The Landscape Show 2021

A New Adventure for 2021

Last month Guy and Flo travelled northwards to the NEC Birmingham for the Landscape Show 2021. This was their first time back since 2017 so they were really looking forward to catching up with old friends and seeing what was new. This was a great opportunity for us to spread our wings and strengthen our relationship with up and coming and established landscapers, and business representatives from across the industry. There was also a broad range of engaging seminars from a notable cast of speakers on a myriad of industry related topics. This included a presentation from Guy on our Viewscape Horticultural Apprenticeship initiative. Thank you to all who attended, our friends at Oxford Planters (we hope the Podocarpus salignus is well), and our hosts, Jeremy and Mallory for helping make the event a massive success.

We travelled up in a packed Luton van brimming with our favourite exotic and evergreen plants including our homegrown Phillyrea latifolia ‘Niwaki’ and willow podocarp, Podocarpus salignus, ‘Niwaki’: the brilliant box alternative, Euonymus microphyllus: subtile screening bamboo stalwart, Pseudosasa japonica and the rare and exciting Pseudopanax ferox.

Guy’s mum Tina had designed the layout of our stand and the delicate decorations for it; and with the help of the fantastic landscape show site support team we had our stand up and ready in double quick time.

One of the stand out plants in our display was our Pseudopanax ferox – an unusual and visually very exciting tree that comes from New Zealand. Grown for its striking juvenile appearance, which will last last for many years. The long leaves have a jagged edge and point downwards, radiating from a thin trunk. Described by our friends at Tend & Bloom as ‘crinkly pasta leaves’, the dark purple leaves can at times in the year look almost chocolatey, too. The plant’s appearance is a defensive strategy designed to appear completely ‘undelicious’ to any animals that might want to graze on it as it grows. Incredibly structural and a brilliant contrast to anything you might plant it with, we were delighted to find it had so many new fans as we absolutely adore it’s unique qualities.

In the centre of our stand was our antique wooden glass cabinet displaying the delicate work of Tina. The display consisted of glass test tubes and bottles filled with clippings and cuttings of our favourite plant specimens displayed beautifully on black slate boards. There was also fantastic floral displays of palm fans, berries and flowers all tied together with the stripped hair of our favourite palm tree, Trachycarpus Fortunei.

Meet Tina

Working on the production team, Tina’s speciality is Creative Maintenance. You’ll always find her around the sales desk maintaining the displays and using her creativity to make impressive floral decorations with our plants.

Over two years, our apprentices undertake a broad range of horticultural training while growing trees and shrubs for commercial sale and developing and maintaining a stunning 17-acre estate in Charlwood, near Gatwick Airport.

“Fundamentally we are attempting to lead by example, by becoming self-sustainable, forward thinking, growers.”

We believe that a career working with plants can be truly rewarding and we want to inspire a new generation of horticulturalists, botanists, landscapers, garden designers, plant growers, plant scientists, plant sellers and everything in between! We provide 2-year, paid apprenticeships in horticulture giving individuals the unique chance while they learn.

“We want to create a legacy of knowledge with Architectural Plants as a vehicle with which to do that.”