Chelsea gold rush

We are particularly chuffed with ourselves at Chelsea this year with both of the Show Gardens we constructed using plants from the Crocus nursery getting top honours. Tom Stuart-Smith leads the way, winning a Gold Medal and the coveted ‘Best in Show’ award for his serene Laurent-Perrier garden design, while Arabella Lennox-Boyd also struck Gold with her tranquil design for The Daily Telegraph garden. We also supplied the plants for Andy Sturgeon’s Cancer Research garden (Gold Medal), as well as Clare Agnew's reflective garden design (Silver-Gilt).

Meet the designers

‘I have never done a planting plan for Chelsea, it’s a matter of seeing what looks good on the day and thinking on your feet, or knees as is more often the case in the end.’ more	‘At Chelsea you can do exactly as you want…you can express what you are feeling inside at that moment. And you can do something completely different.’ more
‘Chelsea is the only time when the words ‘adrenaline’ and ‘gardening’ can be used in the same sentence!’ more	‘The garden plays on two senses; as the eye surveys the reflective pools, the ear is drawn to the running water from the wall fountain.’ more

The Show stats

Over 150,000 visitors take nearly a million hours over five days to visit 600 exhibitors, including 22 major Show Gardens, 22 small gardens (the Courtyard Gardens and Urban Gardens), 100 floral exhibitors in the Great Pavilion and approximately 300 garden product exhibitors. During show week, nearly 50,000 glasses of Pimms, and 5,000 bottles of champagne are sold. Since Crocus was launched in 2000, there have been around 400 new plants launched.