A Little Piece of Kerry in Chelsea

Billy Alexander brings Kells Bay Gardens to London SW3

This is a news piece I wrote for today’s Sunday Times Ireland (25 May 2025); for some reason it was not published. I’ll have a post about Chelsea 2025 in general very soon.

The annual Chelsea Flower Show is the biggest and arguably most prestigious horticultural event in the world. So, winning a gold medal there is no small deal, and that’s just what Billy Alexander of Kells Bay Gardens in County Kerry has achieved.

This is the third time he has taken gold at Chelsea, for a stunning display of ferns in a mossy and rocky woodland setting, all transported and assembled in London in a mere ten days. Unusually, his third gold medal was presented by one of his most loyal and enthusiastic customers, King Charles III.

“The King is a passionate gardener,” he says, “and I had the honour of a private chat with his mother Queen Elizabeth at a previous Chelsea. Then, a few months later, I met him when he was visiting Killarney and that was the start.”

Billy visits Highgrove, the King’s personal home and garden in Gloucestershire, where he advises the gardening team on how to care for the fern collection there. The Cotswolds are very far from the mild, moist, subtropical climate of Kells Bay, so Billy’s expertise is valued by the King and his staff in maintaining what is an impressive collection, many of them having started life in Kerry.

“I write my observations after the visit and send them to King Charles and I always get a lovely personal letter back from him,” he says.

“Chelsea is a real challenge,” he says. “First we have to pack a 40-foot lorry with the plants and this year we had to leave behind some lovely specimens because there was just not enough room. The big tree ferns have to travel at a 45-degree angle and we drop the temperature to 8 degrees to put everything to sleep. You don’t want any growth in the 48 hours it takes the lorry to get to London”

Unlike exhibitors who are showing flowers alongside the Kells Bay ferns, apart from the two day chilling in transport, there’s no need to slow down or speed up growth so as to have blooms for exactly the right time in May. “That’s the advantage of ferns,” he says. “They don’t have flowers.”

“This is my fourth Chelsea,” he says. “I’ve done 2018, 2021, 2023 and now 2025. Every time, as I walk out of the showground I start thinking about the next one. It’s addictive. Some people train for a marathon, this is my version of that. And it’s not just the ten day build when the pressure really mounts, the whole process starts back in the polytunnels, keeping everything as temperate as possible, avoiding extremes of temperature.”

While being at Chelsea, getting gold and enjoying royal patronage is good for profile and business – Billy breaks off our conversation to advise a pair of gardeners from the English Midlands, on what ferns they and definitely can’t grow, to mention how easy it is to fly to Kerry and that Kells Bay has a guesthouse, a Thai restaurant and a good cellar – this is not why he takes on the Chelsea challenge. “I just do it for the love of it. You would be mad to do it otherwise.”

It's an expensive business and the Kells Bay display would not happen without sponsorship from Wilde ApartHotels. “I’m not young but I’m not old,” he says. “A lot of people want to retire at my age but I certainly don’t.”

After a career with AIB, during which he developed his interest in ferns, Billy bought Kells Bay Gardens in 2006. In 2018 his display won Best in Show at Bloom. This led to an invitation to come to Chelsea in 2018. “It’s most unusual for someone like me to be asked.” That delivered a silver gilt medal with golds following in 2021 and 2023.

Will he do it again? “I can’t be sure,” he says, “but I know as I’m driving home I’ll starting to plan ahead. So, maybe.”

And maybe there will be a fourth gold medal in the future. (ends)