A YOUNG florist from Tetbury celebrated her win at a national florist competition in the Chelsea Flower Show.
Hannah Lee, 23, who has been working at Scentiments in Tetbury for nearly 10 years, was awarded a silver medal for the Chelsea Young Florist of the Year 2016 competition.
She had to qualify from around 500 nationwide entries to compete as one of the top 16 florists who were under 25.
To qualify, Hannah had to design and make a bouquet for a beach wedding.
At Chelsea, for the final round of the competition, she then was asked to create a Brazilian carnival headdress.
The design had to be no wider than one metre and two-thirds of its material composition had to be fresh flower or plant material.
Her design, which featured a bold and intricate display of red, orange and yellow flowers, gained interest from well-known figures including Ainsley Harriott and Mr Motivator.
The competition graded the young florists with gold, silver or bronze medals. Of the 16 finalists, one attained gold, four attained silvers and several were awarded bronze.
It is the third time that Hannah has entered the competition, winning a bronze in 2012 and receiving a silver gilt in 2014.
(Mr Motivator in front of the award-winning headdress by Hannah Lee)
Hannah began working at Scentiments when she was 13 as a Saturday girl. She later pursued floristry at college, gaining her level three qualification at the City of Bath College.
She said: “I feel amazing and really happy. It makes all hard work worthwhile. It’s enough of an honour to get there in the first place.
"I had a really good response at Chelsea with a lot of people recognising the shop name and Tetbury. I hope this is a start.”
With only a few years left to enter the competition, Hannah said that she was hoping to get a gold grading the next time. She said: “You really have to up your game to get gold. This year, my headdress wasn’t very wearable.”
She added: “Many thanks to friends and family, for helping me get up there and helping me with the logistics. And thanks to Jo, owner of Scentiments, for being very helpful.”
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