Designing our award-winning RHS Sandringham Flower Show trade stand

This July, we took our RHS-endorsed range of garden joinery to an RHS flower show for the first time, and we were thrilled to be given a 5-star trade stand award by the RHS.

Watch Paul Baines MSGLD and Julian Furness discuss how considered planting brings our timber garden joinery to life, softening the structures and complementing the colour schemes.

While trellis, fencing and screens are what we are best known for, we have over 30 years’ experience in crafting timber joinery for outdoor spaces. Our RHS-endorsed range reflects this breadth with sheds, stores, planters, obelisks and pergolas. We were particularly keen to showcase our new RHS-endorsed sheds and stores alongside our classic pieces, designing the space so visitors could easily picture how these structures would look in their own gardens.

We were delighted to have the help of garden designer Paul Baines MSGLD who helped us work out the layout, colour scheme and planting. Paul Baines is a national award-winning garden designer and full member of the Society of Garden and Landscape Designers (SGLD), the only professional garden design organisation in the United Kingdom. As an affiliate business partner of the SGLD ourselves, we’re delighted to be collaborating with Paul again, having recently worked with him on the Mediterranean Pool Courtyard Garden.

It was the thoughtful planting that really brought our timber garden joinery to life. Whilst they are all natural materials, the soft planting worked beautifully against the crisp, straight lines of the joinery.

Planting notes:

The majority of the plants on our stand came from Howard Nurseries, one of the country’s largest wholesale perennial specialists. Established over fifty years ago from humble origins their business has grown steadily in the beautiful Norfolk countryside and did an incredible job supplying many of the show gardens and stands at the inaugural RHS Sandringham Flower Show.

Star plants with visitors on The Garden Trellis Co stand included the Agapanthus ‘Twister’ and Gaura l. ‘Whirling Butterflies’, whilst the local bees and ladybirds were particularly interested in the Veronicastrum v. ‘Fascination’ and Scabiosa c. ‘Perfecta Alba’. We also loved the grasses, Molinia caerulea ‘Strahlenquelle’ and Deschampsia c. ‘Goldtau’.

A primary purpose of the products that we make is often to support climbers on trellises, rose arches, pergolas and obelisks. To try to show this on our temporary stand, we were able to get some fairly established climbers from another local nursery: Plants. Great Bardfield. These included beautifully scented jasmines on the rose arch at the entrance to the stand and vibrant grape vines on the pergola.

Special thanks to our fellow RHS licensees

We would also like to thank our fellow RHS licensees, Bramblecrest and Burgon & Ball who helped us style the stand.

Burgon & Ball tools are the only garden tools to be endorsed by the Royal Horticultural Society. Their high-quality hand tools looked right at home displayed inside our RHS Garden Shed.

Bramblecrest kindly lent us their RHS Wisley Mocha Round Bistro Set which took centre stage under the RHS Prestige Pergola. Featuring criss-cross seat back detailing offset by a pared-back profile, and finished with complementary mist-coloured fabric, it offered a relaxed, elegant look.

Attending our very first RHS flower show was an unforgettable milestone, and coming away with a 5-star award made every hour of planning and hard work completely worthwhile.

We want to extend a huge thank you to everyone who stopped by the stand to explore our structures, chat about their own garden projects, or simply admire the planting. Whether you are planning a complete garden redesign or looking to add a few elegant focal points like an obelisk or planter, we hope our display inspired visitors to see how beautifully handcrafted timber joinery can elevate an outdoor space.