May, the start of show season

May has got to be one of our busiest months but we love it! With two of the major RHS shows just days apart as well as our usual food festivals and plant fairs, it’s a chance for us to meet our customers and talk to them about our fabulous herbs.

While our online herbs business is booming, it’s lovely to be able to discuss the plants we grow, what to choose and how best to look after them with other gardeners.

The first big event of the month is the RHS Malvern Spring Festival and the Malvern shows have a special place in our hearts as our family business started its flower show journey at the Malvern Autumn Show.

This year, we will be there with two stands, one in the Floral Marquee and a second in the plant village outside. It will give us the chance to have an even bigger range of our peat and pesticide-free herbs. Neil will be running one stand and Niamh the other with our assistant, Vicky, helping to keep the displays well stocked.

The Floral Marquee exhibit will showcase how to grow herbs in pots. We will be using terracotta pots of various sizes to display single plants, such as thyme, lovage, cardoon and mint. It’s a great way to grow culinary herbs and create a beautiful display.

Just days after we pack up at Malvern, we will be off to London to start putting together our fourth display at RHS Chelsea.

The circular 4.88m diameter stand will recreate a garden scene with a path weaving its way through our herbs and some specimen shrubs, including myrtle and pomegranate. Among the plants we’re hoping to take are Thymus serpyllum ‘Snowdrift’, an evergreen, mat-forming thyme with pretty white flowers.

There will also be height from bronze fennel and lemon verbena, and a range of salad leaves, such as sorrel, garlic cress and lettuces.

May will also see us selling herbs at Toby’s Garden Festival, BBC Gardeners’ World Spring Fair and Axminster Food Festival.

If you can’t get to one of our events, have a look at our online herbs shop, and if you are at any of the shows, do come and say hello.