West Country Lupins have been a popular plant at this year’s Chelsea Flower Show, with New Covent Garden Flower Market seeing high demand over the past two weeks.

The lupins have a short availability window of just three weeks each year, which makes them a favourite with exhibitors at the Royal Horticultural Society’s (RHS) flagship show in west London. Flower Market wholesaler Gardening 4u by Will exclusively stocks the West County Lupins. “We’ve got a great relationship with our grower who has given us exclusivity,” explains business owner Will Hogger, pictured above with colleague Paul Cockerill. “The lupins flower throughout the summer months with a variety of vivid, bright colours available, which designers and florists love.”

As you’d expect, the week preceding the Chelsea Flower Show saw trade rocket in the Flower Market, as Will explains. “We were rammed with customers and sold 24 trollies of stock in just four days – that’s around 25 per cent more stock than a regular week in May.”

English grown lupins from the West Country have been popular during Chelsea Flower Show week

Many florists were purchasing lupins to use as part of displays for the annual Chelsea in Bloom competition (run by the RHS to coincide with the Chelsea Flower Show). The contest sees retailers across the Sloane Square/King’s Road area compete to create the best floral displays both inside and outside their businesses. “We sold lupins to Lucy Vail Floristry, who used them in her Chelsea in Bloom displays,” says Will. “We also sold foxgloves and marguerites to Ruth Davis, a London florist who runs All 4 Love London. We saw them in some stunning displays for Chelsea in Bloom.”

If you’re after lupins then you’d better hurry – once they’ve gone, they’re gone although with some TLC they’ll come back each year. “At the end of summer if you dead head them and feed them with a good diet - liquid seaweed is a good choice – then the lupins will continue to flower each summer, getting bigger every year,” says Will.

Over the weeks ahead Will is ramping up his English offer, with home-grown roses, rhodanthemum, and outdoor-grown lavender. “We’re bringing in exclusives to offer Flower Market customers options they can’t find anywhere else,” says Will. “That’s what makes us different as a business.”

Gardening 4U by Will (units C21-22) is on the Flower Market’s ground floor.