City of Bath College’s long-standing reputation for floristry has skyrocketed after its talented students notched up another prestigious award.
Floristry students secured a bronze award at the Tatton Park Flower Show to add to their already impressive collection of accolades.
Judges from the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) were full of praise for their contemporary black and white floral display called ‘Orbit of the Galaxy.’
It comes just two weeks after the students walked off with a Gold Medal and the Best Floristry College Exhibit for their 1950s floral living room display at The RHS Hampton Court Flower Show.
Floristry tutor Louise Rawlings said: “The profile of the College has now gone through the roof!
“We already had a well-established reputation but now everyone in floristry circles has heard of us.
“People are talking about our success and we are now known as the place to go to study floristry.
“To get medals from both RHS flower shows in the space of a couple of weeks is just massive.
“It’s an amazing achievement and we are so proud of all the students’ hard work.”
The Level 3 Floristry Diploma students spent three days putting together their Galaxy-themed display at Tatton Park in Cheshire after being invited to exhibit at the show for the first time.
The display was based around 12 black vases on pillars of different heights. White flowers, including carnations and orchids, were created into round spheres to look like planets in the solar system and the display was lit with fairy lights.
Louise said: “It’s amazing we won a bronze award; we are so pleased.
“We have shown we can do traditional displays so we wanted to try out a more modern display. We tried to create something a little different, something that had the wow factor.
“The black and white colour scheme immediately caught people’s attention.
“Tatton Park was a very different show to Hampton Court and we were competing against five new colleges from the north of England.”
Tatton Park and Hampton Court Flowers Shows are the latest in a long line of achievements for the College’s Floristry department.
Students beat top florists to land bronze medals in the Chelsea Florist of the Year competition in 2011 and 2012 and the College saw student Megan Troughton competing at the Chelsea Flower Show this year.
Several students have also scooped top prizes in the New Covent Garden Market College Award, beating off competition from 25 other UK colleges.