Micro nurseries to display at Chelsea Flower Show

Steve Edney and Louise Dowle are taking their micro nursery displays to the Chelsea Flower Show

Five micro nurseries from across Kent and Sussex will be displaying plants they have grown in the Great Pavilion at the Chelsea Flower Show.

They came together over a decade ago to organise plant fairs as a way of extending their businesses and bringing their specialist plants to a wider public.

A total of seven independent nurseries, from the south-east England based organisation the Plant Fairs Roadshow (PFR), are attending the famous flower show.

Their displays will feature desert, tropical, perennial, prairie and shade-loving plants as well as a stand devoted to climate-change resilient species.

Graham Blunt, a founding member of PFR, said: "It’s better to be cooperative rather than rivals or to be on your own."

Mr Blunt, who owns Plantbase Nursery in Wadhurst, East Sussex, added: "We bounce off each other. It makes life so much easier."

The micro nurseries first appeared at Chelsea in 2023 but this year their display has doubled in size.

The Plant Fairs Roadshow displays proved popular at Chelsea in 2023

Steve Edney and Louise Dowle , already Chelsea gold medal holders in their own right, are the owners of the No Name Nursery in Sandwich, Kent.

Mr Edney said: "It’s great to have the support of our fellow nurseries and to do this together, to bounce things off each other.

"Chelsea can be a bit much otherwise."

Paul Seaborne, coordinator of the seven stands, runs Pelham Plants in Laughton in the Sussex Weald.

He intends to replicate the spot in his nursery at home where he likes to retreat.

He said: "It will be a cool, calm space and we will try to represent my refuge and my escape from the hurly burly."

The RHS Chelsea Flower Show opens to the public on 21 May.

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