An impressive number of plants have been launched at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show over the last 100 years, so it’s no mean feat to distil that list down to just ten, choosing one plant to represent each of the last ten decades. That is what a panel of distinguished horticulturalists, including Roy Lancaster, Carol Klein, Rachel de Thame and RHS historian Dr Brent Elliott, has done so that you, the public, can help celebrate the eponymous flower show’s 100th birthday by deciding which of the ten plants should be voted the Chelsea Flower Show Plant of the Centenary.

To find out which plants have been nominated, and to learn more about them before you vote, either visit stand GPG5 inside the Great Pavilion during the Show, or click here to do it all online. The winner will be announced on the RHS website, and at the show, on Saturday 25th May 2013.

CHELSEA STALWARTS

Prepping for a show as big as Chelsea is always a high-pressure exercise, but for three of this year’s exhibitors, there’s an additional incentive to be the best of the best in 2013.

Of the 244 companies that exhibited at the very first Chelsea Flower Show in 1913, McBean’s Orchids, Blackmore & Langdon’s and Kelways are the only three to have taken part in every single show since then.

GARDEN GNOME 2

First there was the exciting news that 150 Seedling garden gnomes would be making a special appearance at this year’s Chelsea – a first in 99 years. Now we learn that a rather smaller interpretation of this hitherto uninvited guest is to be given the singular honour of being dressed as a Chelsea Pensioner, and then cast as a good luck charm in sterling silver by British jewellery designer Sarah Fenton, of Scarlett Jewellery. No pictures as yet but clearly this is no longer a common or garden gnome.