More than 10,000 primary and secondary school children have embraced gardening and horticulture for the first time, thanks to Scotts Miracle-Gro's community outreach programme.
Over 100 schools have taken part in the brand's Chelsea Challenge 2014 to grow plants good enough for this year's RHS Chelsea Flower Show. They will be on display on the Miracle-Gro stand in the Great Pavilion as part of the educational Discovery Area.

The show requires the stand to have a theme that will help visitors understand some of the fundamental lessons of good gardening. So three gardens will be created, showing how composts, feeds and garden care products can make a big difference to the plants we grow.

Primary schools throughout the country have been growing flowering plants for the first garden using different composts and garden soil. These experiments will show that using a good compost will help to grow bigger and better plants than other growing media.

The vegetables for the second garden have also been grown by primary school children, but here the experiments show how plant feeds encourage strong, healthy growth.

The third garden, created and grown by secondary schools, shows the results of experiments with the best temperatures for plant growth and other care regimes, including draughts, hard or soft water and light levels.

The gardens will also feature some new plant varieties that the children have grown, some of which will be put forward for the RHS Chelsea Flower Show Best New Plant competition.

These include Alstroemeria Inca Smile (Koncasmile), Gerbera Garvinea Sweet Series, Pelargonium PAC Bermuda Series and Petunia Black Night.