RANGE REVIEW: GARDEN & WOODCARE
smooth and efficient an operation as possible, new processes and technology have been put in place at Hillier, including irrigation drip lines in the glass houses to speed up watering, and a new smart thermostat on the cold store, which sends text alerts if the temperature – which should remain at a constant three degrees - drops or increases by more than one degree. The latter addition has been a huge timesaver for the team and provided peace of mind, as assistant section leader Peter Gill explains: “The cold store is probably about 40-50 years old and can break down quite often. Last year I used to go up about three times a day to make sure the temperature was still ok so nothing in there spoiled. Thankfully, the new thermostat lets me know when the temperature changes, which saves me a lot of pain at weekends!”
GOING FOR
as it gears up for the RHS Chelsea Flower Show in May. The family- run business, which currently holds the Guinness World Record for the most consecutive Gold medals won at the show, is hoping its latest design will earn its 74th accolade. The garden will be sponsored by the power tool manufacturer, Stihl for the second year running, following the success of gold-medal winning exhibit, ‘Stihl Inspiration’ by Hillier in 2018. This year, Lilly Gomm has joined the Hillier team as designer, making her RHS Chelsea Flower Show design debut and she will be mentored by Chelsea’s most
H 14 DIY WEEK 26 APRIL 2019
illier opened its doors to members of the press this week to give a behind-the-scenes look at operations,
decorated designer, Sarah Eberle who designed Hillier’s garden last year. Lilly already has a string of medals under her belt, including a silver-gilt at RHS Hampton Court Flower Show 2018. New plant introductions for the
garden include Weigela ‘Picobella Rosa’, Isoplexis isabelliana ‘Bella’, and Cordyline ‘Pink Star’ - all of which have been sourced by the Hillier research and development teams and will be available to buy in Hillier centres to help customers recreate a bit of Chelsea in their own garden. Hillier believes we could see a
resurgence of Weigela in UK gardens, as project manager Emma
Fell
explains: “There’s a lot of Weigela breeding going on at the moment. It lost popularity a few years ago but could come back on trend, as new variations become available.”
Chelsea Flower show veteran, Hillier Nurseries & Garden Centres offers a rare insight into growing activity for this year’s show, whilst demonstrating how the business capitalises on the opportunity instore. Fiona Garcia reports.
GOLD
She continues: “Our variety, Picobella Rosa’ is naturally compact and busy, and with gardens getting smaller, we felt we needed to adapt to that with plants that suit those spaces.”
Chairman Robert Hillier adds:
“I think there is a real move back to woody, structured shrubs over herbaceous, particularly as more compact versions become available.” As a result, Ms Fell explains that she has added more than 100 “shrubby lines” to Hillier’s range this year. Although there is a bit more
freedom over designs in the Great Pavilion, which has housed Hillier’s showcases for decades, the quality of the plants will come under much scrutiny by judges and must be perfect to impress. In order to ensure growing and preparing plants for the show is as
Time-saving solutions Plants are checked daily to and Jo Fell explains that the team had also started photographing plants before they went in the cold store last year and would be doing the same again this year to compare and monitor the best time to hold blooms back for the best effect at the show. She says: “We actually want to put some of the plants in a bit earlier this year, so that they hold that little bit longer for the week of Chelsea and so everyone gets to enjoy them. “So, we photograph everything because you never have one season that’s the same and you can forget when you put something in the year before, so you have images as a back-up.”
Meanwhile, some species –
including summer-flowering Liliums - are also currently under lightboxes in the nursery’s research and development centre in the hope they will be forced on enough to have them at the May show. Thousands of plants are housed
in the glass houses and growing areas and watering can be a huge task, with Peter explaining he was spending up to four hours a day hand watering the plants last year before the drip lines were installed. Even with time-saving procedures in place, it is still a huge operation for the team involved and takes up around four months of the growers’ year with more than half of their time focused solely on growing stock for Chelsea from January. The warmer weather has helped bring on a lot of the flowering stock, much to the delight of the team and Peter says it is now a waiting game to see what’s ready for the show. “Last year the weather was terrible, we were playing catch up and trying
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