A garden sponsored by Birmingham City Council to raise funds for servicemen and women will be on show at the Chelsea Flower Show next week.

The display is produced and sponsored by B&Q and Birmingham City Council and aims to raise awareness and funds for the charity Help The Heroes when it goes on show from Monday to Saturday.

The garden’s theme Road to Recovery depicts a soldier’s journey from helicopter to hospital to home.

A suspended replica Chinook helicopter is the centrepiece of the garden. The Chinook is poised about to land, with a framework planted in shrubs and suspended 3.75 metres in the air.

Councillor Martin Mullaney, Birmingham’s cabinet member for Leisure, Sport and Culture, said: “As we bid for UK City of Culture 2013, we can be proud of the Birmingham’s Parks team, who every year come up with award-winning innovative ideas for their Show Gardens.

“It is hoped visitors will take inspiration with what has been created and in turn raise awareness for Help for Heroes and what they do to help our British war heroes.”

The garden also features a Help for Heroes limited edition petunia mix which will go on sale in all 330 B&Q stores this weekend. The mix costs £5 and Help for Heroes will receive £2 from the sale of the pack. Last year over £55,000 was raised for the charity through the sale of the mix. Birmingham City Council has won 18 times in previous visits to the RHS Chelsea Flower Show.

The replica helicopter will hover above a ‘hospital retreat’ garden and ‘grow your own home’ garden.

For the hospital retreat garden, the Kings Heath Parks team have used a range of trees, shrubs, medical aromatic plants including lavender rosemary and thyme, and a water feature.
At the end of the Flower Show the Road to Recovery will journey on to feature on Gardeners World Live, then the Birmingham Gardeners Show on September 4 and 5.

Help for Heroes was launched in October 2007 and gives practical aid to wounded servicemen and women.