Post Chelsea Flower Show 2017 - Part 1

For the second year running, The Archers At The Larches Ltd have sold our branded Lou's Poo, Dried Alpaca Fertiliser at RHS Chelsea Flower Show. We wouldn't be there without the fantastic support of Mark Macdonald, owner of Todd's Botanics, Plants Delivered and Vaso Toscano. Mark is a champion grower and a firm believer in our fertiliser. He uses it to feed the nursery and loves specific products, like our Shredded Lou's Poo, for feeding his tree ferns or our Beans, for feeding his olive trees.

In conjunction with Mark, we created our Lou's Poo, Compost Tea Mix with added comfrey, especially formulated to feed flowering plants in their flowering season. At Chelsea, this was particularly well received by those growing agapanthus, chilli and tomato growers but it suits all indoor and outdoor flowering plants too.

This year I was lucky enough to attend the Chelsea Flower Show Press Day and Gala Dinner hosted by the RHS on the Monday before the public opening. I was stationed on my Plants Delivered stand eager and waiting to see who I might see. First to pop by was Julian Cleary and his mum. Juilian is astoundingly beautiful. I remember him from his early days on TV and imagined him short and skinny. He is tall and elegant. I passed him my card as no celebs seemed to be buying much. 'Ah,' he said in a considered drawl, 'Thankyou. One never knows when one might need some alpaca poo.' 'Quite.' said I. 

Next I was lovey-kissed by Ainsley Harriott, most excellent. He's even taller than Juilan! He walked away chortling when I passed my card over. Lovely man, I have his BBQ book somewhere.

I saw Judy Dench and the beautiful Duchess and countless other celebs, like all the Radio 2 BBC crowd; Chris Evans, Jeremy Vine, Jo Wiley, Anneka Rice. It's exciting but I'm not altogether sure if all these personalities were there for the flowers.....the real stars for me, of course, are the growers inside the Grand Pavilion and the garden designers outside. The growers, in particular, work their fingers to the bone 24/7, seeking RHS medals and caring customers to purchase their stunning plants. My top picks were:
Todd's Botanics, for drought tolerant plants, tree ferns, olives, the unusual, agapanthus and iris, garden design and wholesale planting solutions. T3 Wall End Nursery for unusual plants, salvia and abutilons. Avon Bulbs for stunning bulbs and seeds. HooksgreenHerbs culinary, medicinal and scented pot-grown herbs and seeds. Mamoth Onion  W. Robinson & Son, Seeds and Plants Ltd for fantastic vegetable plants and seeds. Check out their websites.

In my next blog post I'll share a little more of my pictures and comment on the gardens I liked/didn't, but for now I d like to say a massive thanks to my Poo Crew for the week; Kathy, AM, Ori, Cathy, Erin and Bryony plus French Antionne! You all rock.