The world’s most prestigious flower show is more than 100 years old but the RHS Chelsea Flower Show (23 – 27 May) still annually delivers new ideas in horticulture through inspirational gardens from world-class designers. It’s a great day out for the 170,000 visitors who attend each year and a must-see event for millions more enjoying the extensive coverage of the show on TV and online.

It’s also a marvellous showcase for some of the licensees in the ever-expanding Royal Horticultural Society licensing programme, including a number that have released new products that will be highlighted at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show.

Plankbridge is proud to introduce the RHS Bothy at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show – a new design evoking the heritage of rural life. The RHS Bothy will have many uses: as a working-from-home space, as somewhere for hobbies, to write or play music, or simply as a place for busy gardeners to relax. Appearing in the central display in the Great Pavilion, it will not only be an attraction in its own right but will host a series of RHS interviews with women in horticulture. Plankbridge itself will have a trade stand (stand 640) at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show, where it has exhibited for more than ten years.

The theme of garden structures will be continued at the show by many long-standing RHS partners, including an award-winning manufacturer of handmade British greenhouses, Hartley Botanic (stand 143), timber greenhouse company Gabriel Ash (stand 243)and Harrod Horticultural (stand 183), a major name in plant supports and garden structures. 

The RHS and Sofas & Stuff (stand 615) 2023 fabric collection, like the popular 2022 collection, will launch at the Soane House Installation. These beautiful botanical fabrics once again draw on the archives of the RHS Lindley Collections, this time celebrating two female artists and women in horticulture; Gertrude Jekyll and Caroline Maria Applebee.

Also launching a new product at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show is Annie Sloan (stand 423a), one of the world’s leading authorities in paint, colour and style. The company will present a limited-edition version of its Chalk Paint™, the famous and very versatile furniture paint developed by Annie Sloan in 1990. It’s called Capability Green, a warm, natural green inspired by the beauty of the English landscape – and a nod to the most celebrated of English gardeners, Lancelot “Capability” Brown.

Capability Green will be part of a starter kit containing two 120ml tins of paint, one 120ml Chalk Paint™ Clear Wax, a paintbrush, a Chalk Paint™ colour card showing the full range of Annie Sloan Chalk Paint™ colours, and a QR code offering a link to videos that show how the paints are used. 

For its latest collection, again launching at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show, Moorcroft (stand 136), which handcrafts collectable art pottery, has been inspired by an extensive collection of beautiful early nineteenth-century watercolours of flowers from the RHS Lindley Collections by the artist Caroline Maria Applebee. The new Moorcroft RHS Applebee Collection consists of seven pieces. Each piece of art pottery is made entirely by hand in the Arts and Crafts tradition and is designed by renowned Moorcroft designer Nicola Slaney. The pieces, which include vases, a plaque, a jug and a planter, will be a mixture of limited and numbered editions.

There’s also a treat for wine-loving visitors. Partnering with the RHS, winemaker Babylonstoren (stand 110) has created a fresh rosé, which is the official rosé of the RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2023. The wine will be harvested and bottled a few weeks before the show, which means visitors will be the first to sip on the 2023 vintage. 

Of course, many visitors will be looking forward to planting, and Mr Fothergill's Seeds Ltd (stand 538), the preferred RHS partner for licensed flower and vegetable seed varieties, will be on hand to advise them, while Burgon & Ball (stand 310), offers experienced and new gardeners a range of quality tools and gardening gifts enabling them to buy and garden with confidence, including a stainless steel garden tool range and a wide selection of cutting tools plus much more. But if the weather doesn’t look too cooperative, visitors needn’t worry. RHS licensee The Original Muck Boot Company (stand 606), which produces a multipurpose range of gardening boots to keep feet dry, warm and comfortable, is also appearing at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show. 

Cathy Snow, Licensing Manager, RHS, says: “We are, of course, thrilled to be welcoming so many of our valued partners to one of the highlights of the year for the RHS. This is also a chance to show off the diversity of products and partners that have been inspired by Britain’s favourite gardening charity. From producers of greenhouses and shepherd’s huts to suppliers of seeds and wine, many exciting, appealing – and possibly unexpected – RHS licensees can be found at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show!”