Chelsea Flower Show

COMMUNITY: CO-OP

Co-op celebrates Communities in Bloom at Chelsea Flower Show

Co-op is to exhibit at RHS Chelsea Flower Show for the first time this year.

The supermarket’s garden, titled ‘Communities in Bloom’, will be on show in London on 21-26 September.

The garden, which has been designed to celebrate the supermarket’s ‘horticulture revolution’ in the past couple of years, showcases the two bedrocks of its flower offer: seasonal British blooms and Fairtrade flowers.

The garden, designed by landscape gardeners and Chelsea veterans Sallis & Chandler, is centred around a message of hope, that when communities come together, they can change the world around them for the better. The design focuses on three core elements – access to food, education and mental wellbeing, and the real difference Co-op’s partnerships with like-minded organisations in these areas can make.

The garden’s centrepiece is a children’s playground, where communities naturally come together, and artworks around the garden have been created by students from Co-op Academy schools and express their hopes for the future.

The design also features an allotment area to symbolise how important sustainable solutions for local communities is.

Gemma Gray, Horticulture Technical Manager at Co-op, said: “We are so proud to celebrate the power of communities at our RHS Chelsea Flower Show exhibit, working with designers, Sallis & Chandler to weave this into the garden’s design, through the beauty of flowers.

“Where we can, we’ve used Fairtrade and British flowers to support communities at home and around the world. We were the first UK supermarket florist to use 100% Fairtrade roses sourced from Africa and every Fairtrade flower sold supports the flower farmers, pickers and their communities in Kenya.”

● For those visiting the show, the Co-op’s garden is site number GFP 224.