RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2018 was a huge success for the Big Hedge Co. Team! We had an extremely busy week; providing planters for the main hospitality areas of the show, providing hedging for the award-winning David Harber x Savills Garden and finally building our very own trade stand. Our main aim for going into the show was not only to spread our name but to spread the world of habitat creation.
Just like last year our trade stand was in the Ranelagh Gardens, which is located parallel to the main avenue. The maze shaped design that the trade stand held, created an immersive experience for people to walk around and view our hedging. The trade stand housed 5 different types of hedging; Acer campestre (Field Maple), Ilex Crenata (Japanese Holly), Fagus sylvatica purpurea (copper beech), Fagus sylvatica (green beech) and Carpinus (hornbeam) - Copper Beech being the fan favourite, most people loving the unique deep purple-bronze foliage that it holds. Resistant to Box blight, Ilex Crenata is a great alternative to the traditional Box. Our trade stand also included a unique sculpture that was supplied by the talented Jill Clarke. The sculptural metalwork represented resilience and grace in each of us to overcome personal struggles. It blended extremely well with our hedging due to its leaf-like shape.
Our famous lilac planters - filled with Acer Campestre (Field Maple) and Ilex Crenata (Japanese Holly) - headed down to Chelsea again this year. In an exclusive deal with the RHS, Big Hedge Co. supplied hedging for the main hospitality areas of the show. However, not all of our planters have stayed lilac! To go along with the theme of 'Blanc' we painted a handful of our planters an ice white showcasing them outside the Jardin Blanc and Wedgewood restaurants!
This year we supplied our English Yew hedging to the award-winning David Harber x Savills show garden which was designed by Nic Howard. The garden has rich, colourful planting, impressive structures and a broad meandering path of gravel, then brick and finally stone that takes visitors on a subtle transitional journey. Our hedging lined the sides of the garden, creating a strong and dense border.
BBC Gardeners' World - A similar event to RHS Chelsea and a similar jobs list for the BHC Team. We were not only trying to spread the word on who Big Hedge Co. are, but we also went with an aim to educate people on habitat creation and how hedging can provide a fantastic habitat!
Just like Chelsea we were asked to provide our lilac and white planters to go in the entrances of the show. It's fantastic to think that the first thing that people saw when they entered was our Big Hedging!
Directly opposite our trade stand was the Wyevale Garden Centres' Solutions Garden, which Big Hedge Co. supplied 16m of 1.5m Taxus baccata (English Yew). The garden received a platinum award. It was great to see the number of people who admire our hedging, complementing its colour and density.
We also supplied our 2m Fagus sylvatica (Green Beech) Big Hedging to Laurence Senior's silver merit winning The Square Garden. Laurence was this year's BBC's Young Garden Designer of The Year winner! Its great to see Big Hedging being incorporated into garden design.
The final stop on the Big Road Trip was The RHS Tatton Park Flower Show. For this show, we simply just brought our trade stand with us! We were delighted to have achieved the 4-star trade stand award, "the design is outstanding and extremely welcoming!" was just one of the things that we were told by the judges whilst receiving our award. The only difference about our trade stand at this event was the fact that we replaced out 3m Carpinus (Hornbeam) with 1.75m Acer campestre (Field Maple), many saying how much they loved the field maple's leaves! We think that it created a great backdrop to Jill Clarke's sculpture! Just like the other shows, we handed out our famous Big Hedge Co. bags, and soaps. We also handed out leaflets filled with information about Big Hedge!
Our journey across the country is coming to an end, but our mission to spread the word on habitat creation has merely begun.
Daniel Heath.
Our Gallery - RHS Chelsea Flower show
Read more - Jill Clarke
Read more - David Harber x Savills Garden
Read more - Nic Howard
Read more - Wyevale Garden Centre
