All for Love London have created a beautiful installation brimming with sweet peas. And it’s the final design that I’m featuring from this year’s British Flowers Week campaign. The company, run by Ruth Davis, is one of five florists exhibiting at the Garden Museum in London. And today is the last day that all the designs will be on display.
Background
All for Love, founded by Ruth five years ago, creates event and wedding flowers. And they also specialise in large, horticultural sculptures and public art installations. For example, Chelsea in Bloom. The company’s name ‘All for Love’ comes from Ruth’s favourite, large-headed, bright pink rose.
Ruth’s Inspiration
Ruth says: “Many of my happiest memories as a child would be spent with family at my grandparents’ house in Lancaster. My Grandad would grow sweet peas outside his greenhouse, up against the wall adjoining his neighbour’s garden. They would grow up rickety bamboo canes, which he had had for 50 years or more.”
“As a small child, I remember thinking how tall they were. They towered above me! We would water the flowers together. And then he would pick some for me. I always remember feeling so special that he was willing to part with his prized, precious flowers that took him so long to grow.”
“He would send me into the kitchen with armfuls of them and ask me to take them to Nanna, who would split them into three bunches. One for their kitchen table. A big beautiful one for Mum, bundled up with damp kitchen roll at the stems and then wrapped in tinfoil to survive the journey home. And lastly a little bundle also wrapped for my bedroom windowsill. He did this for me from the age of around 5 to the age of 25. And I would leave their house each time, proud as punch with my precious little bundle of home grown sweet peas!”
“I have taken over a complete archway in the church. And decided to use the full height and shape of the arch cavity to create my installation. The sheer scale is pretty epic at around 7m tall. But the content is just one flower – sweet peas! Just like the little girl looking up at Grandad’s trellis, I want people to crane their necks and look up as far as they can to see the sweet peas growing.”
Pictured below are the wonderful and brightly attired Fiona from Electric Daisy Flower Farm (left) and Harriet Parry from Harriet Parry Flowers (right), who I couldn’t resist capturing at the event at the Garden Museum on Tuesday evening. They were so beautifully co-ordinated with Ruth’s installation!
If you’d like to see more of Ruth’s work, simply head over to the All for Love London website. And don’t forget, today’s the last day that the exhibition is open at the Garden Museum.
This blog post is in place of my regular Floristry Industry Insight, which will return next Sunday. In the meantime, if you’ve not already had chance to read them, below are links to the other four florists who took part in this year’s British Flowers Week campaign:
(Images: Rona Wheeldon | Flowerona)
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