Chilstone are Proud To Work With Centrepoint For The RHS Chelsea Flower Show

The Chelsea Flower Show is only weeks away and we can’t wait to go back! This year’s show has some very special gardens from Project Giving Back. One garden for London charity, Centrepoint is particularly important to us.  The garden has been designed by Cleve West, a multi award-winning garden designer who has won six gold medals at horticulture’s world renowned show – Chelsea! We can’t wait to see it!

Back For A Good Cause

So what has tempted Cleve West back to Chelsea? The answer is charity. His garden is to support Centrepoint.

Centrepoint is a London based charity that aims to help vulnerable young people move on from homelessness and build a future they can believe in. This charity’s patron is HRH The Prince of Wales, as his mother was before him. The charity is an important focus of Prince William’s work, he’s even slept out on the streets to highlight the issues addressed by the charity.

HRH The Prince of Wales is a patron of Centrepoint.

Cleve West’s garden tells the story of a home where the hearth, the heart of the family is destroyed, but nature has begun to regrow, offering the hope of new beginnings. This depicts what Centrepoint aims to achieve, offering refuge and second chances to young people, equipping them to start again.

Centrepoint helps young people across the country transition from rough sleeping. They provide a safe place to stay as well as preparing them to live independently in the future. Over the past fifty years they have supported thousands of  vulnerable young people, with an aim to stop future homelessness for good.

Cleve West garden designer.

Work Experience

Back in 2019 Chilstone wanted to help, offering work experience to a group of young people on our stand at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show. Danny and Antonio did a great job and it sparked an interest in horticulture for them. Our General Manager, Steve Clark was so impressed with the young people that he stayed in touch with the charity, wanting to offer the work experience again. But by 2020 the pandemic hit and Chelsea was cancelled for the first time since World War II.  2020 became a year focused on ensuring staff safety and bolstering community spirit reaching out on social media to our customers with garden inspiration, encouraging people to share gardening photos too with #Gardeningtogether.

But the charity had made a big impression, and so in 2021, Steve reached out with another idea to help, uniting his contacts from years of exhibiting at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show. He connected Centrepoint to Project Giving Back resulting in them receiving the funding for this project on Main Venue.

Danny and Antonio at the Chelsea Flower Show.

Project Giving Back

Project Giving Back gives charitable organisations in the UK the chance to exhibit a show garden at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show, to promote their cause while supporting the horticultural industry. This helps to raise the awareness of the charities at the most prestigious flower show in the world. The RHS Chelsea Flower Show is the highlight of the horticultural calendar, packed with cutting-edge garden design, breathtaking floral displays and innovative garden products. All curated by the best in the business. Around 168,000 people visit the show each year with millions more watching the coverage on the BBC and other media throughout the week.

From 2022 through to 2024, Project Giving Back will fund forty two good causes, designers and gardens! This makes the show more accessible for the charities, grows new talent and allows renowned, multi-medal winning designers to work with new projects and people.

This year six individuals from Centrepoint will work at the Chelsea Flower Show. Two will work with Cleve West and four will be working with Mark Gregory from Landform.

Cleve’s original sketch of his garden design.

A Garden For Growing Potential

This garden is to nurture potential and regenerate, just as nature does. After the show elements of the garden will be repurposed and installed as community garden in one of Centrepoint’s independent living developments. A space for young people to recuperate and grow their working lives with opportunities to gain valuable professional work experience with a safe and supportive base to call home. A step to prepare them for adult life with a career and residence of their own.

Concept drawing for Centrepoint garden.

Chelsea Exclusive

Whether you are attending the show or watching from home, make sure you check out our blog for our coverage of the show, including an in-depth interview with the outstanding Cleve West! We’ll bring you the the inside track on this Chelsea legend including his choice of Chilstone’s handmade garden ornaments for design – so don’t miss it!

We are open to the public. Feel free please pop in and see us to gain inspiration for your home and garden. We are celebrating seventy, yes 70 years in business. We have exhibited at Chelsea many times, winning multiple awards. Our work features in prestigious gardens globally, but we also enjoy seeing our garden ornaments in beautiful gardens of all sizes, spreading joy to our customers. Please talk to our experienced team to see how we can help you.

Chilstone Chelsea Flower Show Stand.