News
The Cottage Herbery to celebrate 30th Birthday at Chelsea
The Cottage Herbery will be celebrating its 30th anniversary of growing peat-free plants organically.
To mark the occasion the family run nursery will be launching four new cultivars at the show; Astrantia major ‘Cottage Herbery’, Angelica sylvestris ‘Boraston Pink Lace’ (seed only), Mentha spicata ‘Tash Cream’ and Tropaeolum majus ‘Indian Ruby’.
Owners Kim and Rob Hurst have been organic and peat-free since they first started in 1976, as Kim strongly believed that all plants grown for uses such as flavouring, healing and fragrance, should be grown organically.
The Cottage Herbery exhibit will be within the Great Pavilion and will replicate a natural garden setting with an emphasis on companion planting and natural growing techniques. The display will feature a selection of cottage garden flowers, herbs, native plants and unusual vegetables.
The Wonderful World of Bulbs
Broadleigh Gardens will be making its 34th visit to the world famous show with a dramatic display of a variety of bulbs, ranging from early spring-flowering daffodils and vibrantly coloured tulips to towering drumstick alliums and the peacock coloured Broadleigh irises.
Other key plants in this display will be camassias, daffodils, fritillaries and summer-flowering Eremurus (foxtail lilies).
As virtually all of the plants in this display will be flowering out of season, many of them are currently tucked away in a cold store at a temperature of 1ºC to hold them back. In contrast, other plants are experiencing an early spring with heat and daylight bulbs in a greenhouse, to ensure that they are all at their blooming best for the world famous show.
Gorillas in the Mist at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show
For the first time the Zoological Society of London (ZSL), the charity that runs London Zoo, is sponsoring a show garden at Chelsea. The Gorilla Jungle Garden will create the illusion of a West African forest and will have a clearing at the centre, known as a bai, which is kept open by gorillas grazing on the vegetation.
The idea of designing this garden arose out of one of the major building and landscaping projects taking place in London Zoo, to create a new African gorilla and primate enclosure. The garden will be a pioneering example of a relatively new movement in ‘immersive’ zoo environments, where the visitor experiences being in the same habitat as the animals.