Matt Biggs' pick of the displays
The Great Pavilion is packed with exhibits from nurseries, specialist growers, florists and plant societies. Matt Biggs, garden broadcaster and author, makes his choice of the best floral displays - those he sees as hot favourites to be awarded a Gold Medal.
Bulldog Tools
Alongside the wonderful vegetables sits a beautiful flower garden, veg plot and a shed, in a display that all gardeners can relate to.
West Country Lupins
Ranks of immaculate, ramrod-straight lupins are wonderful in this nursery shop-window. The colour card of cultivars proves there is more to these cottage-garden favourites, than many gardeners imagine.
Crûg Farm Plants
Modern-day plant hunters Bleddyn and Sue Wynn-Jones bring their exciting temperate exotica to Chelsea. Their display of desirable rare and unusual plants leaves you drooling!
McBeans Orchids
This is an immaculate display of epiphytic and terrestrial specimens from temperate and tropical climes. Each plant can be appreciated individually or combined, where they create a subtle yet eye-catching display.
Borneo Exotics
Tropical Nepenthes may not be top of your list of ‘must have’ plants, but these specimens show the extraordinary form and colour within this genus. Outstanding is recently discovered Nepenthes lowii from Mt Kinabalu; unlike its carnivorous relatives, this plant receives its nutrients from shrews, which use the pitcher as a lavatory!
Burncoose Nurseries
This fabulous collection of hardy and half-hardy plants features many attractive species that thrive in milder parts of Britain. Plants from countries like New Zealand and Chile - such as Embothryum coccineum, introduced by the great plant collector William Lobb - are certain to catch the judge’s eye.
Heucheraholics
Who would have thought that the humble ‘Heuchera’ could be reinvented in so many ways? This up-beat foliar extravaganza of perfectly presented plants proves that this genus is upwardly mobile.
Waterside Nursery
A serene pool creates the perfect reflection for a wide range of rare and familiar aquatics – the attention to detail is extraordinary!
Hewitt-Cooper Carnivorous plants
When you pass the stand and the moss is being carefully trimmed with scissors, you are certain that the display will turn to gold.
Kernock Plants
An exquisite display of alpine plants from a first time exhibitor featuring some outstanding ‘Saxifrages’ all set in a mini landscape.