The RHS's annus horribilis is almost over with the news that the gardening charity has signed up fund manager M&G (a Pru subsidiary), as its new Chelsea Flower Show sponsor. After making 80 staff redundant, seeing a one third drop in sponsorship of gardens at Chelsea in May 2009 and the surprise departure of director general Inga Grimsey, the RHS has been in disarray.
To top it off, the society had to start recruiting again as soon as redundancies were completed because more staff left than anticipated, many upset about a breakdown in communciations between management and gardeners.
Suddenly, it's all different. There's an estimated £3m from the sponsorship, big names such as Diarmuid Gavin, Andy Sturgeon (with the Telegraph garden), Tom Stuart-Smith and James Wong are designing show gardens for Chelsea 2010, and numbers of big show gardens have recovered from 14 to about 20 as sponsors emerge. And, perhaps most importantly, the media ran the Chelsea credit crunch downturn story last year. So this year, to make a story, we need a new one. So a successful Chelsea it will be.
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