It's not just show gardens to visit at RHS Chelsea Flower Show, plenty of nurseries have brilliant displays in the Great Pavilion. Here's a few of the most exciting to visit.
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Nurseries at Chelsea Flower Show
Growing spires and rare shrubs
The Botanic Nursery
When Mary and Terry Baker did their first solo Chelsea exhibit, some 30 years ago, they featured The Botanic Nursery’s rare trees and shrubs, plus the foxgloves that have since become their signature plants. They included species foxgloves that hadn’t been seen before at Chelsea, having put them under lights to get them to flower. Ironically, they’ve rarely been able to have those particular ones in flower since. “Foxgloves are nice and easy to grow in the garden,” explains Mary, “but once you put them in a pot and try to force them into flower, even by two or three weeks, they become soft and flabby and susceptible to aphids.”
Often show judges are not so keen to see a shrub that’s not in flower, but we’re quite happy to show this beautiful lilac in leaf
It’s thanks to Terry’s constant nurturing of the 500 or so specimens they pot up for Chelsea that the nursery’s romantic exhibits have been awarded Gold medals for many years now. Since 2018, the RHS has allowed small nurseries like theirs to sell plug plants at Chelsea, which works particularly well for Terry and Mary as they now grow stocky plugs from seed specifically for the show, and it’s the right time for visitors to put them in their gardens. “We get the opportunity to speak about foxgloves and share our passion for them. People think they know about foxgloves, that they’re biennial and so flower every second year. But that’s not necessarily the case. You can have foxgloves that flower every year, but they won’t go on flowering ad infinitum.”
Although foxgloves have been their bread-and-butter plants, Terry spends a lot of time propagating the nursery’s unusual shrubs, and the couple want to become known for these woody plants again. This year’s exhibit will include interesting deutzias – a fantastic family of shrubs, says Mary, in a range of colours, shapes and sizes. They also plan to show a lesser-known lilac, Syringa emodi ‘Variegata’. “Often show judges are not so keen to see a shrub that’s not in flower, but we’re quite happy to show this beautiful lilac in leaf, even if it means we only get a Silver medal, because it looks so pretty.”
Plot GPD056. Address The Botanic Nursery, Coombe Lane, Atworth, Wiltshire SN12 8NU. Tel 07850 328756. Web botanicnursery.co.uk
Showstopping sights
No Name Nursery
This is Steve Edney’s fourth experience of exhibiting in the Great Pavilion and he’s hoping it might be his most relaxed. He started as a gofer in his student days, and then in his role as head gardener at The Salutation in Kent, he created a Gold-medal winning display of seedheads. This year, he has returned with his partner Louise Dowle to show off hardy and half-hardy plants from their specialist No Name Nursery.
Steve and Louise don’t use artificial heat to bring on plants for Chelsea
Along with seven other small nurseries that belong to the 40-strong South of England group The Plant Fairs Roadshow, Steve can be found on a ten-metre square stand where more experienced exhibitors like him will be mentoring newcomers. “Man, are we going to pack things in there,” says Steve. “I hate bare bottoms, so there won’t be a square inch to be seen. We’ve been growing specimens of Pseudopanax, one of our National Collections, for several years to use them at shows and we’re taking one that’s about 2.5m tall. We’re hoping to feature other showstoppers such as Hosta ‘Empress Wu’, which we’ve grown, with leaves that are a metre across, and Farfugium japonicum ‘Aureomaculatum’, an exotic-looking relative of Ligularia, which has leaves like lily pads.”
As with many small nurseries, Steve and Louise don’t use artificial heat to bring on plants for Chelsea, but growing surplus plants helps to take the stress out of the unpredictability of the weather in early spring. “No matter what the size of your exhibit, you should grow three times the number of plants you need so that you can cherry pick the best. You also need different cultivars and varieties that you can substitute if something just isn’t ready.” He was thrilled for his young team to win Golds at both Chelsea and Hampton Court in 2019, but feels that medals shouldn’t be the aim. “What you should be doing is satisfying your own creativity.”
Plot GPC040g. Address Nursery not open to the public, but Steve and Louise open their exotic garden for the NGS: Sweetbriar, 69 Chequer Lane, Ash, Kent CT3 2AX. Tel 07753 965741. Web thenonamenursery.co.uk
Tumbledown romance
Peter Beales Roses
Forty-six years after his first trip to Chelsea to help on the Peter Beales Roses stand, Ian Limmer, now nursery manager and ambassador for the nursery, is still excited to be in the Great Pavilion, exhibiting. The nursery is renowned for its rose-festooned arches and arbours, which visitors flock to for photo opportunities, and for its romantic stone features.
You’ve got 1,000 roses and they’ve all got to face the right way
This year the new feature is a potting shed with tumbled-down roof, made by Redwood Stone, which will be smothered with ramblers and climbers, creating a focal point at the back of the display. The whole look will be old-fashioned and dreamy. “We’ve now won 27 Gold medals at Chelsea and last year we got the President’s Award,” says Ian, “but you can never, ever take it for granted that you’ll get a Gold.” On the first day of the build, it’s always the same challenge for Ian. “You’ve got 1,000 roses and they’ve all got to face the right way. For me, it’s a matter of picking a rose and saying, yes, I know where that can go.” It may be a bit daunting for first-time exhibitors to hear Ian say that he reckons it takes new members of staff about eight years to get a real feel for the stand but then, he explains reassuringly, “suddenly something clicks and you feel confident”. Ian’s lack of nerves stems from his long experience of exhibiting and the teamwork involved.
Chief among the long-serving members of the team is Michael Baldwin, who makes sure the plants are in top condition in time for the show. Last August, once Ian had drawn up the plan with the nursery’s head gardener, he selected the cultivars he wanted. In total, some 2,500 roses were potted up, including Chelsea favourites Rosa ‘Madame Boll’ (= ‘Comte de Chambord’), Rosa City of York (=‘Direktör Benschop’) and Rosa Macmillan Nurse (= ‘Beamac’), and transferred to glasshouses in February under Michael’s care. “He lives and breathes Chelsea, and if he has to open up the vents in the glasshouses at midnight, he’ll be there. Getting the plants out in flower, with no blackspot or rust. It makes my job so much easier.”
Plot GPF091. Address Peter Beales Roses, London Road, Attleborough, Norwich, Norfolk NR17 1AY. Tel 01953 454707. Web peterbealeroses.com
Right perennials, right place
Binny Plants
When Billy Carruthers, owner of Scottish nursery Binny Plants, first exhibited at Chelsea in 2011, his stand was a showcase for peonies. “I’ve loved peonies since I was five years old,” he says, “and to be able to show them at Chelsea, to make people aware of all those wonderful peonies we grow, has been a bit of a career box tick.” He eased himself into the pressures of doing a Chelsea exhibit by creating cut-flower displays for the first few years. “It can be difficult in Scotland to get plants ready in time for Chelsea as we are about two weeks behind, and as the judges are very picky, you have to be at the top of your game.”
He is hoping to incorporate 13 different umbellifers
In 2020, Billy handed over the design and build of the stand to New Zealander Heath Urquhart, who worked part time at Binny Plants while he was a horticultural design student, and is now landscape manager at water feature specialist Water Gems. Heath wanted to put the spotlight on Binny’s collection of more than 1,200 hardy herbaceous plants. “Most people don’t realise that Binny’s has a wealth of amazing perennials.” He also wanted to bring a more designed look to the stand, which last year included a classical sculpture reflected in a pool, and won the nursery its first Gold medal. This year the stand will champion ‘right plant, right place’ growing.
“We’ll have running water and elements of charred wood that will make it look like a landscape that’s been damaged or ripped through by fire, and the plants are coming through and thriving because they are the right plants in the right place.” He is hoping to incorporate 13 different umbellifers, including less-familiar natives such as Ligusticum scothicum and Meum athamanticum, and the fragrant Rosa pimpinellifolia ‘Mary, Queen of Scots’. A second Gold would be most welcome, but for both Billy and Heath, it’s the public’s response to the stand that really matters. “We’ve had people say, ‘I want to take a section and put it in my garden’ and I’ve even had one person say ‘I just want to go and sleep in it’. That does it for me,” says Heath.
Plot GPD059. Address Binny Estate, Ecclesmachan Road, Uphall, West Lothian EH52 6NL. Tel 07753 626117. Web binnyplants.com
Inspirational irises
Claire Austin Hardy Plants
Claire Austin has only missed visiting Chelsea once since she first stepped on to the showgrounds in 1983 to help her father David Austin on his rose stand. She has since exhibited many times with her own nursery, which holds the National Collection of bearded
irises, and this year, after an absence of seven years, she returns with two displays, one a celebration of her bearded irises and the other a collection of cottage-garden perennials grown in a relaxed way, just as she’s perfected in her re-planted front garden at her Shropshire home.
Of the 800 or so plants she pots up, she may have to reject about two-thirds
The cost of exhibiting is increasingly challenging for nurseries, and it is probably one of the main reasons the Great Pavilion has been looking disappointingly gappy in recent years. “It was such a shame to see so few nurseries at Chelsea last year,” says Claire. “That really got to the core of me.” She also feels that bearded irises have been neglected in recent years. “They are a beautiful ‘wow’ plant, and the breeding of them over the past century has been phenomenal. I tend to specialise in the ones that come over from the USA. They’re three dimensional, in beautiful colours, and wonderful as focal points.” However, growing bearded irises for a show is, Claire explains, incredibly difficult, as they don’t like being in pots for more than six months, and for Chelsea they need to be potted up the preceding August. Of the 800 or so plants she pots up, she may have to reject about two-thirds.
The centrepiece of each display will be an urn filled with cut flowers culled from the nursery and from Claire’s garden by local florist Emma Cox, which will allow Claire to showcase more varieties. In terms of winning Gold, Claire says she’s not really ‘show material’, though she’s already bagged several. “I don’t understand the rules, and the traditional way of showing plants.” Instead, she says, “I want visitors to get inspiration, to understand how to combine different leaves, different flower colours, different shapes, and for us to get plenty of orders.”
Plot GPF092a, GPF092b. Address White Hopton Farm, Wern Lane, Sarn, Newtown, Powys SY16 4EN.Tel 01868 670342. Web claireaustin-hardyplants.co.uk
Chelsea Flower Show runs from Tuesday 23 May to Sunday 28 May 2023. Tickets are still available.
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