Leeds Castle Visitors Vote ‘Dancing Through the Delphiniums’ as Festival of Flowers Favourite!

Thousands of visitors to Festival of Flowers event at Leeds Castle have voted the display by The Dorchester’s Head Florist, Philip Hammond as their favourite design for 2019.

Philip’s design was sponsored by Meijer for the Queen’s Gallery and entitled ‘Dancing through the Delphiniums’. It attracted lots of attention for its vibrant colour, perfumed fragrance and show-stopping design.

The annual Festival of Flowers has become a firm favourite in the Castle’s calendar with prestigious International floral designers, visitors of all ages to the Castle and social media influencers!

Each year, the principal State rooms inside “the loveliest Castle in the world” are transformed through incredible floristry designed to a theme – this year ‘a Floral Party’ in recognition of the Castle’s 900^th anniversary.

Across the six day event, the Castle welcomed over 21,000 visitors and people voted in the thousands for their favourite display – a very close race given the calibre of the designers this year.

Returning prestigious designers including Morgan Douglas Nuth from Old Oak Floral Designers in Ascot who dressed the Catherine of Aragon Bedroom and Dennis Kneepkens from the Netherlands who dressed the Henry VIII Banqueting Hall were both well received, narrowly missing out on the top spot.

As with all of his designs, Philip was inspired by the artefacts and textures of the surroundings for his design, in this case the beautiful delft pottery and luxurious tapestry work that adorns the space with a gentle nod to its Tudor origins. Colourful flowers including delphiniums, roses and two-tone blue and white hydrangeas reflected the details throughout the room. Slender birch trees created an intimate yet light setting for the ultimate ‘floral party’.

31-year-old Philip Hammond’s role as Designer Florist at The Dorchester sees him oversee the day-to-day operations of floristy, creating beautiful arrangements exclusively for the hotel and its guests. With over fifteen years floristry experience, his ability to create unfailingly beautiful displays has earned him an outstanding reputation within the industry.

Leeds Castle is located near Maidstone in Kent just off Junction 8 of the M20 and only one-hour’s drive from London. Grounds open at 10am daily and the Castle is open from 10.30am.