David Austin Roses 'disappointed' at Chelsea Flower Show postponement

The green-fingered experts at David Austin Roses have said they are instead working towards creating the best possible display they can for the rescheduled event in September.

Based in Albrighton, the rose centre usually picks up a plethora of awards at the country's most prestigious flower show, and picked up its landmark 25th gold at the event in 2019.

Due to the outbreak of Covid-19, the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) cancelled the Chelsea Flower Show last year.

The show was set to make its return in 2021, taking place in the spring. But for the first time in its 108-year history, it has been pushed back until September due to fears of extended lockdown and increasing pressures causes by the coronavirus.

Gayatri Barua-Howe, of David Austin Roses, said: "We are disappointed that we will once again not be able to share our roses with the public at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show, as we normally would in May.

"However, we will be assessing what a postponed show would mean for our plants and exploring the opportunity to create a rose garden at the rescheduled show in September."

Gayatri added that a skeleton staff working under strict Covid regulations were continuing their tireless efforts to maintain their world-renown creations during one of the most difficult growing periods of the year.

In 2019, representatives from David Austin Roses brought gold back to Shropshire with their award-winning Secret Garden themed display.

It featured a fluid, circular design and housed two new roses – Rosa Eustacia Vye and Rosa Gabriel Oak – which were named after characters from the work of novelist and poet Thomas Hardy.

Famous faces can often be seen bowing their heads into the county-born flowers during the annual show, with Mary Berry, Joanna Lumley and David Walliams among those drawing a breath of the Shropshire scent at the event in 2019.