Floral Angels!
If you’re unaware of Floral Angels and what they do, please take five minutes to read this article. We’re confident you won’t regret it.
It’s far more than just a positive story within our industry; it’s potentially a way for you to bring considerable joy to others, offer a fantastic service to your clients and be sustainable to boot.
Let us explain…
What is Floral Angels?
You may have heard of ‘Floral Angels’ but aren’t entirely sure who they are or what they do.
Floral Angels is a volunteer-led organisation with a wonderfully simple idea: take fresh flowers that have already fulfilled their role at events and celebrations and reuse them to create beautiful designs before delivering them to members of the community to enjoy.
The organisation was founded in 2013 and its army of wonderful volunteers rework flowers donated to them into designs for care homes, hospices, shelters and other deserving beneficiaries, often those in the community who would not normally receive or have the opportunity to enjoy flowers.
Floral Angels have many supporters, including Queen Camilla, who has been their Patron since 2016. She, along with so many others, including ourselves of course, can’t help but be struck and humbled by the good work they do.
We all know the positive effect flowers can have, and the difference the Angels make by continuing to share them is exceptional. Event flowers that have brought immense joy on that special day can, through their work, continue to bring happiness for several days afterwards.
How can you give event flowers a second life?
We’ve often been asked by our event florists if we know of a way to give their installations a second life – and whilst we’ve shared about Floral Angels in these instances, we thought it was about time we shared this with everyone.
We know that when it comes to wedding flowers, friends and family are often vying for table centres and smaller designs at the end of the day, and why wouldn’t they – you’ve created stunning designs and it’s easy to understand why others want to enjoy them for longer – nobody wants to see beautiful flowers simply disappear, especially when they’d be disappearing into the bin!
So, whilst some of the flowers are continuing to be enjoyed, when it comes to much larger installations – floral arches, urns, hanging installations, ceremony flowers and other statement pieces – it’s a different kettle of fish. There are so often simply more flowers than the couple, their families and guests can realistically take home.
Rather than the flowers’ journey ending when the event does, their volunteers can give them another opportunity to bring happiness to someone else.
Whether it’s a large wedding or event installation, corporate function flowers, or bunches a little too old to be sold on, in the hands of the Angels, the flowers can be given a new life.
It’s a simple idea, but one that makes perfect sense.
Flowers are grown, transported, conditioned, arranged and cared for with one purpose – to bring beauty and happiness. Why should that have to stop simply because their original intended use has finished?
Who benefits from the flowers?
The impact created by the designs made by the Floral Angels volunteers can’t be overstated.
These designs are then delivered to organisations including nursing and residential homes, hospices and shelters, where they can have a really positive impact.
For people living in a care home, staying in a hospice or experiencing difficult circumstances, receiving a beautiful bunch of fresh flowers can be a surprisingly meaningful moment, and that is perhaps the most important part of the whole process.
This isn’t simply about finding something useful to do with flowers after an event. It’s about taking something that has already brought happiness and allowing it to bring happiness to someone else, often in a deeply meaningful way.
A floral arch that helped create unforgettable wedding photographs might later become several smaller arrangements brightening rooms in a care home, gifted to those who once had the most impressive gardens themselves.
The flowers may look different, and their surroundings may have changed, but their ability to make people smile remains.
Could this be an added service for your clients?
Firstly, it’s worth knowing there is absolutely no commitment to donate with any regularity. Perhaps you’ve got a one-off impressive event coming up. Perhaps you create large-scale wedding or event installations every week.
Either way, Floral Angels could be particularly interesting for your event and wedding work.
Why not consider adding this to the conversation you have with couples when discussing their wedding flowers? You may already speak to them about their plans for bouquets and table centres, especially if you hire them vases and containers, but larger installations can present a different challenge.
Offering Floral Angels as an option means you can give clients another choice and, for couples who have invested considerable time, thought and money into their wedding flowers, it could be something they wholeheartedly love the idea of. Not to mention the feel-good factor for you and your team!
From a sustainability perspective, it is a particularly positive message: the flowers have fulfilled their purpose at the wedding, but they can continue to be enjoyed rather than being immediately discarded.
How can you donate flowers to Floral Angels?
There are only a few practical considerations around which flowers can be accepted:
- They simply ask that the flowers are in a condition where they will last for a few days with care and water.
- They don’t mind how the flowers come – loose or in arrangements, large or small. As they share on their website, “We are experts at dismantling!”
- You can even leave flowers in containers and arrange for the containers to be returned.
- They can’t offer collection. However, you can leave flowers for them securely 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. They have a drop-off area in the car park at New Covent Garden Flower Market, Battersea, SW8 5BH.
- You can let them know of your desire to get involved and arrange to drop off flowers here, or you can email them at contact@floralangels.com or call them on 07506 964575.
- No plants please! They regret that they are unable to reuse plants in soil themselves, but they know of a number of charities that they are only too happy to put you in contact with, who will make fantastic use of them.
P.S. They are always looking for volunteers, drivers over 26 and more floral designers. You can find out more about volunteering here.
Final thoughts
As florists, you know better than most that we don’t just sell flowers – we sell emotions and happiness.
We see it when a bride receives her bouquet, when a couple walk into their wedding reception for the first time, or when guests arrive at an event and see a room transformed by flowers.
Floral Angels offers a way for some of that joy to continue once the wedding is over. The event may have finished. The installation may have been taken down. The flowers don’t necessarily have to be finished with – they still have a little more happiness to give.
Is it another useful option for you to have in your toolkit when discussing what happens to flowers after an event? We sincerely think it’s a lovely story to be able to share with your clients. Their flowers have already helped make their wedding or event memorable, and now they can continue to bring so much joy to others.
We hope you’ve enjoyed this different kind of article and agree that Floral Angels is certainly an organisation worth knowing about.
Floral Angels: The Video Story Behind the Charity
If you’d like to watch a fuller story of Floral Angels, including how the idea came about from the three founders, Frances, Amanda and Julie (pictured below), Visit YouTube here!
Floral Angel founders: Left to right: Frances Hunter, Amanda Romain, Julie Ritter.
Images courtesy of Floral Angels.
