The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) has announced the award of a licence to Dexam, a specialist supplier of kitchen cookware, bakeware and accessories, to produce a range of children’s backpacks and meal accessories using environmentally friendly or recycled material.

Called the Home Grown Children’s Collection, the range includes backpacks, lunch bags with matching drinks bottles, lunchboxes, children’s aprons, toddler messy play aprons and children’s eating gift sets.

The items in the range are all illustrated with engaging illustrations featuring bright and very colourful images of carrots and apples with captions like “I am growing every day”, “Home harvest” and “Locally grown”.

The range has also been designed with the environment in mind. The lunch bags, backpacks and aprons are made from recycled plastic bottles via a process which turns the plastic into a durable and practical fabric. The bags are wipe clean and the aprons are 40°C machine washable. The lunch boxes and kids’ eating sets are made from bamboo fibre. Bamboo is renewable, biodegradable and grows quickly without fertilisers. It is also naturally antibacterial – so perfect for holding food.

The range is expected to launch in spring 2021. It will be available at high street stores, garden centres, RHS shops and online, including the official RHS online store, shop.rhs.org.uk.

The designs are all inspired by artwork from the new RHS children’s style guide, which was launched last year. These are the first non-publishing-related products to use the children’s style guide, which will see its licensing debut in a range of books from Scholastic. The first Scholastic titles will launch in February 2021.

The continuing development of the RHS range of children’s products will be a strong RHS focus in the coming months, especially given the growth in family visits to gardens and parks – along with the much greater time devoted to gardening – that has been a feature of this year’s ongoing restrictions.

Dexam was founded in 1957 selling kitchen gadgets and cookware. Its range today has everything you need from peeling to chopping and mixing to baking. Ethical production is fundamental to the integrity of its products.

Cathy Snow, Licensing Manager, RHS, says: “Bringing our children’s style guide artwork to homeware for the first time requires a partner that understands our aims and that has a reputation for quality – and that is a perfect description of Dexam. These children’s backpacks and meal accessories are practical and stylish, as well as environmentally friendly. They’re also a lot of fun!”

Helen Boardman, Product Manager, Dexam, says: “The RHS children’s style guide and our own 60 years of experience in kitchenware and lunch accessories have combined to produce this very child and environmentally friendly range. We’ve greatly enjoyed partnering with the RHS on the Home Grown Children’s Collection, which we are sure will delight both children and parents.”

Notes to editors

About the RHS

The Royal Horticultural Society, the world’s leading gardening charity, was founded in 1804 by Sir Joseph Banks and John Wedgwood. Our vision is to enrich everyone’s life through plants and make the UK a greener and more beautiful place. This aspiration underpins all that we do, from inspirational gardens and shows, through our scientific research, to our education and community programmes such as the Campaign for School Gardening and Britain in Bloom. We produce key publications, hold a world-class collection of horticultural books and botanical art, and sell the very best plants and gardening gifts.

The RHS is fundraising £40m to transform our gardens, outreach and education facilities, which includes redeveloping our flagship RHS Garden Wisley and opening a new garden, RHS Garden Bridgewater, in 2021. We are solely funded by our members, visitors and supporters. For more information visit www.rhs.org.uk.

About the RHS Licensing programme

Working with the right partners to produce high-quality, beautifully designed products is at the heart of everything we do. We select our partners carefully and offer each one a tailored support package overseen by our experienced Licensing team. Within the RHS Lindley Collections, we hold the world’s finest collection of botanical art containing more than 25,000 superb images. RHS Enterprises Limited uses this artwork collection and RHS gardening expertise to create and endorse inspirational products. In 2017 the RHS won the award for Best Licensed Heritage or Institution Brand at The Brand & Lifestyle Licensing Awards. In 2018, again at The Brand & Lifestyle Licensing Awards, the RHS Flora Apparel collection by COAST won the award for Best Brand Licensed Adult Apparel Product or Range.