The industry exhibit ’40 Sunbury Road’ has achieved a Silver Medal at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show and one of the featured new plants Dwarf Mulberry Charlotte Russe from Suttons has taken the title of RHS Plant of the Year.

The garden, put together by the Horticultural Trades Association (HTA) and The Association of Professional Landscapers (APL), is run in conjunction with Peter Seabrook and The Sun and is a celebration of Peter’s 40 years working at the newspaper.

APL member Bowood Landscapes have helped to build the garden, which features ideas and inspiration from a typical modest suburban back garden, and celebrates and promotes the vibrant and strong garden and landscape industry that we have in the UK with growers and suppliers providing plants and sundries.

The exhibit received a lot of interest at the press day on Monday 22 May including a Royal visit from Sophie, Countess of Wessex. Other visitors to the garden included Joan Collins, Susan George, Jerry Hall, Rupert Murdoch, Alan Titchmarsh, Deborah Meaden and Baroness Floella Benjamin.

See our gallery of photos below.

Peter Seabrook was presented with a bottle of champagne by HTA President Adam Wigglesworth and HTA Director of Operations Martin Simmons, to thank him for the work he and his team had done to help coordinate the garden.

The exhibit also saw the launch of the import substitution for oak report with HTA Head of Horticulture Raoul Curtis -Machin, HTA President Adam Wigglesworth and Kevin Hobbs from Hillier Nurseries.

The 16m x 5m plot in the Great Marquee features plants and sundries from growers and suppliers all of which are available nationwide in UK garden centres. This includes hanging baskets from Kerleys, Haskins Garden Centre, Bents Garden and Home and Aylett Nurseries, mint planted teapots grown by school children and dementia sufferers, as seen here with Robert Hillier, his wife and Peter Seabrook.

The garden features over 15 new plants including five that were entered for RHS Chelsea Plant of the Year including the winner - Dwarf Mulberry Charlotte Russe from Suttons), Pelargonium PAC Spanish Wine Rose (Cramden Nursery), Betula pendula ‘Fastigiata Joes’ (Frank P Matthews), Lilly Sunset Joy (Pinetops Nurseries) and Strawberry Just Add Cream (Thompson & Morgan) which was so tasty Deborah Meaden had to return with Susan George to taste some more.

Westland Horticulture’s ‘Rising Stars’ have created specially planted containers, with the three Rising Stars themselves (Emma Blackmore from Bents Garden & Home, Kathryn Hunt from Stewarts Garden Centre and Sarah Stewart from Klondyke, Polmont) will also be at the Show on Thursday, May 25 to tell the story of their unusual planted containers.

The garden also features the Wonderwall vertical planting system with strawberries, thyme, salad and confetti plants – demonstrating how outdoor space can effectively use height to gain impact. Perennial, working with Fiddlehead Products, provided a roof top fairy garden on the featured shed within the garden, providing added interest with plants and conifers from Gedney Bulb Plant Company and Golden Grove Nurseries.

Forest Garden provided the shed and the decibel noise reduction panels with WoodBlocX providing raised beds, Bradstone the paving and a patio cleaning equipment from Hozelock.

Companies and brands from across the industry have joined together to contribute to 40 Sunbury Road including Aylett Nurseries, Armlee Nurseries, Ball Colegrave, Barcham, Benary, Bents Garden & Home, Big,  Cramden Nursery, Dobies, Double H Nurseries,  Eden, Evi loves you!, Fleuroselect, Floranova, Forest Garden, Frank P Matthews, Genesis, Haskins Garden Centres, Hozelock,  KADO, Majestic Trees, Myerscough College,  Neudorff, Pinetops, Plants for Europe, Quantil, Rolawn,  Seiont, Stewarts Garden Centre, Suttons, The David Colegrave Foundation, Thompson & Morgan, Westland, WoodBlocX, WonderWall, Wyevale Nurseries amongst others.  Many thanks to them all.