Floral artist and five times gold medal winner at RHS Chelsea Flower Show Jpseh Massie has been commissioned to create The 'G'rown Jewels by high street retailer Wilko, in celebration of Queen Elizabeth's 90th birthday.
Credit: Wilko
Unveiled this week in front of Tower Bridge, the tribute was crafted by hand and took a team of five people over 100 man hours to complete using 2,500 flower heads and over 20 litres of soil weighing in at 100kg.
Massie used 20 varieties of flowers, such as Sweet Peas, Pansies and Sunflowers, and the installation even includes a soil cushion.
Massie said: "I was delighted when Wilko commissioned me to make the 'G'rown Jewels. It was a really exciting and unique piece to work on and, from an artist's perspective posed a number of unique challenges.
"Flowers are natural and each one is unique - so no two flowers were the same when it came to manipulating them into the final piece. The most difficult part was getting it to look as close to the real thing as possible. I've never done anything quite like this before but, though it was a real challenge, it was really good fun putting it all together. I'm really pleased with the final result and I think the effort has really paid off - it looks stunning."
A Wilko spokesperson added: "The Queen's 90th birthday is a monumental occasion for the British public this year and we wanted to do something spectacular to congratulate Her Majesty. Joseph Massie is one of the Europe's top botanical artists so we knew that he was the right person to help us celebrate this special day.
"As one of the leading retailers of gardening equipment and seeds we were able to provide everything Joseph need to create this stunning tribute. The overwhelming scale combined with the minute intricacy of the work makes this a royal masterpiece that's fit for the Queen.
"Normally, you'd get a bouquet of flowers for your birthday, but we wanted to congratulate the Queen the Wilko way. We're blooming delighted with our tribute and hope Her Majesty is, too."