The Chelsea Flower Show is one of the world's most prestigeous events of its kind. Months and sometimes years of preparation go into producing displays which must live up to the very highest standards of quality. 

With the enormous amount of media interest The Chelsea Flower Show attracts, there's no better place to launch a plant. But taking place at the end of May, it is well before the natural blooming time of most perennials. 2 months before, in the case of Helenium 'Chelsey'.  

With the world's press poised to take photographs of the launch, you'd better have something to show them!

Although a popular cut flower, Heleniums are not generally forced out of season as it's not a crop with a big profit margin. Getting 'Chelsey' into bloom for the show was therefore something of an experiment, and a nailbiter right till the end!  

The story begins in December 2004, when 100 dormant roots were potted into 3 litre containers. These were distributed to several greenhouses to sit alongside various cutflower crops.

Six weeks before the event, we found that a batch of 7 un-pinched plants sharing a lit greenhouse with Alstoemerias had shot up long stems and had started to produce flower buds.

These plants were then moved to an outdoor location so that the developing buds could get the natural sunlight they need to produce red in the flowers.

April in The Netherlands brought a certain amount of sunshine, but it was cold, and the buds continued their development very slowly.

By 3rd May, 3 weeks before the flowers had to be in bloom, the outer petals on the lead flower were only just beginning to colour up.

10 days before the Chelsey launch, and after further consultation with Nic Geelings, the plants were moved back indoors, but this time to share a greenhouse with Asclepias which were heated to 25 C during the day as well as having long light hours.

The blast of heat and light had a miraculous effect, and we returned to the greenhouse 4 days later to discover the first glorious blooms had opened!

The first flowers measured almost 3" across.

Another 4 days in this location would possibly have brought loads of flowers into bloom, but the plants still had to be transported to England and to the show, so 2 more days was all they got.

Finally, the launch day on 23rd May arrived, and from our 7 plants that made it, 2 were displayed on Sunflower Street and the remaining 5 were cut and arranged in the bowl which featured in the photocall and also on GMTV.

Mission accomplished, as Helenium 'Chelsey' is photographed with Chelsey Lloyd and many faces that UK residents are more used to seeing reading the news, rather than making it.
Left to right: John Stapleton, Mary Nightingale, Sir Trevor McDonald OBE, Chelsey Lloyd, Mark Austin, Dermot Murnaghan.