Chelsea Flower Show 2025
We have a small stand at Chelsea Flower Show 2025. This was agreed at very short notice having been on/off since Autumn last year. Colin Moat is leading the team and has been liaising with the main HPS. We are going to be promoting the Hardy Plant Society and HPS Kent.
The stand will be themed - ‘Hardy Plants for the Small Garden’ and will be sited near the monument, a prime position, so hope for plenty of footfall. The size of stand is small, being 2m x 2m square so we are a little constrained as to size of plants.
The aim of the stand is to offer suggestions to those who have reached a decision to downsize their garden, and also hopefully inspiring those (possibly younger) first time buyers whose size of garden may be restricted.
The stand will be divided in two diagonally, by an open structure (such as hurdles). One side will be shade planting, the other sun.
We have a small group because of the small size of the stand. There are four main participants in the planning, led by Colin Moat. The others are Anne Smith, Ali Crayford and Sheila Wyver, all of whom have participated in previous Chelsea exhibits, including the last HPS Kent one in 2015, ‘Over the Garden Gate.’ Our stand then was 4m x 6m so somewhat larger!
We will be very reliant on HPS Kent members’ plants and hope that many get involved with the growing. It does not need to be unusual or exotic. We are aiming for mainly easy to grow plants with a few more ‘unusual’. So please do grow a plant or two, volunteer to look after the stand for some of the time at Chelsea, or come and visit to see the stand. Much as we would love to we cannot give 'free tickets' to anyone, but those who volunteer on the stand will be able to get a pass. Volunteering involves doing some shifts on the day. The Show is open 8am until 8pm Monday to Friday and 8am until 5.30pm Saturday. On the Saturday we will also be ‘breaking down’ the stand. The size of stand determines the number of passes we get per day and these are very limited. If you would like to volunteer on the stand during Chelsea week then please contact Sheila Wyver before the end of April. We have to register the stand volunteers including having a photo of them, so will need plenty of time to organise this with the RHS.