Businesswoman named patron of Chichester Cathedral Festival Of Flowers

The ceramics manufacturer was announced at a celebratory event at the cathedral today to mark the start of preparations for the biennial event.

She said: ‘The natural world produces a spiritual and emotional effect on me.

‘I am really delighted to be involved with the festival.

‘I feel a keen sense of anticipation already for that moment when you step into Chichester Cathedral to find it mystically transformed with flowerts.’

More than 80 floral arrangements will be included in the festival, which is on from May 31 to June 2, 2018.

The theme will be ‘This Earthly Paradise’, while the festival flower is the Nostalgia rose.

Festival designer Jose Morum-Pound said: ‘This year’s theme will explore plant hunting, botany, horticulture and gardening, celebrating the plants which gave the continents their unique identity and fed the imagination which continues to inspire today’s gardeners and explorers.