For us, Chelsea is never just a show. It’s the moment each year when months of growing, trialling and selecting new varieties becomes visible to the public for the first time. The Great Pavilion is where we bring our best work, and Chelsea audiences are some of the most knowledgeable plant people in the country.
We’ve been exhibiting at RHS shows for years, and Chelsea holds a special place for the nursery — it’s where new introductions get their first real public outing, where we meet gardeners who’ve been growing our salvias for decades, and where the conversation about what’s next in salvia breeding gets its clearest expression.
Our exhibit focused on the breadth and depth of what salvias can do — from the most reliably hardy nemorosa border varieties through to the dramatic tender species that most gardeners have never seen in flower before. Alongside our established bestsellers, Chelsea 2026 was the public launch for several new introductions that had been in development and trials at the nursery.
Salvia guaranitica ‘Argentine Skies’
£12.75The variety that generated more interest at Chelsea than anything else we brought. A rare, light-blue guaranitica — a colour that’s genuinely unusual in this species, which tends towards deeper navy and cobalt blues. Soft, clear sky-blue flowers on upright stems reaching 100–120cm, making it a dramatic back-of-border plant for summer and autumn. Tender, so it needs overwintering under cover or taking cuttings in late summer — but the colour alone makes that effort worthwhile.
Buy Argentine Skies →Salvia ‘Pink Velvet’
£11.75A new introduction with a texture and colour that lives up to the name. ‘Pink Velvet’ produces rich, velvety pink flowers with a density and depth of colour that photographs don’t quite do justice to — it needs to be seen in person, which is exactly why Chelsea was the right place to launch it. A versatile variety that works in borders and large containers, with a long flowering season that extends well into autumn.
Buy Pink Velvet →Salvia involucrata ‘Hadspen’
£9.75Salvia involucrata is a species that deserves far wider attention in UK gardens. ‘Hadspen’ is one of the best involucrata selections — a tall, architectural plant with striking bright rose-pink bracts and flowers that appear in late summer and autumn, when many other salvias are beginning to fade. Tender but robust, easily overwintered from cuttings. We brought it to Chelsea 2026 specifically because it’s a salvia most visitors had never seen before — and the reaction was exactly what we hoped.
Buy Hadspen →Chelsea is where the horticultural year crystallises. It’s the show the wider public pays attention to, the one that gets coverage beyond the gardening press, and the one where plants genuinely get discovered by new audiences.
For a specialist nursery like ours, exhibiting at Chelsea is a statement of intent — that the varieties we grow are worth showing at the highest level, and that the work of growing and selecting salvias for over 50 years produces something worth seeing. John Zako has been growing salvias since 1975, and the conversation about what’s possible with the genus is still far from finished.
The RHS Chelsea Flower Show takes place every May at the Royal Hospital Chelsea in London. The Great Pavilion, where specialist nurseries exhibit, is one of the most concentrated collections of plant knowledge and expertise anywhere in the world. If you haven’t been, it’s worth a visit — if only to see what salvias can do when grown well.
All the varieties we debuted at Chelsea 2026 are now available to buy online, grown at our Staffordshire nursery and dispatched nationwide.
Yes — Middleton Nurseries exhibited at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2026 in the Salvias category in the Great Pavilion. Chelsea is one of several RHS shows where we exhibit each year, and is where we traditionally debut new variety introductions for the first time. You can see our full show schedule at middletonnurseries.co.uk/show-dates/.
Our key new introductions at Chelsea 2026 were Salvia guaranitica ‘Argentine Skies’ — a rare light-blue guaranitica exclusive to Middleton — Salvia ‘Pink Velvet’, and Salvia involucrata ‘Hadspen’. All three are now available to buy online. Browse the full new for 2026 salvia range at Middleton Nurseries.
All varieties we exhibited at Chelsea 2026 are available to buy online at middletonnurseries.co.uk. Plants are grown at our Staffordshire nursery and dispatched nationwide. Our shipping season runs May to November — check individual product pages for current availability.
Salvia guaranitica ‘Argentine Skies’ is a rare light-blue guaranitica variety exclusive to Middleton Nurseries. It produces soft sky-blue flowers on upright stems reaching 100–120cm — a highly unusual colour in the guaranitica species. It was one of our most-discussed introductions at Chelsea 2026. Tender, so it needs overwintering under cover or from cuttings. Buy Argentine Skies here.
The RHS Chelsea Flower Show takes place every May at the Royal Hospital Chelsea in London. The 2026 show has now concluded. Follow Middleton Nurseries for updates on our exhibit dates for future shows at middletonnurseries.co.uk/show-dates/.
Yes — as well as selling online, Middleton Nurseries sells plants in person at RHS shows throughout the year, including Chelsea. This is often the first opportunity to see new variety introductions in flower before they become available online. See our full show dates for upcoming events.
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