Pink carnations are making a comeback thanks to Chelsea Flower Show

Garage flowers no more 
Show opener: Robert Hornsby has been commissioned by the RHS to design Chelsea’s Bull Ring gate. His work will include more than 15,000 carnations

The carnation has a bad reputation as an old-fashioned flower, commonly found in petrol station bouquets.

But this is about to change as it takes centre stage at the Royal Horticultural Society’s Chelsea Flower Show. More than 15,000 are to be included in a spectacular entrance, which will be the first display that the many illustrious visitors, including the Queen, will see.

London florist Robert Hornsby, 58, has been commissioned by the RHS to design the Bull Ring gate. Named “neoteric”, meaning modern or recent, the work will have several five-metre tall shard-like panels, which will lean on the pillars of the gate, covered in white, pink and purple hombre carnations.

At night, it will be illuminated so that those who cannot visit the show, which runs from May 23-27 and has sold out, may enjoy it from afar.

Mr Hornsby, whose company In Water Flowers has a studio in Ladbroke Grove, said he had “no idea” why the carnation — or dianthus caryophyllus — had “such a bad rep”.

“I try to pitch them to a lot of my clients and they just will not take them. They are seen as old-fashioned. But they are one of the longest-lasting flowers and have the most beautiful smell. I am taking an old hat flower and making them very modern. Hopefully it will be very eye-catching.”

It will take a team of 34 people three days to install the display, made with carnations from Colombia. Mr Hornsby added it was “complicated to make something this simple”. He was picked after the RHS saw his 35 sq m living painting in Trafalgar Square to celebrate the Dutch flowers exhibition at the National Gallery. Mr Hornsby, who started as a delivery driver before training with florist and royal warrant holder Kenneth Turner, has also made an installation for inside the show, which will be two metal boxes laid broken on the floor with carnations spilling on to the floor.

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The RHS has admitted it had to “shake up” this year’s event following a slump in sponsorship. Visitors can expect urban street art, a secret garden and a vegetable garden created by Mary Berry and Chris Evans.

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