The event may have started on 8th May 2025, but preparations for RHS Malvern Spring Festival began long before this!
In fact, myself, Jenny, Ben and the Horticulture Team first visited RHS Malvern for a tour and workshop for new exhibitors back in 2023!
Through this event we met several inspiring RHS exhibitors, both old hands and newcomers, who all filled us with inspiration and drive to be part of the event as soon as we could. Jenny and I went back in 2024 so I could be part of a panel about nursery growing as well!
There are lots of logistics involved with RHS events (I’ll explain later), but we decided to ease ourselves in by exhibiting first at our local event, RHS Rosemoor, in 2023, and then a slightly bigger show, RHS Hyde Hall, in summer 2024. At both of these events we tried our hands at exhibit displays and were awarded with “5 Flower Gold” medals for our efforts. This was a big boost to the team to know that we were heading in the right direction to have an impact when we moved to the next step.
Straight after RHS Hyde Hall in summer 2024, we decided as a team we would commit to RHS Malvern Spring Festival the following year. So, it was time to get planning!
As part of the application process we could choose our stand layout, and having decided on a 3-tier “side pitch”, Jenny set to work designing a display layout to really showcase our plants. Since the show is in May and required large fruiting and flowering specimen plants to really make an impact, we decided to go for a Linley Exhibit entry, meaning the display has an educational aspect to it and isn’t required to replicate a garden setting. This would have been too difficult for us to create given we were having to force plants on approx. 6 months out of their normal season.
Forcing on meant we needed to create artificial growing conditions for the plants – enter our new grow tent. This was installed in what used to be our shop café – a big hulking 3x2m black tent – I’m sure some of our customers over the winter probably thought we were growing something besides chillies in there!
The grow tent and equipment was a big investment for the farm, as well as the energy bills that it racked up over the winter period keeping the plants warm and well-lit.
The grow tent performed well, though it was a hotbed for aphids at times, and given the heat and light in there it required regular watering by myself and the horticulture team. We pulled every plant out on a weekly basis to check it over, removing any stragglers as we went.
Having started with over 100 seedlings, we slowly whittled down to the final approx. 20 plants that were taken to the show. We tried our best to ensure that the plants we took represented a broad range of the species of the capsicum family, and were also reflected in the varieties we had for sale at the stand as well. The plants were in the grow tent until the end of March, when we were blessed with great weather and they joined their cousins in our nursery tunnels for their final few weeks before the show.
With Izzi in charge of the nursery tunnels, she was tasked with sowing all the seeds required for our plant sales area, alongside all her other sowings for our own crops and online plant sales. Initially we had planned only to take seedling-size plants in plugs, to maximize the number of plants we could take in the trolley space available. However given the period of excellent spring weather we had, the plants grew a little too quickly! We were able to redirect manpower to get the larger plants potted on into 1 litre pots, and ended up taking a mix of both sizes. Next year we are reviewing our options in terms of pot sizes to see what is the most efficient.
When it came to logistics, we decided that camping on site at the showground was the best option – it allowed us to be close to the display at all times (in case we were working late/starting early!), and was cost effective given the amount we had already invested in the growing equipment and energy to run it. Therefore, Phil and I got started gathering up our camping gear!
We booked a Luton van for the beginning and end of the show dates; while our Chilli Van is great for moving sauce and chocolate stock around the country, it cannot fit our dutch trolleys inside it, nor does it have a ramp or a tail lift. Not to mention of course the fact that we have never transported such huge chilli plants before and had no idea the best way to do this without seeing branches snap off en route!
We ended up wrapping the plants with pallet wrap to keep them stable and contained, which worked very well as we had minimal damage sustained in transit.
With everyone safely at the showground, the luton driver was sent back down the road to return the van to the hire depot. Amrit, Phil and Jenny could then get to work bringing the display to life!
At Malvern, you have approximately 24 hours to do the majority of this job – so nerves were running high! Even more so, when we placed our first plant on the display stage to discover that the entire thing was erected at a wonky angle! A quick panicked word with the organisers saw the handymen dispatched and adding some boards to bolster the stage.
We then cracked on, hoping that would be the last spanner in the works!
We started by inspecting each specimen that we had brought, and roughly placing them to establish which shapes and colours worked best in which places. Once the layout was broadly decided, we combed over each plant with a water sprayer, pair of scissors and even tweezers(!) to ensure that it was looking its absolute best! Any dried or ripped leaves, dead flowers or bits of spider web were all removed, pots cleaned and polished, and discreet plant supports added to ensure no mid-show collapses!
Phil spent several hours meticulously laying out the plant sale area with signage, pricing and the accoutrements such as plant feed, books and grow kits.
Once the plants were preened, we turned our attention to the display signage. This is a key part of a Linley display as it has to be educational. We had prepared more boards than we thought we would need, just in case! So, on the day we only used around half of what we had – it was hard to whittle it down!
We settled on several signs detailing the history of chillies, a few about growing and pest management, and some about using and eating chillies. We had a couple of larger boards with our chilliometer and a capsicum family tree, as well as one for the middle of the stand with our company logo. These were all placed, along with several props we had decided on – some fresh and dry chilli fruits, some seeds and a leaf with dead aphids that had been predated by one of our natural pest predators under a microscope. We also added a slab of chilli chocolate (pretty hard to resist eating that!) and some Aztec-inspired cloths to set off the black stand and nod towards the birthplace of the original wild chillies.
Once the display was finalized, Jenny left back to the farm (someone had to keep the crops going back home!) and Amrit and Phil had one further morning to keep preening and perfecting the display and sales area, ready for judging at 12 midday on day 2.
It was a long wait after judging to hear our results, which were announced early morning on day 3 (AKA public show opening day!) We were so happy that our hard work resulted in a gold medal, with perfect scores in all categories from the judges. They particularly loved the predated aphid leaf and information, as well as the historic information about how chillies made it from South America around the rest of the world!
We still have lots of ideas about how we can improve our exhibit for 2026 and plant to make some tweaks, as well as try growing some other varieties for the next event. Our plan is to exhibit at RHS Malvern Spring Festival again in 2026, and in 2027 who knows…. Maybe the BIG ONE?! Watch this space!
