Greenfield outfit Hartley Botanic awarded five stars for its stand at the RHS’s first Autumn Chelsea Flower Show

Greenhouse and Glasshouse manufacturer Hartley Botanic has been awarded five stars for its 2021 RHS Chelsea Flower Show stand.

The stand celebrates and showcases its business through the decades – as well as displaying some truly stunning, beautifully styled handmade structures.

The stand, which has been built and planted by Show Garden Gold Medal winners Stewart Landscape Construction, and designed and styled by Llevelo Garden Design, features four handmade Hartley Botanic structures, each representing different eras in its trading history.

The show stand traces the manufacturer’s incredible legacy using its beautiful handmade structures – from a 1950s vintage Semi-Dodecagon Greenhouse to a modern-day Opus Grand Botanic.

Of the five star award, Tom Barry, CEO of Hartley Botanic, said: “We are thrilled to have received this award, at what is a truly historic Chelsea for the RHS.

"Our team worked tirelessly to create an extremely stylish and sophisticated stand, and their efforts are particularly commendable due to the extra logistical pressures they faced as a result of Covid.

"Our black Opus Grand Botanic has been beautifully set off with green modern planting and tasteful interior styling, our Victorian Terrace is a pretty English garden dream.

"Our Grow and Store artfully blends a contemporary look and feel with practicality and our 1950s Semi-Dodecagon offers visitors the chance to step back in time.

"The stand’s external plantings have also been expertly designed to provide the perfect, fashionable planting backdrop to the structures.

"The Carpinus betulus trees running behind the Opus Grand Botanic and the single, illuminated Acer x freemanii ‘Autumn Blaze’ tree in the centre of the stand are particularly special and the borders managed to provide a more autumnal feel at the same time as showcasing some interesting, modern plant combinations.”

Maxine Groucutt, RHS Tradestand Panel Leader, said: “This is a richly textured retail stand with warm autumnal planting showcasing the Hartley Botanic range.

"It is a wonderful example of retail theatre that inspires and transports visitors and Hartley Botanic customers into a world of possibilities for their gardens.”

Hartley Botanic was founded in 1938 by brothers Vincent (RHS fellow) and Norman Hartley following their ground-breaking aluminium Greenhouse design, the first time (to their knowledge) aluminium had been used in Greenhouse construction and marking a huge improvement on its wood and wrought iron Victorian forerunners.

The English manufacturer is an authority on Greenhouse design and use over the decades, having been making its beautiful and elegant handmade, made-to-order horticultural buildings for over 83 years from its original factory at the base of the dramatic Pennines’ Chew Valley in Greenfield.

In April of this year, the manufacturer was awarded a prestigious Queen’s Award for Enterprise in the international trade category, thanks to the significant growth of its international business – driven largely by demand for its handmade English Glasshouses and Greenhouses from customers in the United States. 

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