Gifts come in all shapes and sizes. Kennett Blooms Floral Flash is an extraordinary and extravagant seven-part gift that will be presented to the Kennett community the weekend of June 9th through 11th, when local floral designers will transform seven locations throughout Kennett Square with a profusion of blooms.
Floral Flash showcases the creativity, artistry, and cultural diversity of these designers, who will create installations celebrating the multi-sensory beauty, colors, textures, and fragrances of flowers. Floral Flash is free and accessible to everyone in the community.
Kennett Collaborative created Floral Flash out of love for the community, as perfectly reflected in last year’s installation by The Farm at Oxford and The Gardeness. (Becca Matthias, photo)
Reimagining the familiar
Kennett Collaborative staff were inspired by the work of New York florist Lewis Miller to create last year’s first Floral Flash event in Kennett Square. Miller’s pop-up Flower Flash installations elicit joy and surprise by creating moments of beauty in unexpected, even unlikely, places—think a trash can reimagined as a vase for a giant bouquet of flowers, a traffic barricade cascading with blossoms, or a disused phone booth overflowing with a profusion of blooms. Kennett Blooms Floral Flash was born out of a desire to create something similar, with a uniquely local flavor, for the Kennett community to enjoy.
Floral Flash reimagines familiar, ordinary spaces with spectacular—and temporary—installations to be enjoyed and savored. Kennett Blooms Floral Flash also honors the history of floriculture in the area. While Kennett Square is famous for its mushrooms, the area was first known for its “glass houses” where carnations, roses, and chrysanthemums were grown and shipped far and wide. Floral Flash is also a fitting celebration for the hometown of Longwood Gardens, one of the world’s premier botanical gardens.
Last year’s Floral Flash display by Liz Megill of Allaire. This year, her interactive installation will be located in the Genesis Walkway. (Becca Matthias, photo)
Reimagining seven locations around Kennett Square
Kennett Blooms Floral Flash 2023 will bring beauty to different corners of Kennett Square—from State Street to Kennett High School and Cannery Row. “Part of what brought me the most joy last year was seeing the community interact with these installations that brought curiosity and wonderment to these spaces over the weekend of Floral Flash,” says Kennett Collaborative Community Engagement Manager Kelli Prater. “After seeing what the designers came up with last year, which went above and beyond our expectations, I’m even more excited to see this year’s creations.”
Kennett Collaborative coordinates the Floral Flash sites and designers and provides grants to each artist to create their unique installations. This year there will be seven different Floral Flash locations around town. Plans are being finalized for sites including the new Kennett Library, The Market at Liberty Place, Wawa on Cypress Street, and Cannery Row. This year’s designers are Kristin Burdumy, Hilltop Flower Co., The Farm at Oxford, The Gardeness, Zena Florist, Allaire Design Co., Indigo Floral Co., and Sonny Bea’s.
Floral Flash is designed for everyone, of all ages, to enjoy. Last year’s installation by Joyfield Fields incorporated a grassy floral hopscotch board. (Becca Matthias, photo)
The installation in the Genesis Walkway by Liz Megill of Allaire Design Co. will be an interactive, family-friendly display with an Alice in Wonderland theme. Another spectacular Floral Flash display, by Zena Florist in collaboration with Kennett Summerfest title sponsor Coccoon, will be part of the Kennett Summerfest area on the 100 block of South Broad Street on Sunday, June 11th. “We are excited to provide some unconventional joy for the community via an explosion of flowers!” says Zena Florist owner Maria Navarrete-Olvera. Tickets for Kennett Summerfest are still available at kennettsummerfest.com.
Local high school graduates enjoyed taking advantage of the spectacular photo backdrops that the various Floral Flash installations afforded on graduation weekend last year. This year’s Floral Flash event is once again timed to coincide with graduation weekend—and, new this year, a seventh Floral Flash installation will pop up on the Kennett High School grounds.
Kennett Summerfest attendees will once again have exclusive access on Sunday afternoon to a stunning Floral Flash installation by Zena Florist. (Becca Matthias, photo)
Kennett Collaborative intentionally chose Floral Flash sites throughout the Borough to encourage the community and visitors to explore different areas and to make the displays as accessible as possible for people. Prater says the hope is that this year’s installations will once again bring beauty, joy, and new life to different areas of town. The temporary nature of these installations, for one weekend only, makes them all the sweeter. “I want to encourage people to take the time to find each location and to enjoy each one—to slow down, take a breath, and be with it,” Prater says. “We’ve all had a tough May, and we need to take moments to enjoy gifts like these.”
Follow @kennett.collaborative for updates and a map of Floral Flash locations.
Photos by Becca Matthias.
