Celebrity Debut in Chelsea!

Celebrity Fuchsias, the road to Chelsea.

Lights, camera, action! Celebrity Fuchsias behind the scenes at Young Plants.

Well perhaps lights, camera action, is a bit of an exaggeration but certainly lights, watering, feeding and a high degree of tender loving care have been the order of the day to ensure that we have some exceptional Celebrity Fuchsia^® plants to show on Peter Seabrook's stand at the Chelsea flower show this Spring.

The team at YP were delighted to be invited to produce plants for Peters upcoming venture at Chelsea and immediately got stuck into their research on the best ways to do this, 'specialist fuchsia growers Doug Jones of Roualeyn Fuchsias and Mike Clare of Potash nurseries were consulted on the subject as both are previous medal winners at Chelsea and all of their advice has been invaluable to us' said Sally Newbury Trials supervisor at YP.

Work began in the Autumn with plant material being potted up early and electricians hanging new lighting in the fuchsia bay of the trials house. A decision was made to designate one person as Fuchsia carer and Lynne Smith one of the part time trials people rose to the challenge.

Having one person in contact with the plants at all times has paid dividends as the key to producing perfect show plants is attention to detail and Lynne has certainly made the difference, she said 'never having produced Fuchsia plants to show at Chelsea we have had to go back to the drawing board, learning how to use supplementary lighting and changing the feeding regime and pinching to bring the plants into flower so much earlier, adding 'it has been a lot of effort and sleepless nights but it was worthwhile now the plants are looking so good'.

Winter has brought it's challenges with a foot of snow blocking the road meaning that the team were only able to get into work on foot during a couple of days in February, but the Fuchsias continue to excel and as Spring approaches there is an air of expectancy around the Fuchsia house, 'we are all really excited to be showing our Celebrity Fuchsias at Chelsea and we are grateful to Peter for his selection and support' said Alex Newey, M.D of Young Plants, adding ' The team and I will be breathing a sigh of relieved satisfaction when we get the plants safely delivered'!

You will get the chance to judge for yourself when the curtain goes back on the 2009 Chelsea flower show in April this year.