RHS Chelsea 2024: Vegetables as you've never seen them before
The Great Pavilion is the crown jewel of the Chelsea Flower Show and a new exhibition by She Grows Veg has put a spotlight on heirloom seeds – with their 'edimental' veg display winning a gold medal.
She Grows Veg, a heirloom seed company founded by garden designers and passionate growers, Lucy Hutchings and Kate Cotterill, offers unique veg, fruit and flowers that cannot be found in the shops.
The company has fast become renowned for its range of over 170 open pollinated seeds since its launch in June 2023, so having found a gap in the market for niche seeds, it made sense to bring it into the mainstream at the world-famous flower show.
'Heirlooms are growing in popularity as people become increasingly interested in where their food comes from,' Kate tells House Beautiful. 'Growers have been sold hybrids for years now which compromise on flavour for sake of performance. If you want to cook with the best ingredients you need to grow them yourself.'
Their exhibition, 'Edimental – the beauty of vegetables', presents a modern twist on Renaissance paintings with a striking display of colourful heirloom varieties. Floral designer Hazel Gardiner made the Renaissance-inspired vision a reality, and it earned them a gold medal, in what is their first exhibit at RHS Chelsea.
This week, Lucy and Kate have been joined by special guest, chef Raymond Blanc, who cooked some She Grows Veg produce. Other celebrity visits included Joanna Lumley and Mary Berry, who left with a basket full of 'heirloom tomatoes, a couple of Ping Tung aubergines, a small Tromboncino, and we even picked a couple of Spiralus peppers right off the exhibit,' they revealed.
She Grows Veg launches new varieties
She Grows Veg recently launched some rare and unusual heirloom seed varieties, perfect for passionate gardeners, kitchen novices or experimental cooks.
Manpukuji Carrot
Originating from Japan and brand new to the UK, these long, slender carrots have a wonderfully sweet taste that are perfect for salt baking, juicing or eating fresh. The Japanese heirloom variety will suit any giant vegetable growers – the roots can easily grow up to 1m to 1.5m long.
1,500 Year Old Cave Bean
This is very rare, with soft, sweet-flavoured beans and an attractive white and red mottled appearance. Reputedly found on an archeological dig in New Mexico, the bean was discovered in a sealed clay pot and determined by radiocarbon, dating over 1,500 years old. Amazingly, the seeds still germinated to produce large, nearly stringless seed pods.
Glass Gem Corn
This drying corn has been a social media icon for many years now. Bright rainbow kernels in dazzling jewel colours range from candy pink to bright turquoise and apple green. Very much in demand, this corn has been hard to come by in the UK but She Grows Veg is able to bring it to UK gardeners for the first time.
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