Claire Austin, the award-winning nurserywoman and garden writer, returns to the RHS Chelsea Flower Show for the first time since 2016, celebrating her 40 year career in horticulture and the 40th anniversary of her first visit to the show.
Never one to do things by halves, Claire and her team at Claire Austin Hardy Plants are staging two judged exhibits next to one another in the Great Pavilion (GPF 92 A and 92B) each celebrating the specialisms of her acclaimed plant nursery at White Hopton Farm in the Welsh Marches. One of the 4.5m x 4.5m courtyard gardens will shine a spotlight exclusively on Irises, and the other will showcase hardy perennials and peonies.
Iris Courtyard Garden exhibit
The Iris Courtyard Garden exhibit will be planted with over 50 varieties of bearded irises in a spectacular range of colours from pure white and pale pink to the cerise, blue, purple, yellow orange, brown and deepest black and the striking two-tone varieties.
At the centre of the Iris Courtyard Garden, local farmer-florist Emma Cox of Luna Bloom will create a magnificent urn arrangement using bearded irises and the more delicate iris sibirica varieties as cut flowers. Popular with flower farmers for their flamboyant, ruffled blooms and sword-like foliage, irises make beautiful cut blooms and last well in the vase.
Claire holds the National Collection of Bearded Irises and has successfully grown fields of bearded irises in four different locations and soil conditions during her 40 year career. Claire wants to share how easy they are to grow in a garden setting.
A warm spring permitting, the iris varieties making their Chelsea debut will include:
- Iris ‘Executive Order’ bears luxurious, sweetly scented flowers on strong stems. The soft blue-white standards are tightly ruffled and flushed with soft violet. The plush velvet, purple black falls pale along to a fine line along the edges. as the petals curl upwards along the ruffles the paler underside becomes visible.
- Iris ‘Confection Perfection’ is a long-flowering variety that has delicately coloured, perfectly shaped blooms. The standards are soft pink and the colour is reflected around the edges of creamy white falls. The petals are lightly ruffled and borne on strong stems.”
- Iris 'Edwardian Era' is a flashy little number with tightly ruffled petals that are also laced along the edges. The colour blends from pink-lilac to nearly white in the centre of the falls. Lots of buds carried on strong stems.”
- Iris 'Table For Two': The flowers on this handsome plant have velvety dark brown falls with short rivers of white radiating from the yellow beard. The copper standards are heavily flushed with purple from the base upwards.
