PULSE Newsletter Issue 3

2 firsts for Summer 2026 - Play On!

The RHS's newest major show wrapped on Sunday — and by all accounts, Badminton delivered. Running 8–12 July in the grounds of Badminton Park, South Gloucestershire, it's the RHS's summer counterpart to Chelsea: more countryside, more relaxed, with a strong emphasis on British landscape and the healing qualities of nature.

This year's show gave out 11 Gold medals, with the Cricket Pavilion Garden winning Best in Show and Sophie Leo crowned RHS Young Designer of the Year. The showpiece was Tom Stuart-Smith's The Julia Rausing Garden — the largest show garden ever presented at an RHS show at 2,400m² — alongside themed gardens exploring mental wellbeing, biodiversity and grief.

For florists, the Floral Marquee is the headline: over 70 exhibitors showing their summer work in one place. The show also featured live willow-weaving demonstrations, which fits neatly with growing interest in sustainable floristry mechanics as alternatives to floral foam. Design themes across the gardens — nature, wellbeing, restoration — are the kind of mood that translates directly into client briefs.

If your customers visited, they'll be full of inspiration right now. If they didn't, it's well worth having on their radar for 2027.

Hasbro announced Blooms by Play-Doh this week — the brand's first-ever range aimed at adults. The kits let you sculpt realistic floral arrangements using specially formulated compound, moulds, tools, a vase and a finishing spray that holds the flowers in shape for months. Four kits at launch (Garden Bouquet, Meadow Bouquet, Rosy Petite Bouquet, Wildflower Petite Bouquet), starting at $24.99, available now on Amazon and major US retailers with a TikTok Shop debut on 16 July.

It's the same cultural wave that drove the LEGO botanical range — grown-up craft, home décor, the idea that making something floral is a legitimate leisure activity. And that's worth paying attention to.

The people buying Blooms by Play-Doh are the same people booking flower arranging workshops, buying themselves weekly stems, and spending more on occasion flowers. This kind of product doesn't compete with florists — it feeds the same appetite. Every time someone spends an evening crafting a Play-Doh rose, they're reinforcing the idea that flowers belong in their home and flowers are worth their time.

Worth watching as it rolls out in the UK market!

Here are some important floral dates for your diary:

6 August 2026 – BFA Industry Awards: Public vote opens (finalists announced 12 Aug)

27 September 2026 – National Federation of Young Farmers' Clubs National Final — Floral Art

3 October 2026 – BFA Industry Awards Ceremony & Gala Dinner, Nottingham (FleurEx 2026)

October 2026 – FleurEx 2026 BFA's flagship event for retail florists and students

RHS Badminton Flower Show 2026 (https://www.rhs.org.uk/shows-events/rhs-badminton-flower-show)

Gold medals revealed — ProLandscaper (https://www.prolandscapermagazine.com/2026/07/08/rhs-badminton-flower-show-2026-gold-medals-revealed/)

7 highlights — Pro Landscaper (https://www.prolandscapermagazine.com/2026/07/10/7-highlights-from-rhs-badminton-flower-show-2026/)

New for Summer 2026 — Wildflower Magazine (https://wildflowermagazine.co.uk/rhs-badminton-flower-show-new-for-summer-2026/)

Blooms by Play-Doh — Hasbro (https://newsroom.hasbro.com/news-releases/news-release-details/hasbro-introduces-blooms-play-doh-new-creative-experience)