2021 – RHS Chelsea Flower Show with a twist

This is the first entry in our blog posts to mark the end of the growing season, and to reflect back on a year somewhat closer to normality. There have been several outings, and despite some initial nervousness over what might flower shows feel like, we have decided that there’s nothing quite like being part of real event and among people who share an interest in plants, gardening, wellness and growing your own.

It was fantastic being back at RHS Hampton Court Flower show – such an exquisite place to be (a must go-to for any keen gardener), and equally thrilling to be back at RHS Tatton Flower Show, our local RHS show. We enjoyed seeing our friendly customers from the BBC Gardeners’ World Show. And that brings us nicely to the biggest one of all – RHS Chelsea Flower Show.

Anyone who might have read our previous posts would possibly expect pictures of a new variety of Zantedeschia, or of a Zantedeschia display. If that is the case, you might be disappointed. We have decided that it is too late in the season to do justice to Zantedeschia, and therefore a change of direction was needed. A radical change of direction that is!

For the first ever Autumn RHS Chelsea Flower Show we exhibited baby leaf and salads, and other such edible leaves. As far as we are aware, that has not been done before; we had over 45 varieties on display starting with mizunas, pak choi, spicy mustard leaves, mescluns, frilly salad mixes, spicy salad mixes, oriental salad mixes – all the way to chop sui greens – aka – chrysanthemum!

We were delighted to be able to support the show, and even more delighted to get a gold medal for our display. In spite of all the sweating and worrying back at the nursery ahead of the show, the planted containers looked as we hoped they would, with the different colours and textures giving the exact effect we aimed for. Down at Chelsea Flower Show, we had help from lovely Abbie, the amazing young gardening woman from Grange-over-Sands, and we are in no doubt that it will only be a matter of time until we are helping Abbie set up her own stand at Chelsea!

Back at the nursery, a long and dry summer has meant a truly spectacular crop of dahlias at Brighter Blooms this year and a bumper crop from our allotment. We will enjoy the very short unseasonal spell of warm weather before digging out the dahlias and preparing for the winter.

Also back at the nursery, our visitors and customers came to collect their tulip bulb orders from the Tulip Open Weekend in April, and that was a an extremely good reason for coffee and cake! We would like to thank our amazing bakers – Susan and Ellie, as well as our expert bee-keepers Elaine and Steve who donated jars of honey from the bee hives we host at the nursery. We raised a fantastic £318.00 which, as ever, was split equally between Rosemere Cancer Foundation and Motivation Romania.

We hope everyone has a good winter, and we look forward to seeing everyone in the new growing season! Stay well and keep gardening!