Bishop Burton Florists Bag A Double Gold, Inspired By Rio Olympics

Shortly after securing a prestigious Gold award at this year’s Harrogate Flower Show, six Bishop Burton floristry students have done it again and won a highly coveted title at RHS Tatton Park.

The ‘Future Florist of the Year’ award means the team automatically qualifies to compete at the world’s most prestigious flower show, RHS Chelsea, in July 2017. The students, all second year Foundation degree floristry students, used Rio Carnival as their inspiration, creating a floral costume masterpiece inspired by the Brazilian spectacle.

Featuring exotic flora and fauna including orchids grown locally, the team of students took ten weeks to prepare the display, hand-drawing each element of the complicated design.

The intricate build took over 100 hours to complete, and used more than 20,000 different flowers as part of the design. Constructed and dressed prior to the event, the students had just six hours to put the colossal installation in place, remove any damaged materials and add all final touches. Rules of the show stipulate that only three students and one tutor could work on the stand at any time, so the team worked in hourly shifts to ensure all the students participated and the display was completed in time.

The team was praised by the judges on their exquisite design and use of colour, their superb interpretation of the brief and their excellent workmanship and attention to detail. The team scored the highest grade ever recorded at the event, with stunning 87.5/100.

On the astounding win, Bishop Burton College Principal, Jeanette Dawson OBE, said;

“I’m exceptionally proud of the ladies and their achievement at the various shows this year. They have literally put in hundreds of hours outside of their studies to create these phenomenal designs and their hard work has paid off. I’m looking forward to what they create for Chelsea Flower Show next year– here’s hoping it will be another ‘Best in Show’.”

The Tatton Park win means that the team will now compete head to head with other florists from across the world at the Chelsea Flower Show next year. It will be the first time Bishop Burton College will participate in the renowned show.