Wimbeldon's Flower Story
Game, set, match!
It’s July and that means one thing… we’re all going wild for Wimbledon. But while you all load up your jugs with Pimms, search for the freshest strawberries and begin chatting away to Sue Barker as if she’s your new best friend, there’s another thing that we at Freddie’s Flowers want you to get passionate about… and we think you can guess what it is. Yes, the Wimbledon flowers!
The 43 acres of Wimbledon house more than 50,000 plants, so there’s plenty to admire and learn from. Want to know more? Read on…
What flowers are there at Wimbledon?
We can’t go into all 50,000 of them (you have tennis to watch, after all) but we can tell you there are 15,000 petunias, 1,800 hydrangeas, 660 foxgloves and 575 lupins, housed in around 200 hanging baskets, 1,500 window boxes and a host of planters, troughs, herbaceous borders and floral installations. You’ll also most likely have spotted the living wall on No 1 court, the flowering plants chosen to encourage pollinators and enrich tranquillity in the space for both players (and their knuckle biting fans.) You might be less familiar with the beehive-shaped yew hedges behind Courts 8, 9, 10 and 11, or the various ornamental trees in giant wooden planters dotted around the area.
All of the gorgeous topiary and floral arrangements are chosen in Wimbledon colours, but also to evoke memories of the classic English garden… so, of course, that would be incomplete without a rose arbour.
Copyright: ©AELTC/Ben Queenborough and Wimbledon
Who looks after the flowers at Wimbledon?
The Wimbledon flowers are well cared for all year round, with nurturing involving bedding in, feeding, mulching, pruning, planting, potting, trimming, mowing, weeding and… phew… watering of course. It’s a big job taken on by nine full-time staff, plus a further nine seasonal gardeners. But still, dream job right?!
How did Wimbledon get its colours?
The present colours, that iconic dark green and purple, were introduced in 1909 following the discovery that the previous Club colours of blue, yellow, red and green were almost identical to those of the Royal Marines. Why they chose the colours we know so well today isn’t fully known, but we suspect the purple may be for the tournament’s long association with British royalty and the green for the grass. Recently, there has been an addition of subtle pinks and yellows to the long known colours.
Wimbledon flowers actually share their colours with the suffragette women which were chosen as green, white and violet… the acronym being GVW so Give Women Votes. There, we might have got you a point in your next pub quiz!
Re-create Wimbledon floristry at home
Don’t worry, you don’t need to hire a team of gardeners to recreate the flowers at Wimbledon in your home. Two years ago Wimbledon’s head gardener introduced the notion of Wimble-scaping where they offered tips on how viewers could create their own SW19 tributes.
Copyright @Time
Keeping your fresh flowers looking champion
Cut the stems on an angle and put into clean water
Add flower food – 1 sachet per litre
Change the water every two days
They will last longer in cool conditions, so keep out of direct heat and sunlight
The flowers in our flower subscription deliveries are so incredibly fresh that some of them are still closed when they arrive. This is unusual but it means you have the joy of watching them unfurl over the next few days.
And enjoy this year's Wimbledon!
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