Floral newspaper display at Lincoln Flower Festival

Southwell Flower Club was given the theme of ‘newspapers’ in the communication themed aisle at the Lincoln Cathedral Flower Festival.

A colour scheme of red, white and black was given. This was just one of the many huge spaces to fill within the cathedral where lots of NAFAS (National Association of Flower Arrangement Societies) flower arrangers and florists were to showcase their talents.

It was to be a long awaited feast for the eyes after being postponed due to the pandemic, with thousands of visitors over the five days that it took place.

There had been plenty of time to prepare and the whole club got involved by making the cones from old Bramley newspapers for the varying sized wreaths in the headline section opposite the main newspaper exhibit. A team of four represented the club to design, build and stage the exhibit two days before the festival opened to the public.

Team members Ann Bristow, Kathy Hocking, Jade Loftus and Paula Routledge were the proud Southwell Flower Club designers and exhibitors, using birch branches gifted from local tree surgeon Paul Cleary and cardboard roll inners covered in newspaper to form the backbone of a no foam floral design.

With the exception of the tropical red anthurium flowers and black dracaena leaves, the remaining stems such as ammi majus and green amaranthus were grown locally at Floral Media.

With a small budget from NAFAS and some very kind sponsorship from the Bramley newspaper’s printers, Mortons Print Ltd, we were able to fulfil the brief and create an exhibit to be proud of.