Posts Tagged ‘chelsea flower show’

Mr F at Chelsea 2023

June 2nd, 2023 | Plant Talk with Graham Rice | Comments Off on Mr F at Chelsea 2023

Orlaya grandiflora was very popular at The Chelsea Flower Show this year.

As ever, Mr Fothergill’s spent Chelsea week at the Flower Show with Marketing Services Manager David Turner meeting visitors, answering questions about seed, and growing flowers and veg from seed, and sending them contentedly home with seeds to sow.

When the Show had finally closed, I checked in with David to find out which seeds had been popular this year.

“It was an interesting year,” he told me, “with varieties that don’t normally sell out being in great demand. Orlaya was a case in point. I brought forty packets down to the show and sold them all in three hours! I re-stocked with another forty packets – and promptly sold those as well.”

Visitors saw orlaya (above) on the show gardens and wanted to grow it themselves. Every year it seems to become more popular – and there’s still time to sow seeds for a late display.

“There was similar demand for herb seeds,” said David, “we sold almost every packet we could. And two old favourites that are usually popular, nasturtiums and sweet peas – this year demand was way up.

“I was especially pleased to see that last year’s new sweet pea, ‘Suffolk Punch Miggie’, which raises funds for The Suffolk Punch Trust to support endangered Suffolk Punch Horses, had its picture taken by so many people. We had plants in flower on the stand so visitors could see – and smell – how lovely they are.”

And of course orlayas and sweet peas look lovely together in a vase.

Chelsea Plant Of The Year 2023 winners!

May 26th, 2023 | Plant Talk with Graham Rice | Comments Off on Chelsea Plant Of The Year 2023 winners!

Earlier this week the winner of the Chelsea Flower Show Plant Of The Year award was announced, after a rigorous appraisal and assessment by the Royal Horticultural Society’s plant experts. From the eighteen finalists – two dropped out at the last minute – three plants, two deciduous shrubs and a perennial, emerged as front runners.

In third place came a new variety of that familiar old standby – weigela (above left). Camouflage (‘Tmwg15-01’) is the first variety with foliage in unique new colour pattern. Each green leaf is edged with a broad band of deep purple-brown, almost black, from before the rich red May and June flowers open until late in the season. I’m a big fan of plants that give you two attractions from the one variety. British-bred Weigela Camouflage does just that. Look out for Weigela Camouflage on QVC and in good garden centres.

This year’s runner up in the Chelsea Flower Show Plant Of The Year competition, Hydrangea serrata Euphoria Pink (‘Gotemba Nishiki’) (above, centre), also extends its colourful contribution to the garden. Although some Chelsea visitors were covering their eyes – opinion was definitely divided on this one – it certainly is colourful.

Pink-tinted new shoots open to dark green leaves with creamy white edges and pink highlights, then from June to August, two-tone red flowers open, with pale pink eyes. So Euphoria Pink, too, is a multiseason plants and, if grown in acid soil or in acid compost in a container, the flowers will be deep violet blue instead of red. Ideal in a container on the deck or patio, there are good stocks of Hydrangea serrata Euphoria Pink in garden centres around the country.

Finally: the winner of the 2023 Chelsea Flower Show Plant Of The Year award is Agapanthus Black Jack (‘Dwaghyb02’) (above, right.).

From, clumps of slender, arching green foliage emerge upright stems topped with large, ball-shaped heads of individual florets. Each black bud opens to deep purple-black flowers and because there can be up to a hundred flowers in each head – and because they don’t all open at once – the display continues for far longer than it does with other varieties.

Another superb plant to grow as a specimen in a container, the combination of intense colour and prolific flowering makes Agapanthus Black Jack a worthy Chelsea Flower Show Plant Of The Year. It’s available from the RHS Plant Shop and in good garden centre

Chelsea 7: End of show news from the Mr Fothergill’s Chelsea seed sales stand

May 29th, 2022 | Plant Talk with Graham Rice | Comments Off on Chelsea 7: End of show news from the Mr Fothergill’s Chelsea seed sales stand

Seed of delphiniums, like this ‘Centurion Sky Blue’, flew off the Mr F stand at Chelsea this week.

David Turner, the illustrious Marketing Services Manager for Mr F, has been looking after the Mr F seed sales stand at Chelsea all this week and, as usual on Chelsea Saturday, I called him up yesterday to find out which seeds customers have been buying this year.

“It’s been a really interesting year” he told me, “with plants that have generally been out of fashion suddenly amongst the best sellers. Delphiniums, for example. Usually delphiniums sell OK, but this year I was sold out of delphinium seeds by Thursday.” Perhaps the two fine delphinium exhibits in the Great Pavilion sparked people’s interest.

Orlaya has been very popular,” David continued, “as it featured on one of the show gardens and they sent people down to me to buy seed. Lupins are completely gone and I’ve sold out of every kind of poppy I had. ‘Ladybird’ poppies are usually the first poppies to sell out, field poppies usually sell well, but this year but every kind of poppy is sold out. All my nasturtiums are also sold out, there’s a lot of appetite for flowers rather than vegetables, even sweet peas have done well. But I still have two unopened boxes of pea and bean seeds.

“There’s a Chelsea seed surprise for us every year and this year it was those delphiniums. And the fact that flower seeds have sold better than veg seeds.”

You can check out how seed sales fared in the last comparable Chelsea year (before the pandemic) here.

Chelsea 6: Floristry

May 28th, 2022 | Plant Talk with Graham Rice | Comments Off on Chelsea 6: Floristry

Norris Floristry’s Silver-Gilt Medal winning Tablescape entitled Reconnect.

To be honest, the floristry exhibits at the Chelsea Flower Show have never been top of my must-see list. Rightly or wrongly, they always seemed so old fashioned when the rest of the show was racing along with the times. But this year, things were a little different.

Given a spacious setting in the Great Pavilion, the fourteen exhibits were required to “highlight challenges the cut-flower industry is seeking to address in order to be sustainable in the long term.”

The tableaux were divided into a number of categories and I was especially taken with the Tablescape presentations, defined by the RHS: “Each beautiful table dressing incorporates natural materials, beautifully presented with attention given to tiniest details. Each must deliver a strong horticultural message… encouraging us to look after our natural world.”

To be honest, all these themes and requirements, while setting necessary parameters, can seem a little baffling. But let me just pick out two that I found especially pretty.

The theme of the Tablescape from Norris Floristry, entitled Reconnect (above), was “a tidal wave of bee-friendly florals in vibrant pinks, reds and deep berry tones along with seasonal fruits pouring across the table.” Peonies, roses and hydrangeas feature, along with ruby carriot flowers and wispy grasses.

I also liked A Botanical Feast from JL Floral Design (below), which is intended to “demonstrate sustainable living and how fulfilling it can be to provide your own food from the garden.” Alliums, peonies and clematis predominate. (Sorry, I cropped out the flowering runner beans in the background!).

So, now I’ve learned my lesson. For so many years, the floristry was low down in my Chelsea priorities. Now, especially that it’s in the Great Pavilion where I always spend most of my visit, I’ll be calling at every show.

• If you fancy growing some of your own cut flowers, take a look at the cut flowers seeds available from Mr F.

A Botanical Feast from JL Floral Design also won a Silver-Gilt Medal.

Chelsea 5: Plant Collections

May 27th, 2022 | Plant Talk with Graham Rice | Comments Off on Chelsea 5: Plant Collections

‘Lemoncello’ foxglove – coming to the Mr F range soon – if I can peruade them to add it…!

Making up for the dramatic reduction in the number of floral exhibits in the familiar style from mail order nurseries in the Great Pavilion were the exhibits that highlighted Plant Heritage National Collections or other special collections of individual plants. These especially took my attention.

I discussed Roger Parsons’s display of sweet peas on the Gold Medal winning Plant Heritage stand a couple of days ago, but on the same exhibit Lucy Skellorn was publicising her National Collection of irises developed by her great great grandfather, Sir Michael Foster. He was a pioneer breeder of tall bearded irises and introduced the first tetraploid variety, ‘Amas’, which had a dramatic influence on the development of these essential early summer flowers.

The Botanic Nursery, with their National Collection of foxgloves also took my eye. The Dutch raised ‘Lemoncello’ (above), in cool lemon yellow, really stood out and I wouldn’t be surprised to see it in the Mr F catalogue before long.

I was also intrigued by the small presentation by The Hoyland Plant Centre on nerines and their hybrids with hardy amaryllis – amarines. I’m sure they have great potential as cut flower – they’re so long lasting – and what an achievement to have them all in flower six months out of season. The display of garden pinks from Calamazag Nursery (below) helped us understand the many kinds of these invaluable plants in a very simple and elegant display.

And there were two nurseries, Home Farm Plants and Blackmore & Langdon, extolling the virtues of named delphiniums propagated from cuttings. The delphiniums grown from seed offered on the Mr F website are fine plants and priced appealingly. Named varieties, propagated from cuttings, may be more expensive – but they are superb.

Cornwall’s Calamazag Nursery helped enrich our knowledge of garden pinks.