There was a news article on the local news about people leaving flowers at Sandringham. It would not be an exaggeration to say there was a field of them. Yards & yards of cut & thus dying flowers.
Imagine all the good that could have been done if instead of leaving cut & thus dying flowers, donations had been made. So instead of flowers which will have to be cleared away & probably at public expense. The money spent had been given to help British charities.
Imagine the impact of a QEII wood being planted by a public subscription in her meomory. Acres of native trees, and native flowers. Which in decades to come would still exist. While those cut flowers will last days.
Imagine the good that could have come had all the money that has been spent on flowers instead been given to a mixture of charities such as mental health. Help the aged, homelessness or given to foodbanks. Surely that would have been more respectful than something so momentary as cut flowers.
But this had been planned for decades ago. A Queen dying is not something that results in panic planning. They always have every detail planned. So why in all that planning & it probably involved many many people. Across many many years. Did they not think of asking for donations instead of flowers?
Asking for donations instead of flowers is not a new concept. It’s a common request & has been for decades. So why would someone who all these royalists are telling “was of the people.” Not want donations instead of flowers?
Totally agree with you - I have been thinking along the same lines ever since I saw the mountains of cut flowers and cellophane wrappings piling up outside the Royal residences and parks.
I thought the same thing when Diana died too.
The flowers don’t even look pretty when they are left wrapped up on the ground in a heap like that - although I noticed the gardeners at Windsor did a good job to try to make the load of flowers left there to look like neat flowerbeds lining the Long Walk.
I guess folk feel like they want to leave a visible token of appreciation but my choice would be to do something with a more lasting effect - nearly every funeral I’ve attended requests “no flowers” or “family flowers only”, often with an indication of a particular charity you can donate to instead.
King Charles has already extended the final date for donations to The Queen’s Green Canopy project, which was started to commemorate The Platinum Jubilee, to allow folk to make donations to plant trees in her memory.
That sounds a nicer idea than leaving yet another bunch of flowers.
I suppose its human reaction though - death = laying flowers. You asee it all over the place at sites of tragedy.
Hindsight is a great thing. Yes money to charity or something other than flowers would have been great, but nobody thinks of that. Maramalade sandwiches because of a skit with Paddinton Bear…who leaves sarnies lying around?
That would work for a dozen or two at a small family affair. But for something on this scale, it’s probably best to do/say nothing and let the petrol station flower pile up … oh so dramatic.
On the way up to Windsor castle, those bunches of flowers were the ones left by members of the public. Each bunch had been unwrapped and re-tied with twine prior to being laid out.
Well I thought the flowers looked brilliant, and charities squander enough money with most of it not getting to go where it was meant to go. Imagine all the jobs created in supplying the flowers, with employees contributing to the national purse and circulating their wages back into the economy. It’s just a pity that some of it will go to bolster up a war in a far off land.
I suppose people wanted to leave some token to mark the passing of the longest serving monarch in British history, donations, although commendable, aren’t visible, people wanted to show their love and gratitude, so laying flowers was their way of showing that.
I was really pleased that they asked people not to put them there with paper or ribbons so they could go for compost
Leaving them in their papers always looks ugly
I think flowers represent of life and death, beautiful blossoms blooming then dying so they are symbolic at funerals
And there’s a feeling of sacrificing them as a tribute
I like to see some flowers on the coffin as it travels in the hearse and at the grave, it looks even more bleak somehow without them, they are a symbol of caring
But I don’t think there’s any point of these mountains of them from the public just going to compost and the cost could have gone to a good cause
My mum was buried during lockdown with just six of us at the graveside. I had roses on her coffin but told friends and relatives to buy themselves a bunch of flowers or a plant for their garden one sunny day in the future and remember her that way
But they have been planning this funeral since 2000, according to the Times newspaper. And that seems reasonable, as it’s a big event & they would have pre planned it & had committees etc set up to discuss the fine details & no one thought, let’s make it something that leaves something better behind, than dead flowers that need clearing up.!
I know many people leave flowers as a way of displaying something to others. But many people would have not left flowers & instead left a lasting legacy.
As I have said making donations instead of flowers is anything but a new concept. Many people do it, so why not the queen?
When my grandmother died many years ago, it was what she wanted. She loved flowers, so asked for flowers to be planted. So donations were made to a group who were organising a community orchard to plant wild native flowers too.
According to The Observatory of Economic Complexity, the UK imports $832 million pounds of flowers. And from what I have seen most of them arrive in Dutch lorries, using Dutch deisel. Yes, some jobs will be maintained by this massive sales boost. But a big percentage of the profit will not remain within the UK economy.
Sometimes it’s just nice to do something without thinking of how it may benefit others or the planet. I’m sure that the laying of cut flowers made people feel a lot better and showed that they care, and wanted to support the royal family at their time of loss. A few quid in a charity box is not a very good demonstration of the love many people felt for the deceased.
