Royal Florist Demands Ban on Floral Foam Citing Environmental Damage
Shane Connolly, the celebrated florist responsible for the exquisite floral arrangements at the King and Queen's wedding, has issued a powerful call to action. He is urging the public, organizations, and businesses to completely avoid the use of floral foam, a material he describes as environmentally destructive. This plea forms part of a broader campaign targeting places of worship to eliminate its use entirely.
Leading the Sustainable Church Flowers Movement
Connolly, whose prestigious portfolio also includes designs for the Prince and Princess of Wales' wedding and the King's coronation, is a key figure in the Sustainable Church Flowers (SCF) movement. This initiative has actively campaigned for churches, parishes, chaplaincies, and cathedrals to engage in meaningful discussions about making better, more eco-conscious choices for their floral displays.
The campaign is gaining significant institutional traction. The Church of England's parliament is set to vote on a motion this Thursday, encouraging Synod members to fully adopt the SCF principles. A central tenet of these principles is the immediate cessation of floral foam use, a product notorious for containing microplastics and being non-recyclable.
The Hidden Environmental Cost of Flowers
The environmental footprint of commercially grown flowers is substantial and often overlooked. Large-scale flower cultivation consumes vast quantities of water and generates a significant carbon footprint. The demand for out-of-season varieties exacerbates the problem, often requiring energy-intensive heated greenhouses or cultivation in developing nations where labor conditions and wages can be critically poor.
Furthermore, the global flower supply chain involves practices with heavy environmental costs. Blooms may be transported thousands of miles via air freight, stored in refrigerated units, cultivated with pesticides and chemicals, and packaged in plastic, all contributing to ecological degradation.
Practical Steps for Sustainable Floristry
The SCF campaign promotes a series of practical, actionable alternatives. Parish councils are being encouraged to motivate parishioners to donate flowers from their own gardens, prioritize locally grown and seasonal varieties, and forgo single-use floral foam alternatives by simply using water for bouquets.
Additional recommendations include churches utilizing their own garden spaces, composting floral waste, and creatively re-purposing flowers from Sunday services for midweek gatherings or donating them to care homes and hospitals.
A Message Rooted in Faith and Fact
In an interview with the Press Association, Connolly framed the issue through a lens of faith and responsibility. "If you're approaching it from a place of faith, the Creator created all of this beauty, and our creations are destroying it by adding carbon footprints and by adding microplastics," he stated. "So you have to question that. You have to say: 'What do we think of this?' And that's what we are encouraging."
He emphasized that the campaign's message has universal relevance beyond church walls, aiming to educate the public with the full facts about the floral industry's environmental impact. "The best thing you can do for flowers is to find out if you can get anything locally, and then to find out what is seasonal," Connolly advised. "And seasonal flowers automatically are better for the environment, because they haven't needed the same degree of intensity to produce them."
When asked if businesses and event organizers should adopt similar sustainable practices, his response was unequivocal: "We all need to be thinking about this." He pointed to the example of Valentine's Day roses, which, due to high demand, are often out of season and grown in heated greenhouses or imported, resulting in a massive carbon footprint. "We now know things. You can ignore things that we don't want to hear about, but these are facts," he asserted.
Academic Support and Grassroots Momentum
Jill Timms, an associate professor at the University of Surrey and co-lead of the Sustainable Flowers Research Project, provided academic backing to the campaign. Having studied the subject for twenty years, she told PA, "Flowers really do matter. They are one of those areas that people don't necessarily think about. We know that people treat themselves or give them to represent 'thanks' or 'love' without really wondering about who it is that has grown those flowers and what has gone into that process."
She highlighted the potential for churches to become leaders in driving industry change through education and awareness. The SCF movement itself exemplifies grassroots power. Founded in 2019 in the village of Harpley, Worcestershire, it began with a local parochial church council's desire to make a difference and has since snowballed into a significant national campaign.
"One thing I've loved about (the campaign) is that it's been such a grassroots type of movement from the parish, that really snowballed and picked up momentum with so many churches already doing this," Ms. Timms noted. The movement follows the Royal Horticultural Society's 2020 headline-making decision to ban floral foam at the Chelsea Flower Show, signaling a growing industry shift towards sustainability.
