Exhibitor: Thistle by Nature ✷ Category: Floral installations ✷ Site number: 37G

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‘ANNUAL’ is a botanical installation in celebration of ancient British landscape, its native flora, sacred sites & nature based festivities; a piece to provoke a sense of a somewhat lost British culture that is rooted in our landscape, stories & folklore.

The immersive installation incorporates a refined & intentional palette of natural materials including all British grown indigenous genus cut flower & plants, both in their fresh & dried forms, soil & stone, responsibly foraged native foliage, branches & moss.

The piece includes subtle representations of each season as well as conceptual reasoning behind the use of each type of plant materials, their symbolism & meaning within the piece.

The piece’s circular shape is an ode to the season’s circularity & wheel of the year, as well as a nod to our circular sacred sites that litter the British countryside.

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The stories

S P R I N G

Hawthorn (Crataegus orientalis) or ‘May blossom’ exhibits its fluffy white clouds in the merry month of May, tradition goes on may eve, to gather it’s bounty and bind into garlands to ordain entrances of homes and decorate may poles in celebration of the fertile spring & it’s abundance. This act of gathering foliage & blossom on may eve is known as ‘bringing in the may’.

Woad (Isatis tinctoria) is an ancient dye plant containing indigo pigment, though not native, woad has been grown & used in the textile & art industry since medieval times. For ‘ANNUAL’, woad pigment has been used hand paint over 100 dried poppy seed heads with a blue hue to suggest a carpet of english bluebells (a protected wildflower) found in ancient woodlands.

Cowslip (Primula veris) meaning ‘first flower of Spring’ were traditionally picked to ordain weddings, their common name nods to often being found littering meadows grazed by cattle, another folk name ‘St peters keys’ refers to a tale in which the keys to heaven fell to earth and turned into golden primula flowers.

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S U M M E R

Foxgloves (Digitalis purpurea) have many a folk name; witches thimbles, our lady’s gloves, dead mans bells, elf gloves as well as many a folk tale attached to their presence in the British landscape, lots of which are tied closely with fairies.
They are exhibited in ‘ANNUAL’ in a circular display as a nod to naturally occurring ‘fairy rings’ of fungi, that as the name would suggest, are also heavily linked to myths & plant lore surrounding the fairy folk.

Cornflower (Centaurea cyanus) owes its common name due to the fact they were often found growing wild in crop fields, one of its many other folk names ‘hurt-sickle’ refers to its nuisance in blunting farmers sickles when harvesting corn. It appears in ‘ANNUAL’ speckled throughout a meadow of dried wheat to reference its history in agriculture.

A U T U M N

Wheat (Triticum aestivum) has been grown & processed as a crop since neolithic times. A symbol of harvest, wheat ears are used in ancient folk customs through the craft of wheat weaving & straw work in celebration & anticipation for a plentiful harvest of all cultivated produce.

Poppy (Papaver orientale & somniferum) are used in ‘ANNUAL’ both fresh & dried to evoke symbolism of both spring & autumn, creating a suggestion of bluebells on an ancient woodland floor whilst simultaneously standing for the summers passing where seed pods appear to feed the following season, a solution to the forbidden picking of protected English bluebells threatened by the invasive Spanish variety. There are several varieties of poppy that grow wild in the British countryside, like the cornflower they can also be found growing amongst crop fields.

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W I N T E R

Yew (Taxus baccata) trees are an ancient evergreen that litter the landscape as well as church yards across Britain, the oldest yew in the UK is believed to be between 2000 & 3000 years old. Their regenerative nature & longevity regraded them as sacred to the druids and linked them closely with life, death & morality, an association they still have today due to their appearance in church yards.

Sphagnum is a genus of many different moss varieties, around 30 of which are native to the UK, it has a plethora of different uses within the ecological & horticultural industries, historically Sphagnum has been used to dress wounds since the bronze age due to its absorbent properties. Though some Sphagnums lay dormant in winter, they cover ancient woodland floor all year round.

Honeysuckle’s (Lonicera periclymenum) bare & barren vines are displayed within ‘ANNUAL’ twisting & contorting throughout the summer ‘fairy ring’ as a reminder that the light half of the year cannot exist without the dark half of the year.

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The SUPPLIERS

Lynn South Farm are a flower farm based in Shropshire specialising in dried florals & confetti since 1986, Lynn south farm supplied the dried wheat & bearded wheat used in ‘ANNUAL’.

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Cotswold Country Flowers is a small scale artisan flower grower & florist based in Uley, Gloucestershire run by Fiona Porter, Fiona supplied the 2 different varieties of dried poppy seed heads used in ‘ANNUAL’.

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Electric Daisy Flower Farm is an off grid flower farm in Somerset & London flower shop, Electric daisy supplied the ‘Pam’s choice’ foxgloves used in ‘ANNUAL’

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Flowers by Clowance is a family run flower farm and British flower wholesaler based in Cornwall, the Cornflowers used in ‘ANNUAL’ were grown & supplied by clowance.

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Mella’s jungle is an online plant shop and moss supplier based in Hereford - Mella’s uncle has the rights granted by the forestry commission to responsibly forage for Sphagnum moss in welsh woodlands and supplied all moss used in ‘ANNUAL’.

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Saltbox & co are a small scale flower grower & florist based in Stroud, Gloucestershire and provided the apricot foxgloves & amazing grey poppies for ‘ANNUAL’.

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The Cutting Garden is a small scale flower grower based between Gloucester & Stroud and provided the foxglove purpurea for ’ANNUAL’.

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Mid Wales Stone are a family run business that have sourced natural welsh stone products to create stone sculptures for over 25 years, Mid wales stone supplied the ‘blue stone’ slate monolith for ‘ANNUAL’. This stone is for sale.

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DT craft & design are a small textile & dying business based in cheshire specialising in natural dye pigment & paraphernalia, they supplied the woad pigment used in the making of ‘ANNUAL’.

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Boss Morris are an all female prog morris side based Stroud, Gloucestershire. Boss morris performed around ‘ANNUAL’ for the RHS Chelsea Flower show’s press day event drawing on the exhibit's theme of celebrating the ancient British landscape.

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THE PLEDGERS

Thistle by Nature used the power of crowd funding to help realise ‘ANNUAL’, without these people, this project could not take place on this scale, a huge thanks goes out to everyone who helped make this happen.

Rhia Davenport ✷ Alex Merry ✷ Lucy White ✷ Natasha Scott ✷ Finbar Lillis ✷ Hannah Westwood ✷ Chloe Mcelveen ✷ Anna Coley ✷ Rosie Aitkin ✷ Alexandra Meulbrouck ✷ Lisa Piercy ✷ Polly Armond ✷ Lily Cheethham ✷ Janet Thistlethwaite ✷ Emlyn Bainbridge ✷ Kate Jackson ✷ Jenny Fletcher Stone ✷ Hannah Bradridge ✷ Rob Fields ✷ Liz Smart ✷ Julie Bircher ✷ Mila Harris-Mussi ✷ Laurie Green ✷ Jess Kirkland ✷ Tracey Mosley ✷ Selina Starflinger ✷ Sasha Seaward ✷ Victoria Keble-Williams ✷ Megan Rees ✷ Cleo Mussi ✷ Michele Young ✷ George Thistlethwaite

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