Chelsea Flower Show Update 2
On reflection, it’s been quite a mild winter in Somerset overall with no periods of prolonged cold. It has however been profoundly wet and our greatest worry has been freshly potted perennials rotting in their pots.
Now finally we have some dry weather forecast with several days of sunshine. Along with increasing daylight most plants have woken up, and there is plenty of new growth throughout the nursery.
Some plants have already been moved from polytunnels outside, and some of the early flowering woodlanders are already in cool shady areas to slow them down and delay the onset of flowering.
Many plants are being moved by Matt for their final spacing, and he uses his many years of experience to know just how far apart his plants need to be to reach their full Chelsea size, without further spacing.
Jess has more or less finished her marathon 5 month stint in the potting shed, potting up all the Chelsea plants and can now finally see daylight. She’ll now use her skills to trim and shape many of the plants for the show, ably assisted by Cory.
The prop house is bursting with life and Sue is running out of space, holding onto her precious young plants until she is satisfied that they are ready to be potted. They will then be moved out onto the nursery.
Craig has his beady eyes on plant health and is regularly circumnavigating the nursery making sure no pests take up residence in any of the precious plants.
Steve keeps everything functioning and taken to wearing a second cap as Kelways peony apprentice!
Early spring is a very exciting time on the nursery and whilst its lovely to see so much happening, Operations Manager Lucy’s daily task is the spinning of many plates constantly deciding which plants need the teams attention.
There’s lots going on, stay tuned for our next update soon!
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Posted by Liam Murphy
3rd March 2025
