We were delighted to be awarded our second Chelsea Gold Medal in our second ever Chelsea. This display was not only our biggest Chelsea display we had ever done, it was the biggest floral display we had ever done at any show. Our aim for the display was to display hostas in a calming natural environment, bringing a small slice of shady woodland to the centre of London. Continuing our focus on sustainability, we once again reduce the use of plastics at the show. Labels and label holders were made from copper and plastic bags were replaced with recycled paper bags.
The display took 7 days to complete by our dedicated team. We wanted to have as much detail as possible in the display and add features of interest throughout. One new feature we added was the dry stone wall, these beautiful stones came from the bottom of our nursery and had come from some of the original buildings that date back to 1795. We had hostas growing out of the wall, these had to be grown on their side prior to the show in order to form correctly. As well as the wall we also had a path running through the centre of the exhibit in which we planted several varieties in various stages of maturity from mature all the way down to baby plugs.
With the amount of work that went into the display we were delighted to receive so much interest from the visiting public and press alike. Whilst we set up, Gardeners World presenter Mark Lane stopped by to get an insight into the Chelsea build and get our garlic wash recipe! Throughout the show we also had visits from Monty Don and Joe Swift to record for the BBC Chelsea Flower Show program. We had the pleasure of a visit from the one and only Dame Mary Berry who we had filmed a feature with for Chelsea 2021.
One of the highlights of the show was rather unexpected and hilarious. As you can imagine security at the Chelsea Flower Show is high, especially on press day when celebrities, TV crews and Her Majesty the Queen visit the show. Prior to the Queens visit there is a sweep of the site by the bomb detection dogs. As the weather was rather warm, one of them decided to hop into our pond in the middle of our display to cool off and have a little drink! As you can imagine his handler was mortified but it certainly got a laugh from onlookers!
After all of the hard work and preparation putting our display together we were delighted to be awarded with a Gold Medal. This was our second Chelsea Flower Show and our second Chelsea Gold so we were over the moon! We have some exciting plans for 2023 if we have the opportunity to come back to the show. Watch this space!
