Shiitake at the Chelsea Flower Show 2015

Our Shiitake mushrooms forming part of the Capel Manor College ‘Stumped?’ Silver-Gilt Award winning display in the main pavillion at RHS Chelsea 2015.

We were contacted in November 2014 by Sarah Neophytou, who teaches at the college, regarding incorporating fungi into their display. An exciting opportunity, and an interesting challenge to get the timing exactly right so the mushrooms would be fruiting from the start to the end of the show. So with the help of Ian Ellis of Norfolk Gourmet Mushrooms (one of our customers) we sent a selection of fully colonised logs to Sarah at the college 6 weeks before the show was due to start. Then 3 and 2 weeks before the show Sarah shocked the logs into production using the traditional soaking technique. The logs duely responded and produced a nice flush for all the visitors to see what can be done with logs in their own garden. Congratulations to Sarah and the Capel Manor College for all their efforts in producing a great display.

To find out more about Stumped?, and how you can incorporate logs and stumps into your garden, click here to visit their website.

‘Stumped? is a unique stumpery garden created with tree stumps, logs and timber with shade-loving planting including ferns and fungi. A stumpery adds an attractive and interesting dimension to your outside space and is an ideal way to recycle tree stumps rather than having them removed from your garden. It is also the perfect habitat for beneficial insects, decomposers and micro beasts such as the endangered stag beetle.’