Victoria is the pick of national bunch

The 27-year-old, who worked at flower wholesaler Peter H Smiths Ltd in Preston for five years, was the pick of the UK’s professional florists, having beaten hundreds in the nationwide competition heats, then 16 competitors in the final.

“I am absolutely thrilled”, said Victoria, who this week has taken a job at a high-end florist’s in London, having worked freelance at events throughout the North West.

“It’s been a really challenging six weeks in the making, so I am delighted to have achieved such a fantastic result.”

Victoria and her fellow finalists were given six weeks to design and make a Floral Kite using mostly fresh flowers along the theme of ‘Urban Streets and Summer Skies’.

As the show opened to the public, the Floral Kites were suspended in mid-air from the rafters of the Floristry Zone in Chelsea’s Great Pavilion.

“My Floral Kite design a traditional shape is based on where the kite originated from, china”, said Victoria, from Blackpool, who completed a floral design degree at Myercough College.

“I used bamboo, embroidery silks and Phalanopsis orchids to depict the origin of the design. I then used the colours cerice pinks and oranges to depict the sunsets and sunrises.

“Finally the yellow craspedia balls are used to represent the sun”.

The piece took 600 hours to create, with Victoria working alone and tasked with finding flowers that would withstand four days on display and rising temperatures.

She now hopes to enter European competitions and travel during her career.