The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) is joining the celebrations for Whichford Pottery as the company, which is one of the few workshops in Britain producing hand-thrown terracotta flowerpots at scale – and an RHS licensee for over 20 years – celebrates its 50th anniversary.

Whichford Pottery was founded in 1976 by Jim and Dominique Keeling with the aim of keeping traditional English flowerpot making alive. Today, with their eldest son Adam and their youngest daughter Theodora, the Keelings lead a team of over 25 craftsmen and women.

All Whichford pots are designed, thrown on the wheel and decorated in the company’s Warwickshire workshop using time-proven methods and materials. Even the clay is prepared from its raw state, giving the team confidence in its durability and finish. Not only are the pots all handmade, but so are the roulettes and moulds, both of which are used in the patterning and decorating process.

Apprentices learn by working alongside experienced makers. The company also run courses for potters of all levels. The team’s skills are rare, so Whichford is often commissioned to design and make bespoke planters, sculptures, replicas and more. Indeed, its pots can be found in gardens across the world from Dorset to Tokyo, a range that today includes more than 600 different flowerpot designs.

As well as beautiful designs, Whichford pots are highly practical. Terracotta clay provides the optimum porosity to promote healthy root growth. All Whichford flowerpots carry a ten-year frostproof guarantee.

It is this commitment to British craftsmanship and supporting craft skills that first attracted the RHS, with which the company today has a long and established association. Whichford has been supplying the RHS for over 40 years and first exhibited at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show in 1983. It has won many top awards since then.

Whichford first became an RHS licensee more than 20 years ago.  The RHS Lindley Library, the world’s finest collection of botanical art, has helped to inspire over a dozen stylish designs, from the practical Wisley Gardener’s Pot to the stunning RHS Foxglove Flowerpot. Among the highlights of this collaboration is the RHS Wildflower Collection: seven finely modelled decorations that celebrate and showcase the beauty of British wildflowers, from common creeping clover to timeless wild daffodil.

These wonderful pots are exclusively available through a small number of retail outlets. They include Whichford’s own shop and ecommerce site, RHS Garden Centres, RHS Plants Online (rhsplants.co.uk) and specially selected Whichford retail partners.

The RHS is supporting this important anniversary through impressive retail displays at RHS Garden Wisley and the other RHS gardens stocking the products, and by highlighting the anniversary and the RHS and Whichford connection.

Theodora Keeling, Director and Head of Sales and Marketing, Whichford Pottery, says: “This company is proud to be an admired example of a key aim of the RHS Licensing programme: to support and encourage UK manufacturing and craftsmanship. Our relationship with the RHS goes back many years and, we are sure, will continue for many more.”

Cathy Snow, RHS Licensing Manager, adds: “As one of the first companies with a proven commitment to home-grown craft skills to be supported by the RHS Licensing programme, Whichford has long led the way in its field. The RHS is delighted with our continuing relationship with Whichford in its 50th Anniversary year – it’s a relationship that shows our support for quality, traditional British-made products.”