Top awards for Sun’s legendary Gardening Editor at Chelsea Flower Show
The Sun shone brightly, with a top award for sunflower SunBelievable on our silver medal winning garden display
THE Sun has shone brightly at this year’s Chelsea Flower Show, with a top award for sunflower SunBelievable on our silver medal winning garden display.
The floral beauty, which came third in the show’s Plant of the Year category, produces a flower on every leaf join, meaning a single plant will produce around 1,000 blooms in it’s season from May until the first frost.
The prize was one of three top awards for our legendary Gardening Editor Peter Seabrook.
A new hydrangea, Runaway Bride — also exhibited by The Sun at the annual five-day gardening extravaganza — won the show’s top prize of Plant of the Year.
The snowy white shrub took pride of place at our stand in The Great Pavilion, with its distinctive mass of lacy white petals, some of which have a delicate pink tinge.
The plant, bred by Japanese horticulturist Ushio Sakazaki, buds from late spring right through to autumn.
As it grows, it “weeps”, meaning it gracefully drops over, making it ideal for hanging baskets or window box arrangements.
Runaway Bride, a completely new breed of hydrangea, is also known as Snow White and has six times as many flowers as a normal variety.
Triumphant Peter said: “The Sun has always been a pioneer.
“We always expect to be first with the news and we try to come first at whatever we do.
“I hope our readers join with us and enjoy what we’re doing.”
Readers had a chance to buy seeds for both prize-winning plants before they went on show at Chelsea, through offers in our TV Mag on Saturday.
The Sun also won a silver gilt medal for our pyramid-shaped garden display, which featured a host of new plant breeds as well as potatoes, mint and acorn seedlings grown by schoolchildren.
They had been encouraged to plant mint shoots or cuttings in teapots by The Sun’s gardening column as part of a drive to get youngsters interested in gardening.
Many of the pots were featured at the show after a social media request led to more than 100 being sent to schools nationwide.
Peter said: “Some of the teapots have excellent stories.
“A brown one was bought in 1918 to make a fresh pot of tea for a soldier on his return from World War One. But he didn’t come back, so it stood empty on the mantle for three generations — and they have now given it to a school.
“There is another from the first Little Chef, which opened in Reading, and one which a soldier stole from the NAAFI during World War Two.
“He filled it with cider and took it back to barracks to celebrate the end of the war.
“We have one which came off the top of a musical box and plays Polly Put The Kettle On.
“There are ornate ones with Victorian decorations down to big aluminium pots.”
MOST READ IN NEWS
Peter attended the Chelsea Flower Show for the first time in 1952 and started exhibiting in the 1960s. The Sun has had an exhibit at the show for 20 years, the only newspaper to do so.
Peter said: “It is a busy show — I work from four in the morning until ten at night — but it is worth it.
“I am pleased that we have hundreds of schoolchildren who are linked to gardening and to our display at this year’s flower show.
“What we’re doing encourages more schoolchildren to grow things.”
Star s-pot
PLENTY of famous faces called by our award-winning garden display to show their support.
Environment Secretary Michael Gove visited the stand, as did Iraq War hero Lance Sergeant Johnson Beharry, VC.
The Sun’s Peter was also joined by Paralympic swimmer Ellie Simmonds, and former Gardeners’ World presenter Alan Titchmarsh.
Lady Sarah Chatto, the daughter of Princess Margaret, popped along to admire our fantastic prize-winning floral exhibit.
Plant of the year
NINE of the new plant breeds exhibited by The Sun were in the top 20 chosen by judges, beating 38 other competitors.
Peter has taken the top spot for the second time in a row, winning the prize three times in total.
The winning plant is hydrangea Runaway Bride and Peter said: “It is rather special, with hundreds of flowers on every branch, right along the length of the stem.
The thing that influenced the judges was its changing character. It flowers right through the summer, so you definitely get your money’s worth.”
Silver medal display
OUR silver gilt medal-winning display featured acorn seedlings grown by schoolchildren and Peter said: “A school gathered acorns from the playground, put them in a moist bag and when they started to grow, took them inside to pot them up.
“Initially the children will outgrow the trees, but soon the trees will outgrow them.
When they are in their 30s they can come back to see their tree.”
We also displayed potatoes grown by more than 16,000 schools nationwide for The Sun’s Grow Your Own Potato campaign.