It's always so exciting arriving at the Royal Hospital Chelsea to set up for the annual flower show. Year on year, thousands of people swarm to Chelsea to marvel at the vibrant flower displays and incredible garden designs. This year they are expecting 157,000 people through the doors from all corners of the globe. Members of the royal family often visit the show and we were fortunate enough to spot the Duchess of Cambridge visiting her garden in the days leading up to the opening... and look who we spotted strolling past our stand on press day?
The whole of Chelsea is a hive of activity and we arrive very early the week before the show and spend our first morning unloading the vans. Armed with strong coffees and paint brushes in hand we set about building the walls and the mainframe for the stand.
We set up the tongue and groove panelling and then move onto upholstering our Peony fabric around the top rim of the stand. A precarious job that involves ladders, an iron and a robust staple gun!
The plants then all arrive and once we have the carpet fitted we begin to move the larger pieces of furniture into place including the display cabinetsand the till area.
On day two the stand is coming together and we fit the lighting units, hang shelves and hooks and start to bring all the stock to display.
A great team effort and our stand was finished... it was definitely time for a well-deserved drink.
The stand was ready for press day on the Monday with plants watered and displays straightened and all our Chelsea Flower Show 2019 mugs on display at the front of the stand.
It was such a pleasure to meet the gorgeous Carol Kirkwood.
We also met funny men Lee Mack and Rob Brydon who popped onto the stand on their tour around the beautiful Chelsea gardens.
After all the hard work, we were awarded a four-star by the RHS team for our stand display which is such an honour. Do come and see us on stand RHW/294 if you're lucky enough to be coming along to the show.