RHS Chelsea Flower Show
Gardening trends kicked off at Chelsea
Awards for sustainable products, on-trend colours and merchandising ideas hint at a good summer’s trading ahead.
R
eturning to its traditional week in mid-May, the RHS Chelsea Flower Show was awash with inspiration for customers, regardless of the size of garden, and ideas for retailers to help boost sales of plants and products for the summer ahead. GTN brings you news from the show, and inspiration and ideas from the gardens and trade stands to use back at the garden centre helping capture the imagination of consumers. Royal reds, regal purples, pinks and whites were the favoured plant colours of the Show Gardens with lupins, roses and foxgloves providing much of the eyecatching spectacle. Of note was the deep claret poppy called ‘Lauren’s grape’ loved not only by show visitors but also Chelsea’s resident bees which found it an irresistible draw. It featured on several gardens as did David Austin’s beautiful English shrub rose ‘Desdemona’ of the softest white and the deep purple lupin ‘Masterpiece’. Lupins of
all colours were very much in evidence too. Keeping with the purple theme, it was a deep claret semponium (a cross between a sempervivum and aeonium) that took the prize of Chelsea Plant of the Year. Bred by Surreal Succulents in Penzance, drought tolerant x Semponium ‘Destiny’ has rosettes around 60cm across and leaves keep their dark purple colouring all year round. Yellow flowers are an added attraction and once mature, the plant will begin to branch. Second place went to a long flowering (seven-eight months) pink thrift Armeria pseudarmeria ‘Dreamland’ with the third prize going to Salvia ‘Pink Amistad’ a relation of the popular purple/blue flowering Salvia ‘Amistad’.
Tribute to Peter Seabrook Plants from Peter’s garden plus his wellingtons, overalls and one of his signature ties graced a display in the
Molli Christman, Neil Gow, Val Christman and Alan Titchmarsh enjoy Peter’s tribute display and the new sweet pea.
10 June 2022
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