Charitable Chelsea. RHS Chelsea Flower Show Will Highlight and Raise Money for Some Great Causes

9th May 2009

The world’s most famous gardening event, the RHS Chelsea Flower Show, will provide a platform for at least ten charities this year. From the RHS Campaign for School Gardening to Help for Heroes, the 2009 RHS Chelsea Flower Show, sponsored by Marshalls, will support a network of charities that are using horticulture to make a
difference to people’s lives.

Proceeds from the 2009 RHS Chelsea Flower Show will help fund a diverse range of RHS activities, including Britain in Bloom which helps over 1,000 communities around the UK work together to green up their local areas. People taking part have reported a safer, cleaner and more attractive neighbourhood and a thriving community spirit. The show’s Charity Gala evening, which attracts some of the world’s most influential corporate guests, directly supports the RHS Campaign for
School Gardening. The Campaign has reached over a million children to date, and proceeds from the event will support the work done to encourage even more children to get out and get gardening.

In 2009, many charities will use the RHS Chelsea Flower Show as a platform to reach the 157,000 visitors who visit the show each year. Some charities use inspirational garden design to illustrate their message. Cancer Research UK has used the notion of
“impact” to create a dynamic garden full of movement and to reflect the impact that the charity has made in the battle to beat cancer. The Children’s Society Garden uses design to address the challenges facing a modern, urban family. The garden will illustrate how a family can use their garden to spend quality, family time together.

Other organisations derive benefits from the experience of designing and building a garden at the world’s most famous flower show. The Key, (Eden Project Ltd in partnership with Homes and Communities Agency) is the culmination of a project which brought together some of the least advantaged people in the UK to create a garden at Chelsea. Prisons and homeless hostels across the UK have become
nurseries, growing the plants to stock the garden, and through building and planting, the initiative aims to nurture a sense of hope and change within its participants. Help for Heroes Sanctuary Garden sponsored by B&Q is a symbolic sanctuary where wounded servicemen can recuperate after mental or physical trauma. Designed and built with help from servicemen and women, the garden provides shade for those with burns, space for wheelchairs, and room to relax. The
garden will be rebuilt at the Defence Military Rehabilitation Centre at Headley Court after the show.

Chelsea is the plant breeders’ favourite place to launch new plants, and in 2009 many of the plants making their debut will benefit charities. Chrysanthemums Direct is launching the new, bright yellow Chrysanthemum ‘Tim Wonnacott’, with proceeds being donated to St Catherine’s Hospice New Horizons Appeal. Rosa GIRLGUIDING UK
CENTENARY ROSE, bred by Harkness Roses, will be launched to support the Guide Association, and the Equity Benevolent Fund will benefit from the sales of Rosa EQUITY, also bred by Harkness Roses.

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