Blue Diamond Garden Centres will launch a new plant collection and a rose to celebrate The Octavia Hill Garden by Blue Diamond with the National Trust, a Main Avenue Show Garden at this year’s RHS Chelsea Flower Show. The garden was designed by award-winning design studio, Ann-Marie Powell Gardens with the Blue Diamond Team.

The National Trust Chelsea Plant Collection by Blue Diamond contains several plants from or inspired by the garden, including Astrantia ‘Roma’ and Geum ‘Scarlet Tempest’. 

In the Great Pavilion, Blue Diamond Garden Centres will also launch a rose, Rosa ‘National Trust Beauty', on behalf of the National Trust. Author Joanne Harris will be the special guest at the launch event on Monday 20 May. See full details below.

Take home a ‘piece of Chelsea’ for your garden or outdoor space.

The Octavia Hill Garden by Blue Diamond with the National Trust features some 3,600 native and non-native plants working together for biodiversity and beauty.  The bold, pollinator-attracting plants throughout the garden will appeal to both wildlife and visitors. 

Blue Diamond Garden Centres has curated a collection of plants, The National Trust Chelsea Plant Collection by Blue Diamond, which consists of plants that are in or inspired by The Octavia Hill Garden. The collection is designed to help gardeners create their own ‘outdoor sitting rooms’ and nature-friendly spaces, both of which feature in the Show Garden. 

Jill Kerr, Group Relationship Manager for Blue Diamond, said: “We hope the Chelsea Plant Collection will inspire and encourage people to create gardens or areas for plants to flourish and spend time outdoors in nature. Blue Diamond provides everything you need to create your own ‘outdoor sitting room’ and nature-friendly space, including a range of plants to capture the look and feel of our Show Garden at home.”

The plants in the collection have been chosen for their colour, shape and texture. They include herbaceous plants, fern and grasses all of which have been carefully selected to complement each other.

This diverse range of plants bloom throughout the year and produce nectar and pollen across the seasons. The collection contains plants in a kaleidoscope of colours, designed to evoke different moods. Calming blues and moody purples mingle with playful pinks and zesty pops of orange, flooding a garden with colour for the whole growing season.  

The collection also contains structural plants with distinct shapes to provide drama in a garden. These include ferns and grasses, which provide movement, structure and contrast.

Several plants in this collection can also talk

Sound artist Justin Wiggan, who recorded electrical impulses of plants in The Octavia Hill Garden, has also recorded the sounds of several plants in the National Trust Chelsea Plant Collection by Blue Diamond. 

Visitors to the show will be able to scan a QR code at the Blue Diamond Garden Centres stand in the Floral Marquee (GPB021) to listen to plants ‘talking’. It is hoped this will enhance people’s connections with the plants and provide an alternative experience, especially for those who are visually impaired or blind.

The collection will be available exclusively in all Blue Diamond Garden Centres from late May. As part of Blue Diamond’s commitment to sustainable production, all plants in our National Trust Collections are grown in peat-free compost and potted in recyclable pots. RRP £12.99

Launch of a new and exclusive rose, ‘National Trust Beauty’

Pioneering reformer and founder of the National Trust, Octavia Hill said, ‘we all want beauty; we all need space’. 

To celebrate her life, work and these inspirational words, Blue Diamond Garden Centres will launch a new and exclusive rose at RHS Chelsea Flower Show on behalf of the National Trust, called Rosa ‘National Trust Beauty’. 

The launch will take place in the Great Pavilion at 1.05pm on Monday 20 May at the Blue Diamond Garden Centres stand, GPB021

Author, Joanne Harris will attend the rose launch as a special guest.  Joanne, who is also a keen gardener, has written several novels including Chocolat (1999), which was made into an Oscar-nominated film starring Juliette Binoche. (2)

Rosa ‘National Trust Beauty’ is bred by Rosen Tantau, and is a fragrant shrub rose with elegant golden-yellow blooms with apricot tones. It grows to a height of 1.2m with an abundance of flowers and is disease resistant.

Octavia’s namesake, Rosa ‘Octavia Hill’ will also be on display at stand GPB021.

Rosa ‘National Trust Beauty’ is available to pre-order now for bare root delivery from November onwards: https://www.bluediamond.gg/national-trust-roses-and-gardeners-favourites

Rosa ‘Octavia Hill’ is available in all Blue Diamond Garden Centres or available to order online.

A garden for everyone

The Octavia Hill Garden by Blue Diamond with the National Trust will celebrate pioneering social reformer Octavia Hill (1838-1912), a founder of the National Trust, who believed that ‘the healthy gift of air and the joy of plants and flowers’ were vital in everyone’s life.

Octavia worked tirelessly to improve urban housing and protect green space. Yet today, one in three people in Britain still don't have access to nearby nature-rich spaces. While celebrating Octavia’s legacy, the garden also aims to inspire people to create innovative gardens that connect people with the beauty and complexity of the natural world.  

The National Trust, Blue Diamond Garden Centres and Ann-Marie Powell Gardens share the belief that gardens have the power to transform lives and should be for everyone. This is reflected in the garden’s design as an urban community wildlife garden set on a brownfield site. The beautiful, plant-filled garden has been created with wellbeing, biodiversity, sustainability and accessibility in mind.