Micro nurseries win prizes at Chelsea Flower Show

Four Kent and Sussex gardening teams from a collective of micro nurseries have won top prizes at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show.

Plant Fairs Roadshow (PFR), based primarily in the south east of England, has been displaying plants its gardeners have grown in the Great Pavilion at the famous flower show.

Of the five PFR nurseries from Kent and Sussex attending the show, two were awarded gold medals and two others won silver gilts.

Paul Seaborne, PFR coordinator, said that “the team effort raised the quality of the displays".

Mr Seaborne, who runs Pelham Plants in Laughton in the Sussex Weald, said he was "thrilled" with his first Chelsea gold medal.

He said his theme of mindfulness "connected with the judges".

Steve Edney and Louise Dowle from the No Name Nursery in Sandwich, Kent, also took away gold.

Mr Edney said: “A gold at Chelsea is the pinnacle of achievement for a grower. We are ecstatic."

The Kent nursery was also awarded a cultural certificate by the RHS herbaceous committee for its perennial shrub Boehmeria kiusiana "in recognition of the quality of the specimen and of its cultivation".

Two other members of the PFR received prestigious silver gilt awards for their displays - Rachael Castle from Faversham-based Swallowfields nursery and Miles Hayward from Miles Japanese Maples in Storrington.

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