New Plants and Bold Colours at the 2013 RHS Chelsea Flower Show
A perennial poppy, a commemorative clematis and a celebration of bold colour are just some of the highlights within the Great Pavilion at this year’s centenary RHS Chelsea Flower Show, sponsored by M&G Investments (21 – 25 May 2013).
Continuing the long tradition of launching new plants at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show, Durham-based Harperley Hall Farm Nurseries will introduce Meconopsis punicea ‘Sichuan Silk’. This striking red poppy is a perennial form of M. punicea making it very unusual in this normally monocarpic species. It was found on the Tibetan plateau in 2003 by alpine plantsman Ian Christie, and first flowered in 2005.
Guernsey-based Raymond Evison Clematis will be exhibiting new hybrid cultivars of clematis. In celebration of the centenary year of the show, the nursery will unveil Clematis Chelsea (‘Evipo100’), a compact creamy white clematis ideal for small gardens, among low-growing shrubs in containers on patios or balconies. It will also introduce Clematis Samaritan Jo (‘Evipo075’), a long-flowering distinct clematis, with blooms that, very unusually, have six or more pointed sepals.
Other new plants of note come from Cayeux Iris, which plan to launch a number of new irises including Iris ‘Nelly Tardivier’. Named in in memory of Madame Tardivier, former director of the Jardins des Tuileries at the Louvre in Paris, this iris has numerous ruffled flowers with combinations of light pink, copper and bronze coloured beards. They will also bring Iris ‘Saphir Jaune’, a rare bicolour iris which features pale lavender-blue, yellow and white combinations.
David Austin will introduce a number of new roses which range from, Rosa The Lady Gardener (‘Ausbrass’), an unusual hybrid of an old English rose, to a zesty lemon-fragranced bloom resembling an informal shrub rose, Rosa Thomas à Becket (‘Auswinston’).
The Great Pavilion will play host to many other exciting displays including a spectacular underwater scene created by The National Association of Flower Arrangement Societies (NAFAS). Floral designers from the Scottish Area of Flower Arrangement Societies have been inspired by underwater coral reefs to create ‘Far Below the Sea Blooms’. The display takes its cue from nature, where vibrant, bold, rainbow colours are juxtaposed with subtle tones and tints that also feature many sustainable materials, such as bamboo, seaweed and fibres coloured using vegetable dyes.
Bold and bright colours will also be embraced by Hillier Nurseries, which is creating the largest exhibit in the Great Pavilion, ‘Risk’, using a number of adventurous colour themes that have been chosen to encourage gardeners to be bold
in their use of colour. Sponsored by Beazley PLC, the specialist insurers, the exhibit will highlight Hillier as a nursery of specialist plantsmen that help gardeners to achieve the best in their gardens.
The Great Pavilion will be bursting with more than 100 other exhibits from the world’s best nurseries, growers, florists and floral arrangers making it an unmissable attraction at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show.
Raymond Evison Clematis
Clematis Chelsea
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Cayeux Iris
Iris ‘Nelly Tardivier’
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