In October 2023 I was emailed by the RHS as to whether or not I would consider a new role, which is mentoring a young designer who is creating the main feature on the monument site, in the main pavilion? I thought about it for about 10 seconds , with a voice next to me saying “Yes go on Rosy do it.” So, whether it was a good idea or not I said yes.

Emma Tipping is a lovely girl who is a really talented young designer and I already knew of her from the gold medal winning ‘St. George ‘Alight Here’ Balcony Garden at Chelsea in 2023.

We were given a huge space by the RHS who had already had an idea that we were going to be allied with four nurseries;

Herbs – Kitchen Garden Plants

Vegetables – She grows Veg

Kent Wild Flower Seed

Mushrooms from the Caley Brothers.

Of those, only two nurseries grow plants themselves, the others are seed suppliers or producers. So, we had to come up with an idea to link them all and settled on showing a day in a life of a nurseryman.

First, we looked at the structures we would have on a nursery. With the sponsors UBS, we decided all the trees and hedges had to have some benefit to wildlife or produce food in some way, so these were used to create a boundary around the site, .

On a nursery there is usually a tunnel, a shade area and a potting shed. We needed a polytunnel, so installed a 10m x 6m 'Keder' house along with a shady pergola and a potting shed. The 'Keder' had propagation benches with a mist unit. We also made raised beds from recycled pallets because almost all nurseries have pallets collecting somewhere.

The huge monument site in the main pavilion.

Creating the displays

We were working with two seed companies, and the poly tunnel was dressed with seeds, seedlings, cuttings and plants in various stages of growth. Unlike other displays at Chelsea this was not pristine and was not meant to be because we were showing how things are produced on a nursery. We also wanted to show that not all plants are sold and some are allowed to go to seed which is then collected for the following years crop or for sale. So, the concept was to show the process from ‘Seed to Seed’ with all the different stages between.

We spaced the raised beds around the Monument with one group moving from wild flowers to vegetables and mushrooms and the other group which rotated in the opposite direction, showing wild flowers, herbs and mushrooms. This showed that everything was connected and the vegetables, herbs and flowers could be grown together. In fact, everything that could be grown together was. We installed a compost heap and a water storage tank completing a great looking exhibit for people to wander through and learn what happens behind the scenes in a working nursery. All the members of the public we spoke to seemed to love the idea and the insight it gave them.

Emma and Rosy meeting the Queen