All For Love London were excited to share their collection of ‘marine’ inspired floral installations for this year’s ‘Under The Sea’ Chelsea in Bloom.
Celebrating its 14th year, the world class alternative floral art show is produced by Cadogan in association with the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS), and transforms the streets of Chelsea with breathtaking floral displays from the 20th to 25th May. It is London’s largest free floral art show.
This year’s theme was ‘Under The Sea’, and as one of the Show’s florists, All For Love London created a number of floral pieces representing our oceans and marine life, a total of 12 animals.
Beginning at Sloane Square, we created a beautiful, giant Whale tail installation. The Blue Whale is the largest animal on the planet and so we felt it was only right that it has pride of place in the flower festival. The installation of a blue whale's tail was over 4 metres high and was made using hand dyed, fresh willow strands with the splash of sea being made out of frothy white, turquoise and blue flowers.
In addition, at Sloane Square, an immersive coral reef was created. The coral reef is a busy, exciting place, home to thousands of amazing sea creatures and underwater plants. Our installation tried to capture the beauty, busyness and colour of our planet's precious reefs, featuring an abundance of wildlife.
Then, moving down to Pavilion Road, there was a life-size Orca Whale made entirely from fresh seasonal foliage and flowers. The impressive art piece is over 5 metres tall and takes its inspiration from the incredible Orca Whale, or Killer Whale as they are more commonly known. Our aim was to replicate the majesty and beauty of this amazing animal, as they are, to us, the Kings and Queens of the ocean.
Finally, ending at Sloane Street, we created a beautiful pair of mother and baby Seahorses. Seahorses prefer to swim in pairs, with their tails often intertwined and also pair for life. Our seahorses were made entirely from the most delicate skeleton leaves to replicate their fragile beauty and translucency.
Commenting on this year’s theme, Ruth Davis, CEO & Artistic Director All For Love London: “The theme for this year's Chelsea in Bloom, 'Under the Sea', is a wonderful opportunity to create a riot of colour and design on the streets of London. There is so much scope to create spectacular installations from the many marine animals and sea life to the beautiful coral reefs and splashes and waves of the sea.”
For this year’s theme, Cadogan were working alongside a charity partner Plastic Oceans UK whose goal is to end plastic pollution. To support this concept, All For Love London created their installations plastic free and using no oasis or floral foam.
Continuing on All For Love London’s involvement this year, Ruth says: “Being a part of this Chelsea flower project is an absolute dream come true for me, and to be asked back for a third year for the Show’s main pieces is a real honour and privilege. It’s a wonderful British institution and as a flower festival, it’s the pinnacle for every florist to aim to play a part in. For me, it is a career high to be involved, and I am truly honoured to have been commissioned by Cadogan once again to design and create their public art installations for this year's Chelsea in Bloom. We hope that they make commuters and shoppers smile and stop in their tracks. The whole process has been an absolute joy.”
Visitors could experience and explore the ‘Under The Sea’ trail, through guided walking tours and rickshaw rides, along with enjoying a range of in-store events, exclusive products and offers that were on throughout the week. A record number of stores also participated this year, with over 90 shops, restaurants and hotels creating their own unique displays portraying their ‘Under The Sea’. Additionally, for this year, the legendary King’s Road participated, celebrating its re-launch, unveiled in April 2019.
And the installations all started out like this, as a drawing and painting by Ruth.
