Gill Hodgson awarded MBE for services to Floristry
Gill Hodgson, the founder of The Farewell Flowers Directory, Flowers from the Farm and Fieldhouse Flowers in Yorkshire has been awarded an MBE for Services to Floristry in the 2025 New Year Honours List.
Based in Everingham in Yorkshire and deeply passionate about British-grown flowers and sustainability, Gill Hodgson has transformed the world of floristry in the UK. Gill is the founder of Flowers from the Farm, an award-winning association championing artisan growers of British cut flowers, and of The Farewell Flowers Directory, an online listing service that aims to remove plastic floral foam from the funeral industry by connecting people to florists who offer fully compostable funeral flowers.
Speaking about the Award Gill said: “I am utterly delighted to be awarded an MBE in recognition for my work in raising the profile of British flowers and for encouraging so many more people to make a career out of growing them for market. I couldn’t have achieved so much had it not been for the support of the wonderful past Chairs and Regional Co-ordinators of Flowers from the Farm who have worked alongside me and become lifelong friends.
Over the past decade British flowers have developed from an unknown, often denigrated, product into a top-class brand recognised everywhere for their quality. The tremendous boost of receiving this award means I'm really looking forward to 2025 and working with The Farewell Flowers Directory to bring similar success to the previously overlooked world of funeral flowers, taking them out of the shadows and into the limelight.”
Gill launched her own flower farming business of Fieldhouse Flowers in Everingham, Yorkshire in 2010, selling from an honesty box at the farm gate. On discovering that there was no business organisation of flower growers she could join, Gill set about creating one. In 2011, she founded Flowers from the Farm, a not-for-profit membership association with the stated aims of promoting local, seasonal British cut flowers, encouraging more people to grow for market in the UK and fostering a spirit of friendship and cooperation.
Ten years later under Gill’s leadership, Flowers from the Farm had grown to 1000 member businesses across the UK, scooped over 40 awards including a coveted RHS Gold at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show and supplied flowers to Westminster Abbey for the coronation of King Charles III. Gill has been recognised with a Prime Minister’s Points of Light award and a Northern Power Women award.
In May 2024, Gill embarked on her next mission, founding The Farewell Flowers Directory, a pioneering online listing service that connects people to independent funeral florists across the UK who can create natural, beautiful and compostable floral arrangements. Its purpose is to remove floral foam from funeral floristry and demonstrate that, in Gill’s words “you don’t have to sacrifice beauty for sustainability”.
Gill with one of the eco style tributes she promotes on her website. Picture by Andrea Gilpin
