2010 Chelsea Show
The Hardy Plant Society’s Chelsea Flower Show stand, this year presented by the West Yorkshire Group, has been awarded a Silver Medal.
Photograph of the stand by Keith Litteljohns.
Click on picture for a larger version.
The stand is entitled ‘True Yorkshire Grit’ and is subtitled ‘hardy plants for tough places’. The display’s structure consists of strong vertical and horizontal lines symbolising the contemporary city skyline of Leeds where the West Yorkshire Group have their regular meetings. As with many British towns and cities, Leeds has undergone substantial regeneration since being transformed from its industrial heritage into a thriving modern business and financial commercial centre.
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Recent changes in weather patterns have brought periods of exceptionally heavy rain to this area of the UK resulting in some gardens being underwater in parts while also also experiencing unseasonably strong winds during the spring and summer months. The range of growing conditions faced by members is represented in the planting used for the exhibit.
The wide variety of plants displayed demonstrate some of the challenging situations that hardy plants are capable of surviving in. Several specific environments have been chosen including hot, dry and stony, damp and shady, exposed and windy, wet and boggy and dry and shady.
A charming path that runs through the display is made from old York stone roofing slates which have come from the former St. Margaret of Antioch church Grade II listed building in Leeds. During recent renovation work some of the roofing slates had to be replaced and the group were given use of some of these old slates.
The supporting structure will be used again by the group at the Harrogate Autumn Flower Show where they will recreate the display using late summer flowering perennials. Afterwards it will go to Askham Bryan College, York to be made use of there.
The West Yorkshire Group invited two horticultural students and a tutor from Askham Bryan College, York to help during the first part of the Chelsea build up week, the college has not exhibited at Chelsea for a while and this offers the chosen students some of the ‘Chelsea experience’.
Our 2010 stand featured on the following BBC programmes:
An interview with Carol Klein was available, during the show, on the BBC's Red Button service.
A radio interview with Pat Inman was broadcast on the Mike George Show, on BBC Hereford and Worcester, on Saturday 29th May at 3.20pm.
BBC Radio Leeds also has an item about our Chelsea medal award on their web site at http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/leeds/hi/people_and_places/nature/newsid_8702000/8702777.stm. Scroll down the page to the section called ‘Yorkshire grit too’
Congratulations to the West Yorkshire Group on achieving yet another RHS award for the Society. Those who participated in the design, building and planting of the display included David Smith (designer), Wendy Platt, Sandra Tesseyman, Anna Gugan, Gill Evans, Judith Ladley, Ruth Baumberg, Janet Middleton, Frances King, Neil Broome, Gloria Downey, Maggie Sugden, Pat Inman and, from Askham Bryan College York, Nigel Harrison, Helen Britton and David Grimshaw.
Words and photograph by Keith Littlejohns. You can see more photographs by following these links:
- for photographs of the team building the stand, the stand prior to opening and early press coverage
- for photographs taken on press day, showing HPS members and personalities on the stand
- for photographs of the stand
- for more photographs of the stand
- for yet more photographs of the stand
- for the personal experiences of a group member.
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