FRESHER THAN FREDDIE’S

the year at fieldhouse flowers

Funeral flowers are available all year and can be delivered direct to funeral directors if needed.

You can pick up bunches of my lovely flowers at Pantry in The Paddock on Fridays from around Easter until late September

Hullo, I’m Gill Hodgson and I began growing flowers here on the farm back in 2009, selling them at the gate and at Driffield Farmers’ Market and it was there, face to face with the customer, that I saw the potential for a revival of British flowers.

In 2011, to help more people become flower farmers, I set up Flowers From The Farm Ltd, a not-for-profit company aimed at increasing the market for home-grown flowers and giving new growers the information they needed to start their own businesses. FFTF now has almost a thousand members growing flowers for market from Skye to Cornwall and is the closest thing the British flower industry has to an official trade body.

In 2018 FFTF took Gold at RHS Chelsea Flower Show with a display containing flowers and foliage sent by 86 members from all over the country and arranged without floral foam.
I’d thought that was the pinnacle of my floral career until May 2023 when FFTF members grew all the flowers for the King’s Coronation in Westminster Abbey and a small group of us were presented to Their Majesties. You can watch a video of our adventure HERE.

Time doesn’t stand still and, at the end of 2023, I stepped down as FFTF’s President as I had yet another dream to fulfil.
Together with Carole Patilla, proprietor of Tuckshop Flowers and creator of Green Funeral Flowers, I’ve set up The Farewell Flowers Directory to encourage florists to make tributes without floral foam and, in May, we’re exhibiting at RHS Chelsea Flower Show. It’s the very first time that funeral flowers will have been displayed there and we’re very excited. The nation’s crematoria are delighted with our initiative as it’s they who have to deal with tons of plastic foam left at their sites.
I was awarded an MBE for services to floristry in the recent New Year’s Honours List and am delighted about the extra attention it’s shone on horticulture in general and funeral flowers in particular.