Sunday, May 21, 2017

Brexit clouds gather over Chelsea Flower Show



...This year there will be just eight show gardens – down from at least 14 last year as some long-term supporters including the Daily Telegraph, which has sponsored a show garden at Chelsea for at least nine years, and Brewin Dolphin, which had sponsored gardens for five years, have pulled out. Other key names L’Occitane and Harrods have also made their excuses....

The missing show gardens have been partly replaced by more of the smaller Artisan and Fresh gardens and five Feel Good gardens fronted by BBC Radio 2 DJs, including the appropriately named Jeremy Vine. A couple of trade exhibitors have also taken larger spaces to develop their sales stand into gardens.

Mattingley said the changes had also enabled Chelsea to give space to new talent. “The show has been going for over 100 years and things are quite cyclical. When we had the credit crunch we had a moment when everything was reorganised and things go around again. We’ve got to work with it and be nimble on our feet and come up with new ideas and be creative,” he said.