Upper Caldecote roses win gold medal at RHS Chelsea Flower Show

Roses that were lovingly grown in Upper Caldecote won a gold medal at this year's RHS Chelsea Flower Show.

The pretty petals were cultivated at Woodlands Nursery by Hitchin-based rose breeder Harkness Roses, which has been attending the Chelsea Flower Show for over half a century.

The team were awarded the Royal Horticultural Society's prestigious gold medal for its rose display at the autumn show.

When scoring the stand, the RHS judges look at the overall impact and design of the stand, the quality and health of the plants and the level of difficulty in creating the display.

Harkness Roses director, David White, said: “Our roses are incredibly disease resistant and their ability to keep flowering into the autumn really does give them the wow factor. All the hard work that went into getting the roses ready for September clearly paid off and we are beyond proud of our gold medal achievement.

"Our show stand was a credit to all the team and nursery staff who grow the roses”.

He added: “We would also like to extend our thanks to Central Bedfordshire Council for their support in 2018 by granting us planning permission for a new container rose growing production facility at Woodlands Nursery in Upper Caldecote. This is where we produced all the roses that were used on our Chelsea show stand”.

Throughout the company’s 140-year history, Harkness have won more than 25 Gold Medals at Chelsea and describe themselves as "over the moon" to add another to their collection.