What can we tell you about Chelsea Flower Show that hasn’t already been said before?

Yes, it is arguably the most prestigious flower show in the world. No, it hasn’t always been held in Chelsea – the first show wasn’t even called Chelsea Flower Show and was held in Kensington!

We could go on but all we’d be doing is reporting old news that can be read on countless places all over the digital news spectrum, (by the way, if you want a truly great round up of little known facts about the show you can read a great article published in the Telegraph just before RHS Chelsea 2017 here.)

Of course we could also just do the same old write up about the show gardens, their various meanings, the designers behind them, who won awards and for what, etc, etc.

But, again, this has already been done to death and we’re sure you’ll have read about this already – if not the RHS already have this covered in a live feed here.

RHS Chelsea 2017 – not all about the flowers!

What we can do is offer a unique perspective from a side of the show that isn’t often talked about, namely, the Trade Stands which are, in actual fact a spectacle in themselves but tend to get swallowed up and forgotten about in the ‘news noise’ from the main event around the show gardens.

And for many visitors to Chelsea Flower Show the Trade Stands are an integral part of their visit. We know this as we’ve had a Trade Stand at Chelsea since 2013 and this year we ran a Facebook Campaign themed along the ‘not all about the flowers’ idea and this got great results with many people commenting on the campaign to acknowledge the fact they would like to see more coverage from the Trade Stand areas …

A massive 4 STARS in 2017 …

You may or may not know that it’s not only the Show Gardens and Garden Designers who win awards at Chelsea.

The Trade Stand Exhibitors are also judged by the RHS and, believe us, competition is rife!

For us plans for our Trade Stand at RHS Chelsea 2017 started shortly after the close of our stand at RHS Chelsea 2016 and every attention to detail is covered.

You’ll see from the video above that the end result is pretty impressive and the RHS Judges obviously agreed with us as they saw fit to award us with a 4 Star Trade Stand Award – the best we’ve had in previous years is 3 Stars so a massive well done to the show organisers for their hard work and effort.

No rest for the wicked though as the Bath & West Show starts in a few days!

Dave’s V-Log!

Every year at Chelsea we get a chance to catch up with familiar faces from previous years and that is a big part of the appeal for us – it’s hard work but there is a social aspect to the event as well.

But the best loved visitor each year has to be the Chelsea Pensioner – Dave Thompson – who’s been supporting us at the show since the very first year.

And for RHS Chelsea 2017 Dave really pulled out all the stops in his own very unique way by agreeing to do a V-Log live from each day of the show. In the truest British tradition he focused on the weather each day with a few little twists and turns thrown in for good measure!

All Dave’s V-Logs are great but our favourite has to be his ‘Happy Birthday’ spectacular …

Nice one Dave!

Exclusive Product Launches …

And of course there was the launch of our Exclusive Fiji Rattan Range at RHS Chelsea 2017.

This brand new range of outdoor rattan is modern, contemporary, visually stunning and the New BIG CORE Weave is totally unique to us.

Seeing really is believing here and from the reaction we’ve had from customers so far we’re positive it is going to be a Fiji Rattan year in 2017 and beyond.

“This looks amazing. It’s almost like the thickness of bamboo as opposed to rattan and I can’t believe how well it just works!”

You can see the full Press Release live in the Newsroom here.

In fact, we even asked the manufacturer to weave some Fiji Rattan backdrops with planter baskets for the stand at Chelsea which has to have helped us win the 4 Stars as well.

All in all a really great show – now we can start planning the stand for RHS Chelsea 2018!