We were super excited to be invited to have a Seedball stall at RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2023. The show usually runs during the last week in May. We hired a van and drove down to spend the Sunday, flower-faffing and product-placing, until we were happy with the way the stand looked. Of course, we were last to leave!
Monday is an invite only day, when the Royal family and the press visit. Emily was lucky enough to catch sight of the new King with RHS President, Keith Weed, CBE. Rumour has it, he is changing his name to Mr Wildflower!
Tuesday is medals day, when the prestigious Chelsea awards are given out. The anticipation in the bright May morning sunshine was palapable. We were really honoured to receive 3 gold stars for our stand, which is a fantastic achievement for first timers!
As the week progressed we spotted some garden celebs, Carol Klein, so petite; Adam Frost, really tall; Fergus, the head gardener, from Great Dixter, who was a sweatheart, and told us he loved wildflowers, and grows many at Great Dixter. We also caught sight of Arit Anderson and Frances Tophill. Helena Bonham-Carter and Joanna Lumley also may have purchased from us…
,We had so much fun running the stand and meeting lots of wildflower, and nature-lovers. We loved hearing your stories of nocturnal hedgehog snufflings, bee nests in compost heaps, gentle solitary bees and banks of butterflies. Plus lots of lovely people, who were creating natural and wilder gardens in the blank canvas of new builds.
Every year, more and more wildflowers, are accepted into the designer’s show gardens; and this year all the gardens were using or reusing, sustainable materials for hard landscaping, with nothing being sent to landfill. All the gardens have sites to go to after the show, ranging from schools to hospitals.
It was wonderful to see ‘weeds’ and overgrown untidy areas within the gardens on Chelsea’s Main Avenue, along with bee and bird houses, logpiles and areas of long grass. The ‘No Mow’ message is clear but also that any length of grass is better for the environment than concrete or artifical grass, which was banned.
All in all we had a marvellous time and really hope we are invited back next year…
