Following the huge success of the inaugural award at the 2023 Interflora Word Cup in Manchester, this year Interflora chose the Harrogate Flower Show at Newby Hall to host the 2024 award.
The award aims to identify, celebrate and support the many innovative approaches florists, growers, suppliers and other stakeholders in the floristry industry are taking to transform the industry for the future.
The award:
Raises awareness of new innovations with florists and consumers
Supports the faster adoption and demand for these new innovations, to achieve the critical mass needed for change
Prompts thoughtfulness and conversations with consumers, florists, suppliers and other stakeholders about new and more sustainable ways of working
Incentivises more innovations in the future through a culture of celebration
This year, the five worthy finalists were:
Groot Flower Paper: Paper wraps, sleeves, stickers and cards made from green waste collected from the floral industry.
The Horti House: British houseplants grown with peat-free compost made from green waste from cut flower growing.
Oshun Pouch: A TUV Austria certified home-compostable alternative to traditional, plastics-based floral foam.
Sustainable Church Flowers: A movement encouraging more sustainable practices in church and churchyard flowers.
Weez & Merl: Vases and furniture made using plastic waste from the floral industry.
Over the three days of the Harrogate Flower Show, the finalists were showcased on a plinth in the Sculpture Gallery at Newby Hall. Visitors to the show were given a guided tour of the five finalist’s plinths showcasing their products, and telling their stories. The visitors then had the difficult task of casting their vote for their favourite innovation. At the close of the show on Sunday evening the final vote was counted, and the results are as follows…
The overall winner with the most votes was Weez & Merl (vases made from plastic waste from the floristry industry) with 28% of the vote. They were closely followed by runners up Oshun Pouch in second place with 26% of the vote, and Sustainable Church Flowers in third place with 20%.
The Harrogate Flower Show was a perfect venue to showcase these innovations to the public and tell their wonderful stories to the thousands of visitors. All five finalists were worthy contenders for the award, and all were winners in the eyes of the many visitors who really struggled to vote for just one innovation.
Weez & Merl
Weez & Merl want to challenge throwaway culture by showing how beautiful plastic can be. Their ultimate goal is for plastic to be regarded as a precious material not worthy of ending up in landfills, incinerators and oceans. The plastic they work with is LDPE (Low Density Polyethylene), commonly found in carrier bags, bubble wrap and other flexible sheet packaging.
Millions of tonnes of virgin LDPE are produced each year, and global demand for it is growing every year. Unfortunately many applications of plastics are commonly regarded as disposable or for single use. Although LDPE is encouraged to be recycled on the label, it is often difficult to find facilities that do. In the UK, huge amounts are shipped abroad to be recycled - an inefficient and unsustainable practice.
Originally transferring skills learned from the craft of woodworking, Weez & Merl have found many methods of working with recycled LDPE plastic by hand. Over the years, they have developed their own equipment to maximise LDPE's potential.
Zara Taylor is the Head of Wholesale & Supply at Interflora.
She has worked in flowers since 2010, first at Flamingo Horticulture, then at Interflora. Zara recently completed Cambridge University’s CISL course on Sustainable Business Management, and has a real personal passion for living a positive, minimal impact lifestyle.
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