I’ve been atrocious at keeping this site and blog updated recently, so please accept my apologies for that - I promise to do better.

In the meantime, two other websites have had improvements recently - one for consumers and one for the trade. For consumers, the RHS website now features blogs. Graham Rice’s is particularly worth reading - he’s just posted a piece on David Tristram’s new Helleborus.

For the trade, the Horticulture Week website has had a major birthday and now features the latest news (and not just last week’s articles). Part of me wonders what is going to drive people to subscribe to the paper edition of the magazine now that all the main stories are featured here. But, from a usability point of view, it’s a major step forward.

We were delighted to see that Lavandula stoechas With Love was a part of Downderry Nursery’s Gold Medal stand at this year’s RHS Chelsea Flower Show. Congratulations to Simon and all the team at Downderry for this success.

With Love received some television coverage as part of the BBC’s programmes about the Flower Show, so we are sure that this will boost demand for this excellent plant even further. This is an example of the sort of publicity that PFE can achieve for new plants - in this instance, we were able to use our good relationship with Downderry to invite them to include the plant in their exhibit. Simon expertly grew exhibition quality plants from young plants supplied by our Dutch licensee, Kwekerij van Heesbeen, and will also be offering the variety direct to his own customers at his nursery and by mail order.

We now have three licensees for With Love - Downderry, van Heesbeen and Farplants - and we have now begun to talk with more growers about this superb plant.

Meanwhile, we have also begun a dialogue with exhibitors with a view to seeing more product launches at future RHS events. Watch this space!