Florist Kathryn Cronin has a yellow theme for her installation at the RHS Flower Show at Tatton Park in the next few days (Wed July 17 – Sun July 21).
Daffodils and sunflowers feature in a poignant tribute to her late friend Christine Jones.
The choice of colour is deliberate – the sunflower is the emblem of East Cheshire Hospice where Christine died of bowel cancer in January, while the daffodil is a nod to their Welsh upbringing.
The installation called ‘Threshold – On Life and Living’ is to raise awareness of the Hospice’s work and its motto ‘where people come to live.’
Kathryn Cronin at last year’s Chelsea Flower Show.
Kathryn is exhibiting at Tatton for the third time and had an installation at last year’s Chelsea Flower Show, though this display at Tatton is special for personal reasons.
She said: “This is the most ambitious installation I’ve done and it’s the one that means the most since it’s in honour of a dear long-standing friend.
“Christine loved her garden and I had to have daffodils so I dried them. As a fellow Welsh girl, we’d often cheer the Welsh rugby team when everyone else wasn’t.”
Kathryn at work in her garden.
Fresh and dried flowers, all sustainably British grown, are arranged in wild garden style, a wooden door frame forming a living threshold.
Kathryn developed her floral passion at five inspired by her fuchsia-loving grandfather Jack.
“I would stand in his greenhouse knee high to his potting bench. The greenhouse took up half the garden at his terraced house in Cardiff. I just loved it and I think every child needs to know how to grow food or flowers.”
Kathryn with flowers for Fashion on the Edge.
Kathryn worked for AstraZeneca for 25 years and has supported the Hospice’s Fashion on the Edge show with flowers grown in her Cheshire canal side cutting garden.
Her business www.fierceblooms.com provides exclusively British flowers for weddings, funerals and other functions and she is passionate about sustainability.
Friends Christine and Christopher Jones on their 40th wedding anniversary.
“Many places grow flowers for import and that takes a lot of carbon, chemicals and air freight, but you can have beautiful British grown seasonal flowers.
“This has been the toughest year I’ve known for growing flowers due to the cold and wet. The installation will hopefully raise awareness for East Cheshire Hospice where Christine received such wonderful care.”