B&Q returns to the RHS Flower Show calendar, having teamed up with award-winning garden designer Matthew Childs to create a show garden at RHS Hampton Court Palace Flower show named the ‘B&Q Bursting Busy Lizzie Garden’, championing the return of the beloved busy lizzie.
Busy lizzies disappeared from garden centres in 2012 after the widespread “Impatiens Downy Mildew” disease hit the UK and Europe. Since then, B&Q has been working exclusively with Syngenta Flowers to create a new variety of Imara Bizzie Lizzies that are more resistant to downy mildew than ever before. The name ‘Imara’ means ‘strong & resilient’ in Swahili, a tribute to the region in East Africa where the original busy lizzies are from.
The colourful plants are also known as ‘impatiens’, meaning ‘impatient’, which refers to the way the plant’s seed head bursts open. Visitors can expect B&Q’s garden to be bursting with busy lizzies planted in a contemporary style that will challenge perceptions of them being traditional annual bedding plant.
Dubbed by Matthew and B&Q as the ‘ultimate feel good outdoor space’, the ‘B&Q Bursting Busy Lizzie Garden’ is inspired by the insight that gardens are the sweet spot of British home happiness. New research from B&Q polled 2,000 UK homeowners to find that 86 per cent of us feel immediately happier after doing an outdoor project and 55 per cent enjoy their space much more afterwards. When asked which elements of their outdoor space gave them the biggest emotional payback, people identified that having space to relax (65 per cent), colourful flowers (48 per cent), cultivating plants (45 per cent), and entertaining outdoors (33 per cent) all held the most happiness potential.
The show garden reflects the feel good power of our gardens by showcasing inspirational, multifunctional outdoor spaces using affordable products from B&Q.
The influence of colour will also be brought to life through the vibrancy of the Imara Bizzie Lizzies that comes in six bright shades.
Other plants in this garden