RHS CHELSEA – LOW ALLERGY FLOWER GARDEN PROMISES RELIEF FOR HAY FEVER SUFFERERS

Amongst the many world class gardens on view this week at RHS Chelsea 2016 is the Low Allergy Garden. Created & designed for the Royal College of Pathologists (RCP) the show gardens purpose is to provide helpful ideas for hay fever sufferers. The original concept for the garden came in 2012 when the RCP provided a “good & bad” display of plants highlighting the ones likely to cause allergic responses. This later resulted in a book entitled “The Low Allergy Garden” being written.

The Low Allergy Show Garden is especially timely as experts are predicting that 2016 will be a bad year for sufferers arising from a very wet winter accompanied by warm weather causing a sharp increase in grass pollens over the summer months. The Hay Fever season starts as early as January with a handful of trees releasing their pollen & lasting until the end of September. This scenario is of interest to as many as 25% of the UK population who have allergies. For those who would be interested in growing low pollen plants in their gardens the “Good” plants are identified as begonias, clematis delphiniums & viburnum whereas at the other end of the scale are “Bad” plants such as ceonothus roses & lillies which are pollen heavy.

You can still have a beautiful garden with much reduced allergic symptoms so long as you choose your plants carefully. Anyone visiting the RHS Chelsea show this week can seek can talk to RCP experts who will be on hand to give further advice. Alternatively, comprehensive advice & an action plan can be obtained from Marlene who is herself a keen gardener.