We had the absolute privilege of being invited back again to exhibit at the 2024 RHS Chelsea Flower Show. Together with our brilliant collaborators we managed to design and build a wonderful tradestand - Time for Tea - which was awarded a 5-star tradestand award from the RHS!
It was a fantastic experience and you can read more about our stand and the inspiration behind it below.
The Inspiration Behind Our Stand
Time for tea
Even the smallest space, wherever the location, can feel like you are nestled in your own piece of the English countryside.
The classic English country garden is a beloved theme at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show. It evokes a sense of nostalgic charm, transporting visitors to a dreamy setting amidst quaint buildings adorned with wisteria and walled gardens filled with salvias, astrantia and lupins. It’s a paradox where the cacophony of nature transcends logic by creating calm.
For us, the theme of English country garden felt suitably fitting. What the Great British Rhino offers, much like the English country garden, is a sense of time and longevity. Mature gardens deserve a mature fixture. One that can last alongside and flourish together.
I Think Its Time For Tea
The morning is broken by the mellow, lyrical sweetness of the blackbird’s song. It cuts through the damp, dewy air, resonating with clarity and optimism in its major key. Robins and thrushes join in hearty camaraderie. The pre-dawn choristers rallying their slumbersome consociates.
Then the low hum of busy pollinators. Abuzz with purpose. A wheelbarrow navigates a brick weave garden path, compound in rhythm. A woodpigeon flaps through the canopy, the echo like a reverb. And, somewhere in the distance, the drone of a lawnmower joins their song.
The freshly cut grass hangs in the air, evoking nostalgic memories of summers long since passed. A hose, first a dull patter over parched plant leaves, now barely heard over joyous cries of children as they dart through the jet stream.
The timpani joins, a teaspoon upon a bone china cup, discarded on a saucer. Vibrant lupins, alliums and delphiniums sway in the breeze, seemingly moved by nature’s music. Wisteria shyly hang their blooms, too coy to join the dance.
Lavender and fresh thyme offer up their heady floral aroma, drunk on romance and whimsy. The summer symphony crescendos, with each player in turn performing their own specific leitmotif. I sit here in my Rhino.
The warmth of the day has left the garden now but not here, here it lingers like a gentle embrace. The cat nudges at my legs, impatient for her supper. She likes it here too.
One by one, each member of the ensemble has taken its bow and since retired. The sun bids a final farewell through the garden arch and only one soloist now remains. The blackbird serenades me with her flute-like song one last time, beckoning me on as if to say... I think it’s time for tea.
A special thank you to our collaborators...
Design & Build by Rose Hill rosehilldesign.co.uk
Photography by Belle Daughtry justbelle.co.uk
Special thanks to:
Tommy & Rea Hill & Belle Daughtry
