Growing Vegetables for the Chelsea Flower Show by Medwyn Williams

It isn’t often that I come up with mad cap ideas, but over 12 years ago I certainly did. Gwenda (my wife) and I, were visiting the Chelsea flower as I happened to be filming there at the time for the S4C Welsh Television Channel.

Going around the great Marquee, as it was then, was a great experience, particularly on the Press day on Monday as there is always plenty of space to take everything in.

We saw a few vegetable displays and it was at this point I turned round to Gwenda and said, "If only I had a larger growing area, I’m sure I could grow vegetables for this show."

That was the start of what has been the most exhilarating period of my life. Never in my wildest dreams did I ever think that I would win a Gold medal at my first attempt, never mind having ten consecutive Golds'.

Undoubtedly my first Chelsea display was definitely the hardest to achieve, I had no sowing dates and I had no proper growing facilities either so I had a tremendous amount of hard work ahead of me. The first hurdle however was to convince the RHS that I was capable of staging a display worthy of the high standards that have been set at Chelsea over the past 200 years, the most prestigious show in the world.

Showing the powers to be at the RHS, pictures of my five consecutive Gold Medal displays at the Royal Welsh show were simply not enough. I had to work my apprenticeship by staging a display at any other RHS venue such as the Halls at Vincent Square, Malvern or Hampton Court. In the end I opted for Hampton Court as I though it wouldn’t be too difficult to grow vegetables for early July.

The next step was to find out if I could borrow or rent a greenhouse that I could use to assist me grow a few of the more delicate plants such as peppers, chilis and Aubergines. On my way out of church one Sunday morning I got talking to a friend of mine, Charles Ellis who was, at the time, responsible for the greenhouse complex at Penyffridd Bangor for the University of Wales.

On hearing my plight, Charles offered me a very small area on a bench in which to grow these delicate plants, in a greenhouse that had a temperature of 68ºF with 16 hours of artificial lights. The remainder of my vegetables were grown at home in my two 12 by 8 aluminium greenhouses and two twenty foot long polytunnels.

As I had already grown for the Royal Welsh Show, which is around the third week in July, it wasn’t particularly difficult to work out the new sowings dates by simply bringing them forward three weeks. After the judging at Hampton Court, the wife and I were over the moon to see we had won a Gold Medal, our first ever RHS Gold. On top of that we were awarded the Tudor Rose Award which is given to only a few exhibits deemed worthy of this very special prize. To complete our day, we were also given a trophy for the best display at Hampton Court by a newcomer. The RHS Gold medal is only awarded once, the very first time you win it, after that you get a card with an embossed gold medal on it.

The path was now becoming clearer to challenge Chelsea, I would soon be having an invitation by the RHS show committee to stage a display there in 1996. I went back immediately to the University and from that point on I have been renting more space over the years at Bangor until, for the past five years, I have utilised one heated greenhouse, 80ft x 60ft and one totally cold one, 120 x 70ft. I have also used of a small cold store which helps immensely to hold some vegetables back.

Getting the sowing dates for Chelsea was a completely different ball game, it was nearly two months earlier. The midnight oil was well and truly burnt as I delved through my gardening diaries. Trying to work back from my Summer show dates so that I could harvest Summer quality vegetables during the third week of May wasn’t easy. Simply adding on the extra weeks wasn’t quite enough, you had to take into account the shortening day length that I was working under and I had to make a calculated guess at adding a few weeks extra here and there.

Thinking back, I must have been mad to even consider staging a display at my first attempt, without even having a trial run of any kind. thankfully it worked out reasonably well as only four vegetables failed to make it, two of them maturing too early and two not ready at all. After that, things improved considerably, I now had a set of sowing dates which I could tweak to make the display even better.

Since then I have won 8 consecutive Gordon Lennox Trophies for the best display of vegetables at any RHS show. In 2004 the RHS celebrated their Bi centennial show and I was over the moon to be awarded the Presidents award for the best display in the Pavilion. To say were both emotional would be an understatement, it was probably one of the best days of our life.

In 2001, my display was awarded the Lawrence Medal for the best horticultural display of the year at any RHS show and against any other cultivars. That meant a lot to me on a personal level, but also for the culture of vegetables in particular. I have always looked upon Vegetables, rightly or wrongly, as the Cinderella of the horticultural world. It always somehow carries with it the flat cap image of the humble back garden or allotment grower. I was conscious of this from an early age, and I have strived throughout my hobby of growing vegetables, and now my business, to heighten their profile. Being awarded the Lawrence Medal was certainly the icing on the cake for my belief and endeavours.

Once you have won the Lawrence medal you are no longer considered for the award until three years have passed and in 2004 I won it again. This effectively means that I have won it consecutively and I cant think of any other display that has achieved this.

Where do I go from here?, well I have certainly staged my last Chelsea, ten out of ten sounds like a good way to close a chapter on my life. However, there are other chapters that I hope to open and fulfil.

Returning to the USA to stage a display in Cincinnati Ohio late April 2006 will certainly be a milestone as will lecturing in Seattle late March next year. I am also hoping, if accepted by the RHS, to have a display at Hampton Court which would mean that the wheel has effectively turned a full circle. I certainly hope that I don’t fall into the trap of having any more mad cap ideas, I don’t think Gwenda could put up with the stress levels of growing for Chelsea again.

Medwyn Williams 2005

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