In This Issue
50 years of Glee: Last chance to nominate your product, people and plant heroes of the past 50 years
Floralsilk’s stunning showroom is a must-see part of your buying journey
Meadow View Stones Case Study – Planters Brookfields
Handy announces its largest ever garden machinery dealer event: Handy LIVE 2024
Blue Diamond scoop the Peoples Choice award at Chelsea
Jamie Oliver opens newly renovated garden at Essex school with help from British Garden Centres
Highfield Garden World set to invest £300k to transform storage and stock control
Garden centre sales poised for recovery
Clothing & catering serve up good GCA BoT figures in April
Perrywood Garden Centre gets expansion back on track
The Octavia Hill Garden by Blue Diamond with the National Trust wins coveted People’s Choice Award
The Greenfingers Wing Walk is back
Andrew Baker appointed MD of Zest as Steve Morgan becomes Chair
LifestyleGarden gets set for SOLEX 2024
Celebrating National Children’s Gardening Week
GARDENA unveils interactive Chelsea Flower Show Garden
Burgon & Ball wins four stars at Chelsea
HTA webinar highlights demand for CITES rules reform for plant trade
How Apta’s Planting Bench is changing the face of garden pot retailing
Yorkshire Children's Charity is named Garden Centre Group's Charity of the Year
Registration is live for Autumn Fair
STIGA's handheld battery pruner wins renowned award
HTA announces launch of FutureGrow Expo
Summer Showrooms Directory and Plant Sales Vox-Pop in GTN's May issue, read on-line here
Get your copy of GTN Xtra
London blooms with Botanical Shakespeare
QVC UK to sponsor Beautiful Borders at BBC Gardeners’ World Live
Grower of the Year Awards 2024 now open for entries
Three Green Cities Shortlisted for the AIPH Youth Award 2024
The best of last week's
Find out who won what as RHS medals are revealed
Taylors Bulbs awarded 31st gold medal
Ornamental cherry wins RHS Chelsea Plant of the Year
Self-watering pot cover wins Sustainable Garden Product of the Year
Peter Beales Roses scoops its 29th Chelsea gold
Flood Re unveils the Flood Resilient Garden
'Let’s aspire to fantastic urban spaces'
David Austin reveals Emma Bridgewater English shrub rose
World Child Cancer Nurturing Garden receives first RHS Environmental Innovation Award
HTA and APL members bring home top awards
SOLEX Exhibition to kick off festivities with Awards Ceremony and Afterparty
Whisk out your tongs: SOLEX's Fire Food & Outdoor Living Evening returns for its second sizzling year
Send us your news and great ideas

Contact us with your news.

Email trevor@pottingshedpress.co.uk or call the GTN News team on 07973 504214

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


Blue Diamond scoop the Peoples Choice award at Chelsea

As the National Trust and Blue Diamond Octavia Hill Garden, designed by Anne-Marie Powell and the Blue Diamond Team, were presented with the Peoples Choice Award at Chelsea Flower show on Friday, Alan Roper spoke to GTN Xtra about winning the biggest accolade of the show:

 

"When I turned up and saw the garden on Sunday before the show opened for the first time, having been coming to Chelsea for 20 years and just looking at the complexity and variety and the colour palette of the planting, I knew in my heart that this was a gardener’s garden and therefore it would get the People's Choice Award. I knew that on Sunday, and I'm glad that we've been validated by the people that matter, our customers, gardeners, they rightly saw this as a garden that they could relate to and be inspired by. It's been a huge journey, I remember it was two years ago when I said to National Trust, let's do a garden. It took an amount of time to persuade them to fund half of it. I wanted from the start my Blue Diamond team to be a part of the design process. And they learnt a lot under Anne-Marie Powell on that journey. So, I'll say a really big thank you all of them, and they've really enjoyed it.

 

"I think part of the journey has been enjoying the journey. It's not just about the medal. It's just being part of something that's quite special and of course, this goes back to Bridgemere Show Gardens to join our 15 other gardens, which is great that it's going back there, particularly now it's been voted People's Choice. Bernard, who manages the Bridgemere Gardens has already told me I'm going to need an extra 20 hours a week to look after it because of all the planting. He said a really good quote; "it's the only garden that you'd want to live with."

 

"I've said to the team, and there's a lot of time to go, but in three years’ time I'd like to be back to do another show garden. But this time with what they've learned of the process, this will be a Blue Diamond design garden. And I don't care if we come out with a no medal or a bronze, but it would be lovely to see if we as a team can produce a show garden. Yes. And so, I've earmarked three years’ time, I'll be 65, so that's quite a nice round number to do it. And three years gives us plenty of time to try and do justice to the main avenue. So that's the plan.

 

"The one thing I try to do is give people ownership and allow people with passion and creativity to thrive in a business. I've got a lot of great people with passion and energy. So I think with them we can really have a go and do something for three years time.

 

"Last week I think it was pretty tough for the industry, trade wise, it wasn't the brilliant week. I don't know where that came from because I thought the weather was okay after the bank holiday week when we were 30% up. I've not had any feedback from the centres regarding Chelsea feedback from customers as I've been buried in buying another garden centre. We'll be able to tell you at the end of June when it's all gone through.

< >
Chelsea 2024 GTN200524 126.jpg
Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Del.icio.us Digg | Comment (0)
Comment
Name:*

Email Address:*

Comment:*