Exhibitors
SHOW GARDENS | COURTYARD GARDENS | CHIC GARDENS | CITY GARDENS
PLANTS | FLORAL ART | LIFELONG LEARNING | MARKET PLACE
Floral exhibitors in the Great Pavilion
Images: Martin Mulchinock
Isle of Wight Lavender
J S Pennings 'De Bilt'
Hyacinths
Jacques Amand International
Bulbous plants
Jamaica Horticultural Society - Chelsea Group
Tropical plants
At the centre of this exhibit are two large treasure baskets filled with exotic tropical flowers and foliage. Fruit, vegetables and further flowers surround the baskets.
Jekka's Herb Farm - Herbs are our past and our future
Jekka explains how to get the most out of herbs on the BBC gardening website
"The exhibit is based on a simple oval design. We’ve always found at Chelsea that the public likes to be able to walk around the display and get up close to the herbs as in a real garden. Herbs are the most wonderfully diverse and useful plants, coming in all shapes, sizes, textures, colours and perfumes. Their aromatic leaves and scented flowers can be enjoyed by all the senses, making them the most generous of plants. They are not meant to be admired from a distance and so our display aims to show them off at their very best. An ornate path winds through the middle of the display, dividing the space into two distinct herb gardens. In one half are collected the culinary herbs, while on the other are the medicinal herbs. Towards the back of the display is a patio area, featuring herbs in containers. We always aim to inspire the public with displays they can recreate at home. The patio shows city-dwellers with little garden space what a fantastic impact they can conjure up with just a few simple pots.
"A key plant featured in the display is gotu kola (Centella asiatica), also known as pennywort or tiger grass. An important medicinal herb central to Ayurvedic medicine, gotu kola has been for centuries to improve the memory, heal wounds and treat rheumatism and arthritis, and is increasing in popularity in the treatment of cancer.
"As we are growing many of the plants within the Saga Insurance Garden, Jekka has decided to incorporate some of these within her design, for example: Eriocephalus africanus South African wild rosemary; Bulbine Frutescens, the burn jelly plant; Mentha suaveolens subsp. timija, Atlas Mountain mint; Borago pygmaea, Corsican borage. The colour scheme will be grey, green and purple with the occasional flash of the orange from Calendula officinalis.
"We start planning for Chelsea around a year in advance in terms of coming up with an overall theme, basic design ideas and deciding what kinds of plants we want to include. The biggest challenge has to be coping with the unpredictability of the British weather and making sure everything is looking at is best simultaneously by the end of May."
Kapiteyn B V
Zantedeschia
Kelways - Peonies and Iris
This year Kelways is also providing plants for The Laurent Perrier Garden and The Daily Telegraph Garden. Currently the Somerset-based nursery is growing 2,000 irises and 1,150 tree peonies especially for the show. With no guarantee that every iris plant will have a flower, Kelways has to grow three times as many plants than are needed.
Making sure that the plants are at their very best for show week is a real juggling act; each one is closely monitored and moved between eight different temperature environments, ranging from shady and cool areas to heated polytunnels, to either speed up or slow down the flowering process. The Wednesday before Chelsea, cotton wool will be carefully wrapped around hundreds of iris blooms to protect them in transit and prevent the flowers from opening.
David Root, owner of Kelways, said: “As tree peonies flower at the beginning of May they will be put into cold storage, at 38°F. Plants kept in cold storage are less hardy than plants grown outside, which means that if it is warm the day we’re staging we will have to leave the plants in storage until the evening and work over night.” The preparations for getting the perfect bloom don’t stop when the exhibits have been staged. “My colleague Linda always brings a hairdryer with her, which we use to coax irises that haven’t flowered yet to bloom. When we’re judged every single plant has to have at least one open bloom; so every flower counts!”
Ken Muir Ltd
Strawberries
Kilmurry Nursery
Herbaceous perennials and grasses
Kirstenbosch, South Africa
South African flora
All the plants used in this display are indigenous South African plants.
Knoll Gardens - Grasses
This exhibit has been designed to suggest suitable plants for different cultural conditions, the grasses and grass-like plants are staged in situ with the tallest being approximately 2.4m from the base, tailing down to the smaller grasses that are only a few inches tall.
Depending on the area the surface is finished in moss, compost, gravel, fine sand and pebbles as well as driftwood. In a wet area a small stream and tiny pool offset any planting which will include Scirpus, Juncus, Cyperus and Rhynchospora.
In particular Carex praegracilis is displayed as a minature meadow. This sedge is frequently used as a substitute for lawn grass. This Carex only requires a fraction of the water required for lawn grass and accepts mowing and foot traffic easily.
KobaKoba
Plants for tropical effect
This exhibit aims to create a small piece of jungle with lush foliage.