About the Tablescape
The Unwalled Garden presents The Woodland Restaurant. An immersive dining experience beneath the trees and where the ‘flower of the day’ takes centre stage.
The design presents floral offerings in a restaurant-style setting, highlighting the finest ingredients from our flower farm. All of the cut flowers used for this exhibit have been grown by The Unwalled Garden in the designer’s flower farm outside Cheltenham or sourced locally to the Malvern Hills.
Guests sit on pillowy beds of scented herbs upon entering the table dressed for the floral feast. Each place has been laid with a specific flower that is paired with a foliage ‘plate’ as an accompaniment. The feast is displayed down the centre, highlighting the flowers arranged as courses, starting with smaller more delicate arrangements growing into the largest floral display as the pinnacle of the feast. Fresh fruit and vegetables such as early summer strawberries, rhubarb and asparagus will also make an appearance, pots of petals act as seasoning and edible flowers are scattered throughout the table, enhancing the nature of the feast.
The tablescape will flow seamlessly from the table into the hedgerow meadow below, at its fullest directly in front of the table before spreading out into a gentler arrangement along the edge.
Surrounding the diners are branches of beech creating a canopy above, interwoven with trailing clematis and early sweet peas. The hedgerow meadow frames the table setting at the front, flowing from the table, and growing outwards, it creates a bountiful frothy entrance to the feast.
Featured on the table is a menu, which will be updated every morning following what has been picked fresh that day, so the restaurant evolves over the festival, ensuring that much like in our gardens, flowers are continuously coming into bloom.
Inspiration
When Damelza began growing and arranging flowers in 2020, she was initially inspired by the ‘farm to fork’ ethos within hospitality, celebrating local produce that changes throughout the seasons. This principle has become the foundation of her floristry business, The Unwalled Garden, as well as the cornerstone of all of my designs. So, when approaching the brief of a ‘feast of flowers’ it was reflecting on these values that lead to a restaurant setting where, instead of food, flowers take centre stage and are presented as the star of the show.
The designer wanted the feast to feel immersive and intimate to the viewer whilst also reflecting what is found in the fields in May. The woodland backdrop provides depth, whilst allowing the meadow planting at the front to feel abundant, just like the hedgerows surrounding the showground.
There is no fixed colour palette; the design is guided by what flowers are blooming on the flower farm that day. Demelza hopes this installation encourages viewers to create their own feasts at home.
Sustainability
All plant & flower material will be British and sourced as locally as possible to the showground (most from the designer’s flower farm).
All mechanics are foam-free & resusable.
About the Designer
Demelza trained in Technical Theatre and Stage Management at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) before pursuing a career in corporate event management. Since she was a child she has always been drawn to flowers and it was something she always wanted to do, when she returned home to Gloucestershire during the pandemic
Demelza began arranging and growing flowers as a hobby in her family garden before deciding to train as a florist in 2021. Following her floristry training she has now been working full time as a florist since then, on primarily weddings and events. Demelza founded The Unwalled Garden in 2021, a floral studio based in Gloucestershire. She works seasonally, focusing on using flowers and foliage grown on her small scale flower farm and her trusted network of local growers in the South West.
She specialises in providing floral design for weddings and events with a focus on large scale installations and this is her first time exhibiting at an RHS show.
