Announcement: I’m Going Back to Chelsea Flower Show! Talking w/ Emma Tipping about her Garden Design

RHS press release: https://www.rhs.org.uk/press/releases/UBS-to-sponsor-exhibit-at-the-heart-of-the-RHS-Che

the cats out of the bag guess what I’m going to rhs Chelsea again this year the rhs have asked me to Mentor Emma tipping a young designer Emma tipping has been doing Gardens at first of all rhs taten flower show in the young designer category and then last year she did a balcony Garden at Chelsea flower show achieving a gold medal this year she’s been given the honor of doing the feature Garden around the monument inside the floral Pavilion the garden is called a day on the nursery insights into Life as a grower and is sponsored by The Royal Horticultural Society and UBS Chelsea is near the end of May and before this I am going to be releasing some preview videos to explain about this exhibit but first of all let’s chat to Emma herself we’re here on the nursery sitting amongst the show plants that we usually would take to Chelsea flower show this is an area where show plants are grown nurtured and looked after so Emma when you were first approached by the rhs probably by email a bit like me what were your first thoughts about the ask to do the monument display or monument feature should I say at Chelsea flower show I think my first thought was that’s really cool I’d never thought about doing anything like that before and second thought really daunting um cuz like you said we got the email initially it didn’t contain that much information so I didn’t know very much about it other than that it was like quite a big project a feature Garden at Chelsea had you ever seen the monument feature before so did were you aware of how large it actually was I’d seen it last year at Chelsea but because it was my first year there and I was exhibiting for the first time I think I was a little bit too like I hadn’t really paid as much attention as I would have otherwise um I remember thinking the planting look beautiful and enjoying walking around the space but that was about as much as I took in I think can you just explain in a nutshell what the brief is so what the display is meant to be depicting you’re meant to feel like you’re in a nursery in a small plant nursery it should feel quite homegrown like nice small family nursery you’ll get an idea of the equipment used the materials that may be used on a nursery it should give you that sort of inclusive feel of walking around and looking at the plant how did you get into horiculture to start off with because I I’m assuming that you weren’t in horiculture when you first trained so what made you move from your job you were in to going into Horticulture and then actually deciding perhaps know you wanted to be in garden design I think like a lot of people I worked in an office in the city and it didn’t take me too long to realize that that was was n really the place that I wanted to work for a long time um but I was really fortunate that I worked in Islington where there’s loads of outdoor spaces and that’s where I tended to gravitate towards um so from there I kind of thought well if I’m going to do something else what do I want to do and I’ve done a lot of field work at Uni and things like that so I thought being outside gardening would be something that would suit me quite well and I kind of had linking that I want to do something creative eventually but I wanted to get like a good background in gardening and and really enjoyed it when I started yeah so where did you work when you first started so I began working at a hotel on the grounds of a hotel was part of a team of about 14 I think overall and yeah worked my way through different different sections I worked in the kitchen garden and I was looking after the formal Gardens so I got a nice overview and got to work in lots of different bits yeah so that gave you a really good grounding into what you needed to do and then from that was it then a stepping stone did you take a course to do your design work particularly it was kind of touched on in the course that I done prior to becoming a gardener um but mainly I had applied to take part in rhs’s young designer at taton Park just as sort of a pun I had some ideas that I thought I’d just submit them best like worst case scenario I just get feedback from it and I learn something you know it’s a good opportunity to just try isn’t it um and then I got in and so sort of went from there I um people say it’s quite addictive to do shows and I think there is something to that yeah I think it can be and I think if you’re if you’re on the design side it can definitely be addictive uh I think from a nursery point of view yes it starts off being addictive then you realize it’s part of your job and and how much do you want to carry on doing that side of it so there are there there are different ways of looking at it because designer doing an outside garden is different from a nursery doing a display within the mares how do you think you’re going to find it because obviously you have done taten and you then did Chelsea last year doing a small balcony Garden how do you think you’re going to find it moving into the Marquee um it’s a different area for growing yeah it feels slightly like foreign territory the Marquee I think because it’s not something I’ve been a part of particularly in the past um but I’m really looking forward to it I think it’ll be nice it’s a good area for that feature to be in because you’re surrounded by the nurseries that are reflected in it so I think it the link is really nice um I think the main difference for me is going to be the scale because it’s such a huge feature um it’s just multiple multiple times the size of L’s balcony well just think of the can just think of the raised beds as being you know one balcony another balcony another balcony in which case I’ve got about 16 balconies that’s fine um but yeah I’m really looking forward to it I think new challenge is always exciting isn’t it yeah I know great we’ve managed to get out to see all the different nurseries and and you’ve been here to us before to get an idea of how a nursery runs do you feel having visited the different types of Nursery you’ve got a better feeling and understanding of how a nursery runs for you to be able to Showcase a nursery with this feature I think so I think what has stood out to me most is that all the different nurseries because they have their own specialisms have very unique ways of working um so it might involve different Machinery different just I mean the plants are different in of themselves or um different practices that they have to use it’s it’s all quite varied yeah so it’ll be nice to it’s really good that we got a chance to meet everyone and see that in person I think to be able to hopefully reflect that a little bit better in I think yes I think we’ve got s such a range haven’t we with with with herbs with wildf flower seed production with vegetable seed production and with the mushrooms it’s it’s quite a varied lot to bring together and showcase you are walking through a nursery from the beginning seedlings right the way through to mature and to things which are going to flower to produce the seed yeah what I do think is really nice about them all though is that they all because they are such small nurseries and have that real family fter them are really passionate about what they’re doing absolutely so I think that’s something that I’m really hoping we’ll be able to reflect in the nursery feature that sort of um will care for the plants that being grown and um yeah I think that that’s what really ties them together they all do work well together wild flowers and herbs and the Edibles I think will knit together nicely when they’re in there oh I think they will I think the story is really great thank you very much for answering those questions and giving us a setting of what we are going to be looking at and what people can expect at Chelsea and in the coming couple of weeks up until the show actually opens we will be putting out more videos all about the various nurseries that are going to be involved and partnered with us thank you very much for watching and please do subscribe to the channel if you want to watch another video of Mine YouTube thinks this one is perfect for you