Strawberry Hill House & Garden in Twickenham is set to transform into a magical realm this September as the UK's most sustainable flower festival returns.

Taking place over one weekend, the Strawberry Hill Flower Festival will see the historic Gothic villa reimagined as a "faery-tale castle," with over 50 of the UK's leading botanical artists creating spellbinding floral installations inspired by folklore, fairy tales, and the supernatural.

Now in its seventh year, all designs used in the festival use British-grown flowers and sustainable techniques, with no floral foam, single-use plastics, or imported blooms.

Florists forage, grow, or locally source their materials, and organisers say "the only waste from this festival ends up on the compost heap."

Guest curated by Gaia Eros, a botanical artist known for pushing boundaries in natural design, this year's theme draws on the mystical and fantastical.

The Faery Tale Castle: Strawberry Hill House Flower Festival 2025 (credit: Janne Ford).

Visitors can expect to encounter spinning wheels, witch's perfume tables, flying carpets, a goblin market, and even a giant spider weaving its way through the gardens.

Built in the 18th century by writer and collector Horace Walpole, Strawberry Hill House is often described as Britain's first fairy-tale castle and helped spark the Gothic revival.

Inside, visitors will explore a series of theatrical rooms with gilded fan vaults and mirrored alcoves, while outside, the gardens reflect Walpole's pioneering ideas on beauty and landscape design.

The festival has become a highlight of Twickenham's cultural calendar, combining floral artistry, history, sustainability and storytelling in a uniquely immersive way.

Rather than offering a traditional flower show experience, the event celebrates floristry as a form of visual and narrative art, with installations curated to surprise and delight around every corner.

This year's festival also champions neurodivergent artists, whose distinctive approaches align with the event's ethos of embracing difference and originality.

Fiona Pickles Flower Festival 2021 (credit: Justin Coe).

While not explicitly labelled, their work reflects the festival's values of inclusivity and unbounded creativity.

Alongside the displays, visitors can enjoy a rich programme of talks and events, giving rare insight into the creative process and encouraging guests to engage more deeply with both nature and design.

"The Flower Festival has become a defining moment in our cultural calendar," said Dr David Gaimster, Director of Strawberry Hill House.

"It unites artistic excellence with an ethos of sustainability that feels both timely and deeply rooted in the spirit of the house."

Guest curator Gaia Elkington added: "It's the moment in the floral year where florists come together non-competitively to create magic—elevating each other and showing guests the extraordinary possibilities of botanical art."

Event Details:

• Where: Strawberry Hill House & Garden, 268 Waldegrave Road, Twickenham TW1 4ST
• When: September 2025 – specific dates to be confirmed via the venue's website

Tickets are available via the Strawberry Hill House website. To find out more click here.

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