Celebrating the Merry Month of May at FlourishFest 2025

In May 2024 we celebrated a new Roots and Shoots spring community open day FlourishFest, and it was such a success that we’ve decided to make it an annual tradition - FlourishFest is here to stay. Each year for the event we celebrate the positive impacts of connecting with nature in the city, with activities centred on wildlife, creativity, and urban gardening.

For FlourishFest 2025, which took place on Sunday 18th May, we leaned into our heritage and the Merry Month of May with a May Pole and dancing across the day. To add to the festive celebrations, we hosted an incredibly popular flower crown-making workshop with our Floristry teacher Elaine using bundles of seasonal flowers from the nearby New Covent Garden Flower Market in Vauxhall. 

Celebrated Chinese singer-songwriter Yijia Tu and her zither joined us for two performances, and Early musicians William Summers and Patricia Hammond floated their breathy woodwinds and harmonies through the gardens. Under the Oak Tree, as our popular tradition, children joined our talented staff for a musical story telling experience.

In the afternoon, the brilliant Cloud Gardener Jason Williams who often appears on television, gave a talk on community gardening in the UK and around the world.

With our luscious gardens in full-flower, visitors explored nature-based activities across the site including making clay wildflower seed-bomb animals, pond dipping and newt-watching with Andre the pond expert, and planting flowers in our new Wild Garden community flower border. Once again delicious tacos made by Spencer, a regular garden volunteer fed the crowds, alongside oodles of delicious homemade cakes. 

FlourishFest is an event inspired by Roots and Shoots’ transformational story - from a polluted ex-industrial site into a place filled with beautiful, thriving nature-filled gardens and educational spaces. The charity’s history illustrates that any place, no matter how degraded, can be restored by communities into places filled with life - a haven for people and wildlife alike. At FlourishFest we share the joy that our oasis provides people in the city - inviting Londoners to relax, enjoy, and take a breath amongst the flowers.

Thank you to wonderful Daniel Fraser and Elzbieta Piekacz for photographing the event as volunteers!

Our next community open day will be Roots and Shoots Goes Wild! On Sunday 5th October 2025, with details coming soon…