Features: The people behind the plants

Plants are undoubtedly the stars of the show and Chelsea week is the culmination of many months preparation to get thousands of beautiful specimens in tip top display condition. This part of the story is where the unsung heroes of Chelsea really come into their own.

By the time the medals have been dished out, Mark Straver from Crocus is already busy sourcing plants for Chelsea 2010. But although he can't reveal which designers are starting to think about next year's show, two very different gardens on Main Avenue feature plants all sourced or grown on by Crocus: Luciano Giubbilei's Laurent-Perrier garden and Ulf Njordfell's Daily Telegraph garden. And elsewhere around the show there are many Crocus plants playing a supporting role in other displays as the nursery always keeps a reservoir of plants available for any last minute Chelsea requests.

Straver has the enviable job of travelling the globe to source the best quality plants and although there is a lot of pressure on the RHS to keep the show’s carbon footprint low, the reality is that some plants are just not available in the UK. Inevitably, the larger specimens and topiary shrubs are often brought over from European nurseries while perennial and annual flowers are carefully nurtured and grown on so they look just right come May.

"Long-term preparation is key," says Mark. "For a really natural-looking Chelsea garden, you need to have plants with a couple of season,s growth. We make sure the plant has maximum root growth through the winter, so it puts on lots of top growth in spring. It's a gradual process of planting up from 2L pots to 10L pots. You have to have a variety of sizes for a more natural look."

This year Giubbilei's precision-trimmed hedges have been quite a challenge. In this case it's not the rarity of the varieties – common hornbeam, yew and box. But with Giubbilei's reputation as the 'Armani of gardening', for Mark, it's been all about getting the plants to be as immaculately clipped as possible.

At Deepdale Trees, Matthias Anton has also been very busy, with 10 gardens using trees from his Bedfordshire nursery. Matthias has had some interesting challenges this year. "It's important to work at least 10 months before the show," he says. "Even if the designers don't know if they will actually be doing a garden. Some years certain things are simply not available. But we try to get whatever the designers want and get them in leaf for this time of year. And if a particular tree isn't available, we come up with a close alternative."

Many of the trees are grown at the 150-acre nursery, but Matthias also works with partners in Germany and Italy to source some of the more unusual requests. This year he's particularly impressed by the Thuja occidentalis being used by Patrick Collins and Laurie Chetwood in their Perfume Garden.

"I'm used to seeing this as an ordinary hedging plant," he says. "But this one is really unusual – 4m tall by only 30cm wide. It's more like a pencil cypress, but much denser." He says to look out also for the common field maple clipped into an umbrella shape in Angus Thompson's Nature Ascending Garden - you would hardly recognise it as an ordinary Acer campestre.

"It's not just about finding the choice of plant but about finding the right specimen, with the right shape and size," he says.

The Eden Project team has taken a very different approach to putting together their plant palette. Designer Paul Stone set the team of gardeners at the Cornwall home of the project, the task of putting together a list of plants to give the colour, tone and texture he was looking for.

Kevin Austin, supervisor of the cropping areas says it was an ideal opportunity to involve some of the disadvantaged groups that Eden works with. "This garden is about the people who have grown the plants. The main trees, shrubs and structural plants have been bought in, but have been nurtured and cared for at various prisons around the UK to get them up to Chelsea standard."

Wormwood Scrubs and Holloway have been in charge of trees, while Dartmoor and Wandsworth have been looking after the perennial selection. Meanwhile special centres for homeless people have been growing annuals and vegetables from seed. "We took the seeds around to the various centres," explains Kevin, "and talked about how to grow them to the standard we needed. The people that grew the plants have also been allowed to come to Chelsea to follow the build and help with the planting, which has been a hugely positive experience."