Vanessa Hughes, left, and fellow category buyer Clare Levett

The gold-winning stand

The gold-winning stand

The joint Sainsbury’s, UK Horticulture and NFU stand at the Chelsea Flower Show (CFS) has today won gold award for the eighth consecutive year in recognition of its magnificent display of top quality fresh British fruit, vegetables and flowers.

The stand, in the Grand Pavilion at CFS (Stand GPD 13, until Friday) features fresh produce from 72 Sainsbury’s suppliers and is designed to appeal to all tastes, both visually and gastronomically.

Divided into five sections, the stand is separated by colour and form, from classically cool whites and greens of watercress and Logiflorum lilies to the hottest reds, purples and pinks of tomatoes, red cabbage and lisianthus.

The stand features a huge variety of horticultural products, the highlights of which include:

• 25 types of tomato, both commercially grown and trialled varieties;

• Longiflorum lilies that needed some last-minute cajoling as one bud had to open on each stem to satisfy judges;

• the first selectively bred yellow oriental lilies ever grown in the UK - which will be in Sainsbury's stores soon;

• bright purple capsicum on display for the first time anywhere;

• the winners of a national competition to find the widest asparagus grown so far this year in the UK; and

• a brand new variety of sweet pea, exclusive to Sainsbury’s. The new variety will appear in stores from June with a blank label, which customers can send in to Sainsbury’s floral department who will choose the best name.

Tony Sullivan, head of produce buying at Sainsbury’s, said: “It is fantastic news that we’ve won the coveted gold award again and a testament to our commitment to providing the highest quality fresh produce for our customers all year round.”

Sainsbury's category buyer, floral, Vanessa Hughes, added: "Penny Riley of UK Horticulture was the chief designer of the stand and received assistance in assembling it throughout the weekend from the NFU. She has created a display with plants, flowers, salads, fruits and vegetables, all grown by Sainsbury's suppliers in the UK. The suppliers have seen excellent feedback from the show in previous years and are always very keen to contribute.

"This is a great showcase for our UK-grown products We have seen positive in-store results from previous shows. Alstroemeria sales, for instance, rocketed after they were first displayed at Chelsea. From a few hundred cases a week, we now sell at least 2,000 cases a week and as much as 4,000 cases in peak weeks,” Hughes said.