Create the 'Chelsea Look' at home
The National Trust Chelsea Plant Collection by Blue Diamond, consists of plants that are in our RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2024 Main Avenue Show Garden, 'The Octavia Hill Garden by Blue Diamond with the National Trust'. The Collection is designed to enable the public to create their own ‘outdoor sitting room’ and nature-friendly space, both of which are central themes to our Show Garden. The Collection will be available exclusively in all Blue Diamond Garden Centres from late May. As part of Blue Diamond’s commitment to sustainable production, all plants in our National Trust Collections are growing in peat-free compost and in recyclable pots.
The Chelsea Plant Collection
The Collection features plants working together for biodiversity and beauty, which attract pollinators, are appealing to wildlife and which have been chosen for their colour, shape and texture. This collection of plants includes ferns, grasses and herbaceous, all of which have been carefully selected to complement each other.
Several of the plants in this collection can talk!
Multi-award-winning sound artist Justin Wiggan, who recorded electrical impulses of plants in The Octavia Hill Garden, has also recorded the sounds of several plants within the National Trust Chelsea Plant Collection by Blue Diamond. By deciphering and registering the impulses and interactions of plants, Justin transformed sounds from a leaf to the root system of a plant into music, which gave the plants a voice!
By converting the energy of seven key plants in the Collection into sounds, using a device that translates changes in electrical impulses into midi signals, Wiggins also then gave each plant its own instrumental form and so the "The Florchestra" was created. This is a curious, energetic, and thoughtful soundscape.
Click on the links under several of the plants below, to listen to them talk! Or hear them sing together in a full orchestral ensemble!!
Plants for pollinators
Pollinators are the unsung heroes of our ecosystem. They ensure the exchange of pollen between flowering plants. In turn, the insects are a food source for birds, amphibians and animals. Most pollinators are drawn to brightly coloured flowers with strong scents and plants from the Chelsea Collection have mastered the fine art of attracting pollinators. The Collection has a diverse range of plants which bloom throughout the year and which will ensure a supply of nectar and pollen across the seasons.
Achillea 'Safran’
Chosen to be part of the Chelsea Collection because it is a stunning variety of Yarrow which has orange and yellow flowers with an added hint of pink. It is ideal for adding late autumn colour to your containers and borders and its open, flat and easily accessible flowers are loved by bees and butterflies.
Height: 50cm. Spread: 60cm. Flowers: June-September. Position: Full sun, partial shade. Planting: Well-drained soil.
Asphodeline Lutea
Bold spikes of fragrant, star-shaped, bright yellow flowers on tall stems in late spring and blue-tinted grass-like foliage. It has been chosen to be part of the collection because its colour and scent will attract pollinators and it is an ideal plant for adding dramatic structure and height to your borders. As an added bonus, after flowering, the attractive seedheads can be left for further interest.
Height: 90cm. Spread: 30cm. Flowers: June-July. Position: Full sun. Planting: Moist, well-drained soil.
Buddleja 'Flower Power’
This buddleja is unique and was chosen because of its spires of striking, fragrant flowers in tropical colours which change from yellow and orange to pink and purple and all in one colour-changing flowerhead! It not only creates a visual display, it is the perfect plant to attract insects to your garden and is a butterfly magnet!
Height: 1.2m. Spread: 60cm. Flowers: July-Sept. Position: Full to partial shade. Planting: Moist, well-drained soil.
Achillea 'Walther Funcke'
This achillea stands tall above aromatic, fern like foliage and from late spring until the autumn, bears huge heads of long-lasting tiny, orange flowers with yellow centres which fade to a creamy yellow. Chosen because it a great contrast against the other bright, colourful and exuberant plants in the Chelsea Collection and is loved by insects.
Height: 60cm. Spread: 60cm. Flowers: June- Sept. Position: Full sun, partial shade. Planting: Well-drained soil.
Aruncus 'Horatio'
Plumes of feathery, creamy-white flowers standing tall above the foliage in the summer with bronze-tinted, green foliage which changes to shades of cinnamon red in the autumn. Chosen for its decorative foliage and flowers, it is perfect for naturalised planting schemes and great for attracting pollinators.
Height: 1m. Spread: 25cm. Flowers: May-July. Position: full sun, partial shade. Planting: Moist, well-drained soil.
Plants for colour
The Collection contains plants in a kaleidoscope of colours which have been carefully curated to evoke a specific mood. Calming blues and moody purples mingle with playful pinks and zesty pops of orange. Flooding a garden with colour for the whole growing season.
Astrantia ‘Roma’
Delicate, papery, pincushion shaped, soft pink flowers that last throughout the summer and are loved by insects. Chosen because of its colour, it flowers longer than most varieties and you are almost guaranteed a second flush of flowers in the autumn.
Height: 60cm. Spread: 40cm. Flowers: June-Aug. Position: Full sun, partial shade. Planting: Moist, well-drained soil.
Iris 'Persimmon'
This elegant variety has been chosen for its rich purple, butterfly-like flowers, above long narrow leaves on upright stems. Perfect for adding height to your flower beds and ideal for adding colour in late spring to early summer.
Height: 90cm. Spread: 90cm. Flowers: May-June. Position: Full sun. Planting: Moist, well-drained soil.
Achillea ‘Crème De La Crème’
This achillea lives up to its name and has been selected for the Chelsea Collection because, from late spring to early autumn, it blooms with large, pretty, flat-top clusters of white to pale yellow flowers set against dark green foliage and it is loved by bees and butterflies.
Height: 40cm. Spread: 50cm. Flowers: June-Sept. Position: Full sun, partial shade. Planting: Well-drained soil.
Geum 'Scarlet Tempest'
Large, double, apricot flushed, scarlet flowers from mid-spring with a second flush of flowers appearing from summer to autumn. Chosen for the Collection because of its striking colour and long flowering season.
Height: 45cm. Spread: 45cm. Flowers: May-Sept. Position: Full sun, partial shade. Planting: Moist, well-drained soil.
Plants for texture and structure
The Collection contains structural plants with distinct shapes and year-round presence to provide drama and impact in a garden, and plants such as ferns and grasses which give you movement, structure and contrast.
Deschampsia ‘Goldschlier'
Common name ‘Golden Veil’, which bymid-summer will rise above other plants and carrylarge, airy plumes of tiny, silver-green flowers which turn bright, straw-yellow. Chosen for the Collection because it creates a golden veil for a long-lasting autumn display.
Height: 1.2m. Spread: 90cm. Flowers: May-August. Position: Sun, partial shade. Planting: Moist, well-drained soil.
Alchemilla Erythropoda
A dwarf Lady’s Mantle which forms neat mounds of apple-green foliage topped with frothy, lime-green flowers which take on a reddish tinge as they age. Chosen for the Collection because it provides a long period of interest and is ideal for ground cover or for edging the front of a border.
Height: 25cm Spread: 35cm Flowers: Jun-Sept Position: full sun, partial shade Planting: Moist, well-drained soil
On the Sub bass in the 'Florchestra'...
Athyrium 'Lady in Red'
An elegant, upright fern with arching, erect, bright red stems contrasting with lacy light-green fronds. It is perfect for spring and has been chosen for the Collection because it’s a real statement plant with an unusual colour combination.
Height: 90cm. Spread: 60cm. Position: Full, partial shade. Planting: Moist, well-drained soil.
Asplenium Scolopendrium
An evergreen fern which has been chosen for the Collection because of the unusual rosette of bright-green arching straight fronds which have a wavy edge. Its structure and shape provide a contrast to softer planting.
Height: 50cm. Spread: 50cm. Position: full, partial shade. Planting: Moist, well-drained soil.