Verdant Visions: we're sponsoring a gold-medal-winning exhibit at this year's Chelsea Flower Show
2-3 minute read
By Daisy Goddard | May 21, 2024
Using our newspaper collection, botanical stylist James Whiting is bringing the 1970s to life with a houseplant studio at the 2024 Chelsea Flower Show.
Multi award-winning botanical designer James Whiting returned to the Chelsea Flower Show in 2024 and captured his third successive gold medal.
We're delighted to have sponsored his highly anticipated houseplant studio, Verdant Visions, even delving into our extensive newspaper archive to provide history's headlines for the exhibit.
Verdant Visions takes Flower Show visitors on a nostalgic journey into the past, to experience the definitive soundtrack, bold designs, and vibrant tropical houseplants of the 1970s.
Download the official Verdant Visions brochure
Transported back to a 70's-inspired teen bedroom, exciting interactive elements enable people to dive headfirst into their past or encounter an iconic era for the first time.
The studio will incorporate milestone moments clipped from the pages of our vast historical newspaper collection, charting the events great and small that defined the decade, including coverage of Chelsea Flower Show from the 1970s.
The Chelsea Flower Show reported on in the Daily Mirror, 26 May 1979.
To quote our Managing Director, Sarah Bush:
"We’re delighted to support James’ spectacular new Verdant Visions exhibit, which delivers all the disco-dancing, floral-wallpapered, glossy jungle nostalgia of the ‘70s. Plants have the power to transport us and offer a potent connection to the past and our family stories... We share James’ passion for storytelling, bringing to life moments that shape your present and inspire your future. We’re excited to help more people to connect with the colourful stories of their own past – in the branches of your family tree and in the vast collection of records and historical newspapers on Findmypast."
Dig into the history of the Chelsea Flower Show
To celebrate our sponsorship of Verdant Visions, we've compiled a Collection charting the rich and colourful history of the RHS Chelsea Flower Show.
Chelsea Flower Show, 1973. Explore this clipping.
Not only do our newspapers offer unmatched colour and context for your family tree, but you can also snip, save and share old photos and clippings to create your very own scrapbook of simpler times with Collections. Lose yourself in the world’s largest online archive of British & Irish newspapers for a nostalgia-fuelled trip down memory lane.
Search for stories in our newspapers and publications
Explore millions of digitised pages of newspapers and other publications from our British and Irish collections, dating as far back as the 1700s.
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