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If you’re going to Buckingham Palace to lay flowers

258 replies

eldorado02 · 09/09/2022 12:46

The queue typically starts at Hyde Park Corner, so head there to save time.

it’s a wonderful, reverent atmosphere ❤️

OP posts:
inappropriateraspberry · 09/09/2022 15:56

Please don't lay flowers, give the money to charity, or put the money towards a plant for the garden.
I have never understood why people think a bunch of flowers unwatered and dying are a fitting tribute to anyone or anything. Wasteful and more work for people to clear up.

maddiemookins16mum · 09/09/2022 15:56

O11 · 09/09/2022 14:04

What a ridiculous comparison. Babies need nappies.

Nobody needs to be laying flowers for somebody they never met.

You’re missing my point. It’s not about the need (or otherwise) to lay flowers (or even about babies wearing nappies, of course they need to). It’s the pearl clutching about the plastic waste when millions of people every day in this country buy/toss away millions of nappies.

oakleaffy · 09/09/2022 16:02

mistermagpie · 09/09/2022 15:43

That's a nonsense. I work for a council waste department and big events always cause us problems, as with most council functions resources are stretched just for business as usual. Unplanned events are even more difficult to managed and mixed waste (flowers, card, teddies, plastic etc) will just end up in landfill.

Go, if you must, but why not donate to one of the Queen's favourite charities instead?

I don’t understand the soft toy thing at all.
Not for an adult, or outdoors.
They get sodden.
One very poignant thing that impressed me-
Years ago I knew a young woman (22)
I was 19.
She was an addict and said “ When I die, Will you put a Black Rose on my Grave?”
I said ( Name)
” Don’t be silly, you won’t die”
But she did. Of endocarditis after we lost touch.
I had no idea where she was buried, as she had no family ( In care all her life)
Decades later, a Cathedral had a service for drug users.
I picked a tiny bunch of flowers 🌸 from my gardenand put a label on, saying I couldn’t find where her grave was, but she was never forgotten.
I put them in an alcove, in a small jar.
Over a week later, they were still there, cared for, then put out in the churchyard.
The Verger said they’d said prayers for S.
Ok, Not the Queen, but S was shown Respect, too.

Interested in this thread?

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O11 · 09/09/2022 16:06

maddiemookins16mum · 09/09/2022 15:56

You’re missing my point. It’s not about the need (or otherwise) to lay flowers (or even about babies wearing nappies, of course they need to). It’s the pearl clutching about the plastic waste when millions of people every day in this country buy/toss away millions of nappies.

No, you're missing my point. People can use disposable nappies (a valid choice over cloth for many, for various reasons) and absolutely still be unhappy about the waste of flowers. It's a really poor comparison using nappies.

gatehouseoffleet · 09/09/2022 16:12

The Queen had favourite charities, donate to one of them and then just go along without any tat

Totally agree.

Still an ill wind and all that - florists will be making a decent amount out of this!

gatehouseoffleet · 09/09/2022 16:14

I have never understood why people think a bunch of flowers unwatered and dying are a fitting tribute to anyone or anything. Wasteful and more work for people to clear up

Me neither. I also don't understand why people send them to ill people or mums with new babies. Why would you want the effort of having to do something with them when you are unwell or dealing with a new baby (or potentially both). Flowers are not what you need.

And I'd say planting a tree would be a better tribute to the Queen.

Snowiscold · 09/09/2022 16:17

I don’t understand the flowers either. Just buy flowers and chuck them in your own bin straight away if you must.

User2145738790 · 09/09/2022 16:21

If you're not going to volunteer to go collect the stinking mulch in a few weeks time, don't lay flowers.

FinallyHere · 09/09/2022 16:21

Sparklybutold · 09/09/2022 12:58

Or donate to the local food bank? Or any charity for that matter!

This.

Commonhealthgames · 09/09/2022 16:23

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This has been deleted by MNHQ for breaking our Talk Guidelines.

Stevie6 · 09/09/2022 16:28

@oakleaffy that was a lovely thing to do

Pumperthepumper · 09/09/2022 16:37

I can’t wait until this stupid tradition dies out. The planet is on its knees due to environmental ignorance and people don’t give a shit. It’s self-indulgent bollocks and nothing more.

Sparklingbrook · 09/09/2022 16:38

A famous drummer from way back has his ashes interned in a graveyard not a million miles from me. People have laid drumsticks and cymbals and booze. 🤷‍♀️
Maybe they’re better than flowers because they just seem to stay there I think.

Sparklingbrook · 09/09/2022 16:42

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How can posting on MN be ‘controlling people’ they’re going to do what they like anyway. It’s all just opinion.

FredrikaPeri · 09/09/2022 16:43

Sparklybutold · 09/09/2022 12:58

Or donate to the local food bank? Or any charity for that matter!

This!!!

EugeneLevysEyebrow · 09/09/2022 16:46

This reply has been deleted

This has been deleted by MNHQ for breaking our Talk Guidelines.

In Judaism there’s a tradition of placing a stone on someone’s grave, and you never leave flowers on a grave. As a stone represents permanence, while flowers wither and die. Maybe the British public at large could adopt this!

EugeneLevysEyebrow · 09/09/2022 16:47

Sorry, I meant to reply to @Pumperthepumper in the above post!

Anothernamechangeplease · 09/09/2022 16:48

What's with all the cheering of Charles and Camilla? I mean, I get that he's the new king and all that, but it seems terribly poor taste to be shouting "hip hip hooray" to someone who has literally just lost his mother. If I were him, I'd be wanting to tell them to shut the fuck up, I reckon.

oakleaffy · 09/09/2022 16:52

Sparklingbrook · 09/09/2022 16:38

A famous drummer from way back has his ashes interned in a graveyard not a million miles from me. People have laid drumsticks and cymbals and booze. 🤷‍♀️
Maybe they’re better than flowers because they just seem to stay there I think.

Not John Bonham by any Chance??

ImPickleRickSpartacus · 09/09/2022 16:53

oakleaffy · 09/09/2022 16:52

Not John Bonham by any Chance??

My first thought was Keith Moon for some reason.

m00rfarm · 09/09/2022 17:24

It's their 10 pounds, and they should spend it however they want to. It is hardly a regular event.

ItsJustLittleOlMe · 09/09/2022 17:35

Treay · 09/09/2022 13:32

Donate the money you'd spend on flowers to a charity she was a patron of or as PP said a food Bank. Better then a wasted sea of flowers

Yes, this is the best suggestion on this thread. Donate to one of the charities that HMQ was a patron of, in her name.

LadyOfTheCanyon · 09/09/2022 17:37

Sparklingbrook · 09/09/2022 14:52

London florists will be putting their prices up presumably. People will be wanting to chuck them at the hearse in a week or so's time too.

Do you know, I really take fucking exception to this. Our company does its level best to keep prices as low as possible while still paying central London rent, business rates and energy bills plus wages, petrol, congestion and ULEZ charges, packaging, banking and recycling companies ( we segregate our mulchable waste from cardboard and plastics and the mulchable waste is turned back into compost which we then endeavour to buy back from the company when we need it.)

We are on our knees with the price increases since Brexit, no-one in the company has had a pay rise in over three years and a large proportion are on not much than minimum wage.

We are told repeatedly that our prices are too high, because people are so used to buying artificially surpressed priced flowers from supermarkets, supermarkets, it should be noted, who own their own farms in Africa and South America and who exploit the native resources and labour in those countries for pennies.

Independent British florists who buy from Europe are supporting their much higher labour charges, safety practices and laws ( and rightly so, although that's all gone to shit since Brexit.) The economy of scale doesn't work as a small florist, you have less storage, you can't buy as much, your prices are higher.

The last time there was an outpouring of grief for Sarah Everard ( we are near to Clapham) we were actively giving people discounts who were taking flowers to lay as a tribute, as we felt that profiteering from such a dreadful event felt wrong.
We will be doing the same this week - yes we will turn a profit, but a reduced one and frankly we aren't rubbing our hands together in glee at the thought of it.

This attitude really fucks me off and I usually have a lot of respect for @Sparklingbrook 's posts.

Sparklingbrook · 09/09/2022 17:37

oakleaffy · 09/09/2022 16:52

Not John Bonham by any Chance??

Yup. Bonzo himself. 🥁

itispersonal · 09/09/2022 17:47

Can't people do both I am planning on going on Sunday and I am torn with the flowers but want there to be more than Diana got!

So I'm going to buy a cheap bunch or a card and a donation to one of queens charities.

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