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And these are the runners-up...
Sedum Takesimense ATLANTIS ('Nonsitnal') has won the RHS Chelsea Flower Show Plant of the Year 2019 award.
Last year, Hydrangea Runaway Bride 'Snow White' won the competition, but this year the 2019 title has gone to the low maintenance Sedum Atlantis plant with yellow flowers. While Sedum Atlantis takes the top spot, in second place is Digitalis × valinii ‘Firebird’, and in third place, Agapanthus Fireworks.
The winners were announced in the Great Pavilion, where all 20 shortlisted plants were on display.
The RHS Chelsea Flower Show Plant of the Year award celebrates the exciting range of new plants launched at the show. The prestige of winning this award is recognised around the world. The show is the ideal global platform for the launch of many new plants.
Exhibitors in the Great Pavilion are eligible to submit their new plants for assessment by an expert panel which includes RHS Plant Committee Chairs, Director of Horticulture and Garden Curators. The panel shortlists the best 20 plants, from which the top three are selected, taking into account innovation, excellence and impact, and appeal.
Discover the winning plants...
WINNER – PLANT OF THE YEAR: Drought-tolerant, low-maintenance and a hardy stonecrop, Sedum Atlantis is an attractive, easy-to-grow, versatile, multi-functional plant. It forms 30cm high cushions of variegate foliage topped with yellow flowers from June to September. The serrated green leaves with creamy margins blush pink in autumn.
Attractive to insect pollinators, this cultivar was discovered as a sport on a nursery on the banks of Lake Michigan by grower Dave Mackenzie, who specialises in plants for ground cover, green roofs and walls.
SECOND PLACE: Bred in the UK, this plant has abundant spires of reddish-pink flowers with freckled apricot throats. Displaying at 90cm high, it has a long flowering season from May to October. Vigorous and well-branched with improved hardiness, it's a reliable perennial and it is also attractive to pollinators.
THIRD PLACE: This plant has bigger blooms, better colour and more stems per plant than other bicolour cultivars. The evergreen perennial boasts large umbles of bicolour flowers displaying rich blue bases and white flaring petal tips. Flowering from July to September, it has a strong but short growth. This plant is suited to containers or growing in garden borders.
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