MILLENNIALS IN BLOOM
CHELSEA’S NEWFOUND FANS
Were this a normal year, today’s Chelsea Flower Show would be a frenzy of sharpelbowed bargain hunters, snapping up pristine plants from expert growers. But a normal year this is not, and instead, the final day will be dedicated to a rather more millennial side of gardening: small spaces, urban landscapes and houseplants.
Designer Andy Sturgeon, whose garden won Best in Show in 2019, will give tips from his chic courtyard, botanical design experts Studio Roco will give a propagation demo and there will be experts dishing care tips on indoor air plants, carnivorous plants and orchids. As for the lunchtime Q&A? That will be hosted by, erm, me
– a self-taught, millennial balcony gardener and author. It’s not the Chelsea regulars are used to.
And yet, Virtual Chelsea has captured the spirit of the moment. Weeks at home has also spurred younger people to garden for the first time. A survey of spending habits in lockdown by Klarna found millennials increased their spending on home and garden by 231 per cent – nearly double that of baby boomers.
While younger gardeners may have previously found the traditional Flower Show too expensive, too stuffy or just too geriatric, its transition online has enabled them to snack on horticultural expertise the way they might on Netflix or Youtube.
The first three days of Virtual Chelsea have younger people visiting the website 118 per cent more than in 2019. Those under 35 have comprised nearly a third of Virtual Chelsea viewers. Or, as one posted, “lockdown got me watching the Virtual Chelsea flower show, help I’m turning into my mum at 25.”
Virtual Chelsea has accelerated changes that were set to entice a new audience to this year’s festival, such as the House Plant Studios and a Chelsea Late Event.
And while today may focus on the things the RHS thinks millennials might like, they may be surprised to find what they’ve actually enjoyed. Monty Don’s video of his morning routine, in which he walks through his Longmeadow garden and feeds his chickens, has provided a kind of horticultural ASMR.
Virtual Chelsea content will stay on the RHS website for the foreseeable. It’s a ripe resource for the greenfingered – new or less so – to access, until Chelsea returns, for real, next year.