Shakespeare inspires flower displays as money raised for Stratford's Guild Chapel
A FLOWER festival celebrating ‘Shakespeare’s World of Flowers’ helped raise in excess of £1,000 for The Guild Chapel in Stratford.
A preview evening to the four-day festival organised by Avon Floral Art inconjunction with The Friends of The Guild Chapel, was held in the chapel last Thursday with special guest Gregory Doran, Royal Shakespeare Company, artistic director emeritus, who opened the festival and read sonnets and talked of Shakespeare’s plays that featured flowers hence the title for this year’s event.
Bev Short, co-chair of Avon Floral Art, who is also one of the festival organisers, said the four days had been very successful and made a big profit which will be given to The Guild Chapel.
“It was a very mixed audience. We had about 600 visitors including some from New York who thought the displays were fantastic. We had a lot of flower clubs from the south Midlands, Coventry and Northampton. Our flowers combined contemporary and traditional arrangements and included Canterbury Bells, lavender, lilac, thyme, dock, thistles and even lettuce and potatoes which appear in Shakespeare’s plays. My favourite is daffodils but they’re out of season now as are the bluebells. There was also a children’s trail which proved popular with families and when the children completed their tick list of Shakespearean flowers in the chapel they were given seed packets as a prize,” said Bev Short.
Avon Floral Art does a lot of work for charities for free and is a charity itself. It celebrates its diamond anniversary in 2023.
