Floriculture at the Garden Museum London

Yesterday was the first day of the Floriculture Exhibition at the Garden Museum in London and I was lucky enough to go.  I love the title of the exhibition, ‘Floriculture’, in fact I love any derivation of the word floral so this was a fabulous start for Valentine's Day for me!

The Garden Museum itself is a little gem, very charming, very understated and very ‘un-boutiqued’ for a London Museum.  It is based in St Mary's Church next to Lambeth Palace. It is where John Tradescant, one of the great British gardeners and plant hunters of the late 16th century to early 17th century, is buried and coincidentally it is thought he might have been born here in Suffolk.

The museum also has a shop, cafe (serving veggie food and yummy cakes) and a garden.  Upstairs houses the permanent display of gardening history and downstairs has a room for the changing exhibitions.

This is the entry for the Floriculture exhibition with a lovely fresh floral surround to the doorway.

The exhibition is a must for anyone interested in cut flowers. It covers everything about the cut flower trade.


Lots of juicy flower facts:

A bit of history with a timeline of cut flower production in the UK:

And some beautiful images and quotes:

The perfect quote for a local seasonal flower grower, "If it be summer-time" indeed Mr Dickens!

Not only was the exhibition full of information that needed time to be read and digested, it had the most stunning visual display of roses, each stripped of their leaves, tied with copper wire and hung upside down from a network of wire.  Unseasonal I know, but nontheless beautiful.  It looked fabulous from all angles with the backdrop of the church interior to really show it off.

From above:

From the side:

From underneath:

Well, after all that beautiful flower saturation, what else did I get time for on Valentine's Day in London?

Well a bit of this:

some of this:

and guess who was also there?

I wondered why Burough Market was so busy on a Thursday.


Also there was a bit of this:

and this:

So if you are in the Lambeth Palace area and you love cut flowers make your way to the Garden Museum, it is a MUST!