The sun is finally shining and London has burst into bloom thanks to our dear friend, Lewis Miller and his Flower Flashes!

Lewis Miller is the resident florist for our New York Hotels, Crosby Street Hotel and The Whitby Hotel.

You may remember his stunning work on vamping up the tussles of our Botero sculpture Crosby The Cat in New York, just in time for his Met Gala visit – oh doesn’t our boy look the belle of the ball!

He also dressed him up for New York Flower Week back in 2019.

We have always loved collaborating with Lewis and adore his eye for colour and detail when it comes to appreciating the beauty of so many different flowers. We have previously created a spectacular floral Afternoon Tea at The Whitby Hotel in partnership with Lewis Miller Design.

Lewis is renowned in New York for his guerrilla ‘flower flash’ street displays, where he decorates various spots in the city in the middle of the night with colourful floral installations for onlookers to enjoy the following day.

This week in London, Lewis has collaborated with Royal florist legend, Simon Lycett, to bring his ‘flower flash’ to London for the first time. His simple aim was to “create a positive, emotional response through flowers.” They were recruited by The Flower Council for their ‘We Need More Flowers’ campaign, which seeks to remind people how flowers are central to so many of life’s important moments.

The pair have set up three installations across the capital – The iconic Eros statue at Picadilly Circus, the phone boxes on Great Windmill Street in Soho and in Dray Walk, off East London’s Brick Lane.

The Statue of Eros has never looked so fabulous, overflowing with a cascading splash of pinks, purples and reds, sitting under the beautiful winged archer posed with his bow.

In Greek mythology, Anteros was the god of requited love. We think he would be smiling down at this display.

Lewis says: “What initially began as an experiment to reinvigorate and reconnect us to our craft, turned into a beautiful shared experience in a city of millions… Seeing people’s reactions to our Flower Flashes emphasises the basic goodness in all people… Your city may be next!”

Designed simply to spark joy, more than 12,000 fresh blooms from Covent Garden Flower Market were used in these extravagant flashes. Members of the public are being encouraged to pluck a stem, or even create their own personal bouquet to take away, completely free of charge.

Lewis commented “This is the first time I’ve created flower flashes outside my beloved New York and it’s a fascinating social experiment to see how Londoners react to them. In New York, people flock to take the flowers. Will cultural stereotypes prevail and Londoners hang back and be more reserved?”

Check out our previous blog post on Lewis Miller Designs and his floral creations here.