RHS hopes Chelsea show will bear fruit in more ways than one
THE Chelsea Flower show is usually a celebration of the glorious dawn of spring. But its move to September because of the pandemic means a new display of bounty will take centre stage – fruit and vegetables.
Produce trees are expected to make a rare appearance at the Royal Horticultural Society’s Chelsea show later this month, its first in autumn.
RHS shows typically take place in the spring and early summer, and Chelsea’s origins belong in the Great Spring Show, first held in Kensington in May 1862 before a move to Chelsea Hospital in 1913. But this year’s event was moved over concerns about coronavirus infection levels.
The May date usually means a riotous display of spring bulbs including daffodils and tulips, as well as irises and lupins, but the shift to September means the event will instead showcase traditional autumn produce.
Popular autumn flowers such as dahlias are also expected to be a central feature, as are asters and camellias.
It means there will be harvest fruit and vegetables on display, including at an Italian-inspired “great pavilion piazza” which will feature seasonal flowers, pumpkins and squashes.
Show gardens, including the centrepiece RHS Queen’s Green Canopy Garden and the Psalm 23 Garden, sponsored by the Bible Society, have also had to adapt their planting plans to make sure plants are looking lush and healthy at this time of year.
Gardens are expected to feature trees actively producing fruit, with the M&G Garden, designed for city dwellers, featuring the shrub Hippophae rhamnoides, also known as sea-buckthorn, as well as rosehips.
Among planned changes include a swap from calla lilies to salad crops, and ferns and hostas being switched for grasses.
The return of topiary is also expected, bucking a recent trend for more naturalistic trees and shrubs, with a range of topiary animals exhibited by New Forest company Agrumi Topiary Art.
Foxgloves, a popular spring plant, will have finished flowering by September but there are plans to exhibit them anyway, with seed heads on display in the Florence Nightingale Garden, which celebrates nursing.
Garden designers have begun setting up their installations at the central London site with just over a week to go before doors open on Sep 21. The event is expected to revert to its usual five-day late-may slot next year.
Helena Pettit, RHS director of gardens and shows, said: “We know what a challenge the change in season has presented for our exhibitors, and their amazing displays are a real testament to the skills and expertise of the growers, designers and contractors.
“This year’s RHS Chelsea promises to be a unique moment in history, with new colour palettes, seasonal produce and later-flowering plants that autumn brings, alongside many plants and new exhibitors that we may not usually see.”
Autumn flower shows are already held elsewhere in the UK, with the Harrogate Autumn Flower Show running at Newby Hall, Yorkshire, from Sep 17 to 19, which includes the National Vegetable Society’s giant vegetable contest.