I spent my second day at RHS Chelsea 2021 flower hunting in the Great Pavilion – always my favourite part of a flower show.
There were far fewer nurseries than usual, a combination of the change of date and a clash with both the Harrogate and Malvern shows. In some ways it was a good thing as there were none of the usual crowds and moving around was far easier.
One of the great success stories was my local nursery, Green Jjam, who specialise in penstemon. They pulled off not only a gold medal with their debut Chelsea exhibit but their third gold in a row having won top honours at Hampton Court and Tatton earlier this year.
Their display was full of the usual temptation. A visit to the nursery is definitely planned.
Green Jjam were not the only growers to be appearing at Chelsea for the first time. Salvia specialists Middleton Nurseries won silver-gilt for their debut display. Salvias are something I’m starting to grow more of and there were several that are now on my ‘want’ list.
Another newcomer to the Great Pavilion was Ashcroft’s Perennials with a gold medal-winning stand stuffed with grasses. It was good to see so many together as comparisons of size and shape was easy.
Veg not forgotten with the usual display by Medwyns of Anglesey drawing lots of admiration. The perfection of the crops in what has been a tricky growing year was really impressive.
These rather unusual yellow cucumbers stood out for me – I’m not sure I would have correctly identified it without the label.
Autumn plants were much in evidence with some great inspiring combinations. This calamagrostis and sanguisorba combination on the Daisy Roots display was really good.
I also liked the white form of this persicaria on the Binny Plants stand. I see a lot of the pink or red forms in gardens but rarely white.
This was also rather eye-catching and would look really good planted as a big block of colour.
Gladiolus ‘Lolita’ 
Gladiolus ‘Shadow Dancer’
Pheasant Acre Plants was one of the most colourful stands at RHS Chelsea 2021 with a huge display of dahlias and gladioli. Dahlias have long shrugged off their unfashionable image and gladioli are beginning to also gain favour.
Among the flowers were two new gladioli for 2022.
Other regulars used the change of date to showcase a different part of their plant collection. The Botanic Nursery, known for their digitalis – they hold the National Collection – had some beautiful salvias on show.
Cyclamen and colchicum 
Colchicum ‘Waterlily’
The September show also meant a rare sighting of colchicum and cyclamen in the Great Pavilion. These were on the Jacques Amand stand.
Haemanthus coccineus 
Haemanthus multiflorus
Nearly everyone who walked by stopped to look at these too and there was a lot of discussion about what they were, how they grew etc. Certainly something I’d never encountered before.
Whereas a May Chelsea requires many plants to be brought forward, the delayed date meant things had to be kept going. WS Warmenhoven picked alliums and then put them in cold storage. Others were displayed with the beginning of seed heads.
The Plant of the Year contest was won by Cercis canadensis ‘Eternal Flame’®, introduced by Suttons. Each leaf changes colour from bud to maturity, giving a constantly different display.
The Sustainable Garden Product of the Year went to Ocean Plastic Pots, which produces plant pots from discared ropes and fishing nets. The fabulous colours come from the raw materials.
Finally, I loved this repurposing of a coat stand on the Plant Heritage display.
The charity, which runs the National Collection scheme, used it to show off some of the National Collection of Chlorophytum comosum, or spider plants.
The stand – taken from the charity’s offices – had been painted black and Burgon & Ball had donated some of their hanging pots. Much nicer than coats any day.
You can read about my look around the RHS Chelsea 2021 gardens here.
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