The RHS Chelsea Flower Show opens in London next week, and Country Life is using the week to put its Garden Lover’s Library in front of visitors at stand PW215. The display, designed by George Saumarez-Smith of ADAM Architecture, will be there from May 18 to May 23, just as the show itself runs from May 19 to May 23.
For anyone who subscribes in person, the magazine is offering a year’s Country Life subscription for £150, a deal it says saves more than 40% on the cover price. International offers are also available, and UK-based subscribers who sign up at the stand can receive a complimentary bottle of The Grange sparkling wine, although the wine offer is limited to the first 200 UK-based subscribers and runs until May 31, 2026.
Country Life is pitching the offer as part of the Chelsea Flower Show’s biggest draw: the plants. The magazine says the show will deliver an awe-inspiring display of perfect flowers and brilliant foliage, even if the event also tends to attract plenty of attention from famous faces. The stand is meant less as a competition report than as a visitor’s tip sheet, with the plants presented as the real stars of the week.
The company behind the promotion has long made a point of its place in British publishing. Country Life describes itself as the only glossy weekly on the newsstand, says it has been guest-edited by His Majesty The King twice and notes that it was first published in Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee year. It is part of Future plc.
That leaves the practical question for visitors: whether they are coming for the gardens, the social spectacle or simply the shopping, the most useful stop may be PW215. The stand gives the show’s opening days a sales pitch built around the flowers themselves, and the offer is strongest right at the start, before the first 200 UK-based subscribers have claimed the sparkling wine.
