Nymphaea lotus Coptic flag. Claire Waight Keller included the flower to represent Malawi in Meghan Markle's wedding veil, which included the distinctive flora of each Commonwealth country. In some parts of Africa the rhizomes and tubers are eaten for the starch they contain either boiled, roasted or ground to a flour after drying. The young fruits are sometimes consumed as a salad. The seeds are turned into a meal. The tubers or the seeds are used as a famine food in India. The ancient Egyptians cultivated the white lotus in ponds and marshes. This flower often appears in ancient Egyptian decorations. They
National Association of Flower Arrangement Societies the horticultural societies and it soon had five hundred members. The Flower Academy was an event staged at the Royal Horticultural Society’s New Hall in London when the four existing flower arranging clubs in the country joined to stage a floral arrangements exhibition. The Colchester Flower Club, the Dorset Floral Decoration Club, the Leicester and County Flower Lovers Guild and the London Floral Decoration Society arranged 350 floral exhibits which attracted huge crowds and became ‘news’. Visitors returned home and clubs were formed throughout the country. Guidance from the Royal Horticultural Society was sought in 1954 when Mary Pope approached