set you wondering why no one else thought of it. Or did they?
Find out more about Heather’s enterprise by checking out the Great British Florist website. Find their funeral flowers here.
‘This is the way it should be done’
An account of a home funeral:
This is the first time I am so close. There is a body bag on the table, waiting to be opened. Our best friends’ 22-year-old son’s body is inside. His mother and father are across from me, brothers beside, with several women gathered to form the circle around the table. These women will become my sisters in the next five hours, as we prepare the body together.
Read the whole article here.