Return to newsroom

Gold Medal at Chelsea

We are so delighted to have won our first gold medal for our exhibit at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2009. Our theme this year is British Plants.

The exhibit in the Grand Pavilion (GPC 8) features an island bed showing larger growing hybrids cascading down in size through interesting wild collected foliage species, deciduous azaleas and yakushimanum hybrids, with evergreen azaleas and dwarf varieties forming the front of the exhibit. A particular feature of the display is the wonderful foliage of many rare species, planted to simulate a gushing stream running through a Himalayan mountainside. We have tried to demonstrate how versatile and diverse rhododendrons can be.

We are exhibiting plants collected from the Himalayas by famous British plant collectors such as Frank Kingdon-Ward, Keith Rushforth, and our own Ted Millais. Also featured are some of the great hybrids raised over the past century by British breeders such as the Rothschilds from Exbury Gardens, Arthur George, and a selection of our own modern hybrids raised by Ted Millais. Every plant in our display has a British story of adventure or breeding behind it.

This is our third exhibit at Chelsea and our first gold medal. We understand the judges were particularly impressed with our 'river' of rare foliage species. We are the only specialist rhododendron grower at the Show, and this is the first Gold Medal for a Rhododendron exhibit for about 14 years. All our plants are British grown using a wide range of organic practices wherever possible to produce high quality healthy plants.

Article Date: 19 May 2009