Swiss banking giant UBS is partnering up with the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) to sponsor an exhibit at the Chelsea Flower Show, with four UK firms benefiting.
The Swiss bank is providing a £10,000 grant to support plant nurseries at this year’s RHS Chelsea Flower Show, as the bank recognises that showcastings can be expensive.
In the Great Pavilion of this year’s show will be RHS x UBS A Day on the nursery: insights into life as a grower will showcase the hard work and skill of nursery growers. This will highlight four nurseries who specialise in edibles and wildflowers.
The nurseries include Kent Wildflower Seeds, She Grows Veg, the Caley Brothers, who won gold for their first display of mushrooms last year and Kitchen Garden Plant Centre.
These four nurseries have each received a grant from UBS to help towards the costs of exhibiting at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show and providing produce in its various stages for display in the feature and their own stands.
She Grows
The Chelsea Flower Show is the most prestigious flower show in the country, and is set to run from 21-25 May 2024. The bank is also set to be hosting over 400 clients over the course of the show.
In addition to the sponsorship, UBS also has one of its partner schools in Hackney attending the installation at Chelsea for an exclusive interactive talk and workshop to enhance students understanding of the environmental eco-system.
The bank is also running a volunteer programme internally for UBS employees to join the show stewarding and educating guests on the installation.
Caley Brothers
After the flower show, the Park Village Oasis project in East London will re-home the bank’s Monument installation, including raised beds, the potting shed, pergola, plants and more, giving the installation a second life to be enjoyed year-round.
UBS’s group executive board lead for sustainability and impact, and UK CEO, Bea Martin said “we’re delighted to partner with the Royal Horticultural Society on this year’s RHS Chelsea Flower Show as part of our aim to promote more sustainable approaches.”
She said that UBS is looking “forward to welcoming over 150,000 guests, including many UBS clients and staff, and connecting them with ways to explore sustainable principles alongside an exciting range of heritage and native plants and fungi to be enjoyed at home.”
Commenting on the sponsorship, Sarah Poll, head of shows development at RHS said: “We are thrilled to be working with UBS to provide financial support to four of the UK’s specialist plant nurseries and enabling us to create an educational feature which gives our visitors a rare behind the scenes insight into the growing process of the show stopping plants that make up the displays at our shows.”
“The RHS and UBS is committed to championing UK British Nurseries and hopes the feature will encourage more people to support and buy from the UK’s independent nurseries, have a go at plant propagation at home or be inspired to start a career in the growing side of the horticultural industry,” she added.