St John the Evangelist Church, Clevedon, recently held a sustainable flower festival, using arrangements made entirely from locally grown flowers, many of which were from the church’s own allotment. All were designed without the use of a single block of floral foam.
Parish Priest, Fr Brendan Clover, says, “All the flowers were grown within 10 miles of Clevedon, with over half from our church allotment. Not one block of floral foam was in sight!”
The move to sustainable flower arranging was intentional and carefully planned. Brendan explains, “We decided over 12 months ago to stop using floral foam in church. Foam, when soaked, releases microplastics into aquatic ecosystems, which can pollute food chains. The transition was surprisingly easy. With a little research and trial and error, we were able to amass a range of floral mechanics that allowed us to construct a variety of arrangements—from windowsills to pedestals, and from the pulpit to the font. All reusable and none harmful to the environment.”
Using an overgrown allotment site behind the church, members of the church community cleared it and began growing their own flowers. Brendan says they’ve been delighted by their early success. “In our first season, we’ve already been blessed with dahlias, zinnias, amaranth, rudbeckia, and alstroemeria, to name just a few,”
These flowers, along with responsibly gathered wild materials, helped form the displays for the festival celebraing the natural flora of our surrounding countryside by foraging material from the roadside verges. Brendan says, “We wanted to showcase what can be achieved using native plants such as ragwort, meadowsweet, corn marigold, and hogweed. No air miles were involved.”
Brendan says there were creative advantages to their approach too. “An added benefit was a freer and more expressive style of arranging, working with the flowers rather than against them.”
The festival was a true community effort. Pupils from the church primary school contributed jam jars filled with homegrown flowers, which were hung on pew ends throughout the church. The weekend began with a concert by Richard Lennox, attended by more than 80 people, and excitement continued as visitors from across the local community came to see the displays.
Reflecting on the festival and the church’s ongoing commitment to caring for Creation, Brendan says: “We are on a journey towards sustainability with our flowers. Summer is easy, winter will be more challenging. But we hope to extend the seasonal availability from our allotment and use more dried flowers and evergreen foliage. Hopefully soon, we may be totally self-sufficient.”