When it comes to column inches and television air time often it’s the garden designers at RHS Chelsea that get the most attention. Yet, in the Great Pavilion the nursery stands demand just as much planning and attention to detail. So, it’s good to see the spotlight being put on their contribution in this new book by Rosy Hardy of Hardy’s Cottage Garden Plants.
It charts the Hampshire nursery’s 25 years at Chelsea, including a show garden in 2016, and gives an insight into how it takes far more than just top class plants to make an award-winning display.
Seeing their success today, it’s hard to imagine the small-scale way in which Rosy and her husband, Rob, started. They came into the business “almost accidentally” when they bought some plants from a closing down nursery and sold them at a local car boot sale. Soon they had dug up their back garden to grow more and commandeered Rosy’s mum’s greenhouse for propagation before renting a walled garden for what Rosy describes as “a ‘grown up’ nursery”.
Their Chelsea debut in 1992 was similarly low-key: Rosy’s sister-in-law lifted plants from her own garden and brought them to Chelsea in carrier bags to plug gaps in the display. It’s a far cry from today’s highly organised preparations, which are described as “a military operation”.
Written in a conversational style, the book looks at each of their Chelsea years with snapshots of the displays and anecdotes, from the plants they have introduced to food poisoning and a blackbird that nearly scuppered one exhibit. There is also the background to the 2016 show garden, which looked at the chalk streams that have shaped their part of Hampshire.
As they have grown in experience and confidence, so the exhibits have become more complex with the turning point in 2004 with the first of their more ‘garden-like’ stands. They are also known for their ‘walk-through’ features, which allow visitors to get close-up to the plants, such as their exhibit at Chelsea this year, pictured at the top of this page.
The book is also a record of the changing nature of the industry with the ditching of peat and the rise of the internet; in 2012 Hardy’s stopped producing a printed catalogue.
But what makes this more than just a trip down memory lane is the inclusion of plant advice based on their years in the industry. Woven through the Chelsea stories are suggestions for plants for specific locations or soils and lessons in using colour effectively in the border.
Rosy admits that when they started, her beloved herbaceous perennials were unpopular with many and described as ‘weeds’ by her fellow exhibitors. Hardy’s must take some credit for changing minds.
• Rosy Hardy – 25 years of Chelsea is available from Hardy’s Cottage Garden Plants, either at the nursery or any of the flower shows and plant sales they attend priced at £7. It can also be ordered by phone or email with a delivery charge of £1.95 per copy. Visit Hardy’s Cottage Garden Plants for details.
• Review copy supplied by Hardy’s Cottage Garden Plants.
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