Gardening: Chelsea Flower Show,
Inspiring Chelsea is full of bright ideas you can try at home
ChELsEA Flower show opens on Tuesday, but I’ll be there for a preview tomorrow. And then, at 7am on Monday, I’ll join 47 other judges to assess the 109 floral exhibits in the Great Pavilion. The best will win gold medals. But because Chelsea is such an important shop window for the horticultural trade, as well as the Royal horticultural society, high standards are demanded across the board.
With f our huge gardens, l i braries, laboratories and learning centres, the Rhs brings know-how to gardeners aged from nine to 90. And with its widespread coverage, Chelsea is a brilliant way for the 211year-old society to reach out to the world.
That’s why I’ve attended almost every show since my teens. I don’t go merely to gasp at the grandeur, but to learn and be inspired. I want to come home with fresh knowledge and great planting ideas.
Just like everyone else I also expect to meet old friends and have a good gossip — at last year’s show, visitors drank 6,400 glasses of Pimm’s and 1,150 of champagne. When you watch TV coverage you might think Chelsea is mainly about the show gardens, but they are only a small part.
MY HIGHLIGHTS
I CAN’T wait to see Dan Pearson’s design for Laurent-Perrier and Chatsworth. his creations are so dreamy and the planting so masterly that his gardens look 50 years old.
This year he’s carting 300 tonnes of massive rocks from Derbyshire to Chelsea, so I hope he’s got a big wheelbarrow.
Jo Thompson’s Retreat From The 21st Century for M&G features a natural swimming pond set in a tranquil woodland with landscaping in Purbeck stone. It’s a pity that all 15 show gardens have to be dismantled after a life of only six days.
They carry gargantuan price tags and though it’s fun to see what millionaires might do with a spare acre, you could find more inspiration in smaller artisan gardens.
These are charming and may prompt you to say: ‘Ooh, I could do that at home.’
THE GREAT PAVILION
ChELsEA’s heart and soul is in the Great Pavilion. That’s where giants such as hillier’s trees rub shoulders with tiny exhibits such as Pennings de Bilt’s lt’s amazing hyacinths. s. hillier’s, which has s grown woody plants f or 150 years, has t he vast Memorial site and hopes to win its 70th consecutive gold medal. hampshiree Carnivorous Plants’ ts’ exhibit reminds me of Little shop Of horrors. rrors.
staged by Matthewew soper, it’s less than a tenth of the size of hillier’s. But if he wins gold, it will be just as valid. The floral exh exhibit I most want to see, though, is th the National C Collection of D Dahlias.
Once spurned b by sniffy gardene ers, they’ve r recovered their re respectability. An And rightly so — sinc since they flower until November, they are gre great for cutting and easy tot grow. Chelsea has always been a launch pad for new plants, one of which will become Chelsea Plant of the Year. That provides a marketing boost, but you can only find out how good a plant is by growing it.
Those with lasting excellence will win the Rhs Award of Garden Merit a few years hence.
And before leaving, one must visit the Discovery Zone to learn about a school science project.
Rocket seed will be shot into space — though not from Chelsea — and stored for six months at the International space station.
It will then be returned and distributed to schools for children to sow and compare with earthbound seeds. Now that really is rocket science.