AN award-winning Wiltshire nursery is to re-open on Tuesday with a virtual Chelsea Flower Show display for visitors.

The display has been set up by The Botanic Nursery at Atworth in its nursery garden.

It will show off the fantastic foxglove collection for which the nursery is known nationally.

The Botanic Nursery was due to go to the annual RHS Chelsea Flower show, which was due to open on Tuesday for five days to May 23.

This year’s show was cancelled for the first time since the Second World War.

A Virtual Chelsea Show be seen online all next week at rhs.org.uk.

Terry Baker, 63, who runs The Botanic Nursery with his wife Mary, said: “We usually grow about 1,500 foxgloves, of which we take around 300 to the Chelsea Flower Show.

“The rest would go to the shows we attend at Malvern and the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham.

“We have arranged them in types in a virtual Chelsea Flower Show display, as they would have been out in the garden.

“All these plants are sold at the end of the show and planted in people’s gardens so our display gives them an indication of how they can arrange them.”

Terry and Mary usually grow thousands of plants for the ten flower shows they attend each year but are planning to scale back on exhibiting at just four shows a year.

They are focusing their future on a new garden school, which will be accommodated in a building at their nursery in Coombe Lane, Atworth.

Mrs Baker said: “The roof is not on yet, because our builder stopped work during the coronavirus restrictions.

“However, we hope to run some taster sessions from September and start the school next spring.

"We want scale back on exhibiting and pass on our knowledge to gardeners and plant-lovers.

“We’re very sad not to be at the Chelsea Flower Show. It is such an amazing and prestigious show and we meet such wonderful people.

“We have won lots of gold medals there over the past ten years.

“Our foxglove display looks fabulous. It should be good for two to three weeks.

“When we re-open on Tuesday there will be plenty of space for people to wander around as long as they respect other people’s space.”