Chelsea 2022: Stand GPE193 in the Great Pavilion

Tuesday 24 May – Saturday 28 May

We were delighted that the team won a gold medal for their hard work in our centenary year. Here are some photos to whet your appetites – do come along and say hello.

The last photo shows Rachel de Thame, our new Patron, with the team.

Below, you will see our colourful flyer and the catalogue of the artists whose iris works help celebrate our centenary (to see full size, just click on the picture links). We would like to thank Claire Austin for kindly agreeing to grow the irises for our stand and we are also grateful to the following for supplying the cultivars we sought:

Claire Austin

Sarah Cook (NC of Sir Cedric Morris Irises)

English Iris Company

Gobbett Nursery

Iris of Sissinghurst

Howards

Manic Botanic

Woottens

supporters

We are also very grateful to the companies that have supported us:

timeline1
timeline2

Of course without the members, past and present, the stand would never have happened.

We would like to thank all those involved and in particular:

Fern and Rex Harden

Anne Milner (NC of Bliss & Taylor Irises)

Jill Whitehead

…who did the bulk of the work with help from Jake Croft, Jeremy Handy, John Milner, Chris Towers and Alun Whitehead

The following irises were used on the display:

  • ‘Hookeri’
  • ‘Annabel Jane’
  • ‘Atlantic Sky’
  • ‘Benbow’
  • ‘Benton Apollo’
  • ‘Benton Dierdre’
  • ‘Benton Lorna’
  • ‘Benton Nigel’
  • ‘Benton Susan’
  • ‘Braithwaite’
  • ‘Century Pink’
  • ‘City of Paradise’
  • ‘Clematis’
  • ‘Dovedale’
  • ‘Early Light’
  • ‘Elizabeth Poldark’
  • ‘Fern Harden’
  • ‘Godfrey Owen’
  • ‘Icelandic  Sunshine’
  • ‘Iceni Sunset’
  • ‘Kent Pride’
  • ‘Lavender Nights’
  • ‘Lord Warden’
  • ‘Mrs Horace Darwin’
  • ‘Orinoco Flow’
  • ‘Paradise Park’
  • ‘Rising Worship’
  • ‘River of Life’
  • ‘Scotney Castle’
  • ‘Senlac’
  • ‘Shurton Inn’
  • ‘Simon Dodsworth Seedling’
  • ‘Spirit of Kent’
  • ‘Susan Bliss’
  • ‘Vanilla Skies’
  • ‘Velvet Midnights’
  • ‘Wharfedale’
  • ‘White City’

The BBC kindly included the stand in their Chelsea coverage. You will find picture links below, the second is much shorter.

If you don’t want to watch the entire programmes, our coverage starts at to 47 minutes 50 seconds and 12 minutes 30 seconds respectively.

The team being interviewed at the Show
Stardom for some of the members!