RHS Chelsea 2023 - the Plants - The Chatty Gardener

Show gardens are all very well but for me one of the highlights of any garden show is the nursery exhibits and RHS Chelsea 2023 was no different and I spent a happy day in the Great Pavilion looking at displays from some of our top growers.

It was good to see the return of some old favourites and a few new nurseries too. Newcomers to this world famous show are being mentored by Chelsea stalwarts, including Rob and Rosy Hardy of Hardys Cottage Garden Plants, and heuchera specialists Richard and Vikki Fox of Plantagogo. They have been passing on their years of experience in putting on a gold medal-winning display.

One person back at Chelsea after a break is Claire Austin with her beautiful perennials.

The peonies were stunning – I just wish I had room in the garden for more of them.

It was the iris that captured my heart though – such a wonderful range of colours.

One of the new nurseries at RHS Chelsea 2023 is Darren Everest Sweet Peas. The display was cleverly against a black backdrop that set off the blooms perfectly.

It included this new variety, ‘Lizanne Davies’, with lovely pink tinged petals.

Also new at RHS Chelsea 2023 was the wonderfully named Hedgehog Plants from Suffolk. They were showing epimediums, with a range of delicate flowers in different shades. These are definitely plants that repay close inspection.

The new nursery that was causing the most stir was the Caley Brothers, actually two sisters from Suffolk, who had a really eye-catching display of mushrooms.

Mushrooms growing in jars and even on rolled up jeans were delighting visitors. No wonder they won the new design award.

Chelsea is often the place where nurseries launch new plants and this year is no exception.

This beautiful clematis is on the Raymond Evison Clematis display. It’s named after The Tumaini Fund, a Guernsey charity that orphans in Tanzania.

It’s a compact plant that grows to only around 4ft (120cm) tall, making it ideal for small gardens.

Another new introduction that’s good for those with limited space is Rosa ‘Dannahue’ from David Austin Roses.

This is a beautiful apricot rose that fades with age and is as lovely in bud as it is in flower. It’s a medium-sized shrub rose that is happy growing in a container.

The rose has been named after Danny Clarke, known as The Black Gardener, who is a director of Grow2Know a group of gardeners who came together to grow in the community after the Grenfall Tower fire. There will be a donation of £10,000 from sales of the rose to Grow2Know.

The entire display from Victorian Violas is new plants, all from seed sown last September as part of the Lincolnshire grower’s breeding programme. The nursery was returning to Chelsea after a few years away.

These new plants are being trialled to see which are worth keeping and the display bowls each had four different varieties. The best will be propagated using cuttings to ensure they come true.

Robert Chapman from the nursery said that these perennial plants will flower from May right through to September, providing they are deadheaded regularly.

He advised growing them in full sun to part-shade and said they were also ideal for containers.

In addition to their trial plants, Victorian Violas also had their flagship viola on show, a rather lovely primrose yellow and mauve variety called ‘Bridie’.

There is so much to see in the Great Pavilion that you really need a whole day in there and I could write masses on what I saw. Here though are just some of the other highlights.

I loved the colour of this salvia on Hare Spring Cottage Plants’ display, the way the Kitchen Garden Plant Centre were designing with herbs, and the delicate shade of peach in the foxglove on The Botanic Nursery’s stand.

These calanthe were just one of the standout plants on the Jacques Amand International Ltd stand. What a fabulous colour combination.

I love achillea – not least because it will put up with my sandy soil – and this on John Cullen Gardens’ stand was a beauty. Not surprising as they hold the National Collection.