What happens to the flowers left in memory of the Queen?

Royal Parks said unwrapping the plastic around the bunch will aid the longevity of the flowers and will help them to be composted

Mourners have been rolling up their sleeves to help remove the plastic wrappings from floral tributes for the late Queen Elizabeth II.

Helpful volunteers have been pictured in Green Park near Buckingham Palace stripping the flowers of their plastic wrappings so that they can be composted once they have deteriorated.

Royal Parks, which manages London’s eight royal parks, have asked mourners to only lay organic or compostable material and to remove all wrapping from floral tributes.

Despite the request, many of the bunches of flowers left outside royal homes and in pop-up memorial gardens since the Queen’s death last Thursday are wrapped.

Unwrapping the plastic around the bunch will aid the longevity of the flowers and will help them to be composted, the charity said. The flowers are expected to be composted starting between one week and a fortnight after Queen Elizabeth II’s funeral on Monday 19 September.

Royal Parks said they will be taken to Hyde Park nursery for processing to prepare them for composting, where labels and cards will be separated from the flowers and stored and any wrapping will be removed.

The flowers will then be composted at Kensington Gardens, and the organic composted material will be used on shrubberies and landscaping projects across the Royal Parks.

Royal Parks have requested that people bring their flowers unwrapped to help them to eventually be composted. (Getty Images)

Staff from the Royal household distribute flowers to the public in Green Park, near Buckingham Palace, London. (PA)

The wrappings will be sent to a mixed recycling centre where any material that can be recycled will be, the charity said.

Royal Parks said it was asking visitors not to bring non-floral tributes such as teddy bears or balloons in the interests of sustainability but is not stopping people from leaving them if they do.

“We will store any teddies and artefacts that have been left and will work closely with our partners to agree what we do with them over the next few months with discretion and sensitivity,” Royal Parks said in a statement.

After the death of Princess Diana in 1997, somewhere between 10 to 15 tonnes of flowers were reported to have been deposited outside various royal palaces.

Tens of thousands of people have lined the streets in Edinburgh and queued for hours to see the Queen’s coffin at St Giles’ Cathedral before it is flown to London on Tuesday evening.