Carol Klein reveals her stars from this year’s Chelsea show
This year’s flower show was a sparkling, memorable a affffair in a week full of sunshine
As you must all know by now, my favourite venue is always the Great Pavilion, the marquee that takes centre stage on the site. Visitors flock to see the gardens but for plant enthusiasts The Pavilion is the first port of call. Not only are the displays magnificent, but they’re also packed full of exciting plants at the peak of perfection, and exhibitors are in attendance to share their expertise with one and all.
Wonderful peonies were on display at Binny Plants, from Edinburgh. Walking round their circular stand, you were immersed in floods of colour and perfume from the many scented varieties.
There were lactifloras old and new, with big double flowers, but perhaps the stars of the show were several fine examples of intersectional hybrids. These are a new generation of peonies, crosses between the lactiflora
group and tree peonies. They’re
all herbaceous, but
as well as having large, sumptuous flowers, reminiscent of the silken chalices of tree peonies, they’ve several qualities that make them very desirable plants. They’re strong growers and don’t need staking, they flower over a long period of time and retain their foliage deep into the autumn.
Peonies are always associated with Chelsea time, but dahlias are newer on the scene at the show. We think of them as bringing their brilliant splashes of outrageous colour to our beds and borders in late summer but, magically, here they were at Chelsea – and in full swing. How members of the Society, with Jon Wheatley at their helm, managed to bring their flowers to the
pinnacle of their performance at the end of May is a mystery, but their beautiful display was testament to their devotion for this most flamboyant group of plants. One of their new introductions, with dark leaves and single yellow and orange flowers, is called dahlia ‘Carol Klein’. Don’t know who she is!
Visitors can walk right through the stand, surrounded by banks of colour co-ordinated flowers. Dahlias are from Mexico though they’ve become firm favourites with British gardeners, but there were other plants on show that are a more challenging proposition.
We often see Caribbean exhibitors at Chelsea, with displays that conjure up romantic holidays. Grenada is often known as the Spice Isle and their display was full of local bounty – bouganvillia, heliconia and gingers. They also showed us some of our familiar spices in their raw form – cinnamon and nutmeg, with its tight-fitting
overcoat of mace – and all presented on a sandy beach. You felt like taking off your shoes, feeling the hot sand between your toes and nipping off for a cooling paddle! This year’s President’s Award was presented by Sir Nicholas Bacon to Kirstenbosch who had a stand full of ravishing plants, including numerous examples of proteas, especially the king protea, Protea cynaroides, the national plant na Jo of South Africa. The backdrop th an to the stand was a circular uc B kl ey photograph of Table Mountain. Although there are very few UK gardens where proteas could live outside, in parts of the Scilly Isles and Cornwall some survive and even flourish.
Alternatively, gardeners who are really keen on this astounding plant keep them in big pots and containers in greenhouses that are heated during winter.
One of the most spectacular exhibits, not just at this Chelsea but at any I’ve ever visited, was Raymond Evison Clematis. In a hugely creative display, wire frames had been formed into waves which rolled across the stand. These frames supported clematis of every description in numerous shades of blue, purple and white. In between each set of waves were walkways where the public could see these beautiful flowers at close range.
One of the Queen’s stagecoaches was kindly lent to the RHS Chelsea Flower Show and took up a prominent position in the middle of the Pavilion. It was actually drawn into the showground by several of the Queen’s horses. Theatre royalty took up centre stage on David Austin’s stand, where they launched their new rose ‘Dame Judi Dench’ in glorious amber.
But one of my favourite stands was Harperley Hall Farm Nurseries, where a feast of woodlanders, such as blue meconopsis, were displayed in a natural setting. All in all it was a truly wonderful week!