British grown peat-free houseplants  

At the new RHS Urban Show Manchester, Blue Diamond, Britain’s largest Garden Centre group, is championing the move towards British Grown peat-free, peat free and soil-free houseplants. Blue Diamond is committed to developing best practice in sustainable living as well as responding to the growing, eco-conscious customers demand to reduce environmental impact.

The Blue Diamond exhibit, stand C25, C40 and C41, will showcase a new range of British grown peat-free houseplants, in addition to a range of soil-free plants, grown using air, hydroponics and water.  

Blue Diamond aims to show visitors how to sustainably ‘green’ their homes or spaces with an interactive exhibit.  Visitors will wander through a typical urban apartment, with rooms containing examples of plants perfect for steamy bathrooms, warm, sunny living rooms, or rooms with lower levels of natural light. 

Houseplants plants grown without soil

Blue Diamond is leading the way in British Grown peat-free houseplants through its collaboration with The Horti House, a collective of British growers and is keen to showcase the best of British growers and their environmental credentials. The move towards British-grown plants significantly reduces transportation and its corresponding carbon footprint and plants are grown using the latest developments in biomass heating, solar energy, and recycled roof rainwater as part of the growing process.  

The move towards British Grown peat-free and soil-free houseplants, most importantly, helps to conserve rare peatlands and their unique biodiversity, as well as combatting climate change. The new British Grown peat-free houseplant range has been grown in a variety of composts, including recycled coir as well as more novel waste materials such as green waste from cut flowers (such as lily and peony) and soft fruit production. The material is shredded and then steamed to create a perfect growing media with good water retention and ideal texture​. New point of sale and care instructions have been developed to help Blue Diamond customers identify the British Grown peat free collection and helping to facilitate a greater understanding of its importance.

Nick Jones, Head of Product Direction says, ‘We are proud to be supporting this initiative to help meet our responsibility as a retailer in eradicating the use of peat. The recycled growing media has produced plants to the highest standards, which we are excited to exhibit at RHS Urban Manchester and stock in all our Blue Diamond Garden Centres. We will continue to work with our UK growers to increase the peat-free collection, ultimately providing our customers with a 100% British grown peat-free range, whilst in the meantime, working with our European partners to procure other peat-free solutions’.

Our peat-free range of houseplants, including our British grown peat free range, is available to buy in all 44 Blue Diamond Garden Centres and selected varieties are available online at bluediamond.gg/all-about-houseplants. Plants includes favourites such as phalaenopsis orchids, calathea, dracaena and monstera in addition to seasonal products, in 12 and 17cm pots. 

Blue Diamond is also exhibiting at RHS Urban Manchester, a new and exclusive range of stylish and contemporary, plant pot covers. The range, called ECOMADE, are British designed and made in a purpose-built facility in Glastonbury, Somerset, using 30% UK sourced coffee grounds and 55% recycled and recyclable plastic.

In the UK, we drink approximately 98 million cups of coffee per day, which means that half a million tonnes of ground coffee waste go to landfill. When breaking down in landfill this releases harmful methane gases, creating a greenhouse effect 28 times higher than carbon dioxide. The aim is to reduce this waste destined for landfill. To give some context, with the initial order by Blue Diamond to the supplier of the ECOMADE pot covers, 530kg of coffee waste destined for landfill, was able to be recycled by Blue Diamond.  From bean to pellet to pot, we like to think it’s all about repurposing your morning brew!

The covers are made using renewable energy sources, including solar power. The site in Somerset has over 2000 solar panels and is committed to only use 100% green energy from 2025 onwards.

The range includes 4 colours, rose, dark blue, sage and light blue and 2 pot sizes 14cm and 18cm.  The RRP’s range from £5.99 to £9.99. The 18cm pots will be launched in 44 Blue Diamond Garden Centres in 2024. 

At Blue Diamond, we are aware that we are part of a greener, cleaner future. We are taking steps to reduce our carbon footprint and promote a greener, cleaner way of working and we know there is much to do to reduce impact on our environment.  For further information on Blue Diamond’s environmental strategy please visit https://www.bluediamond.gg/environment