BLOOMING GOOD FUN
From curated gimmicks to truly inspiring set-ups, this year’s RHS Chelsea Flower Show was glorious, says Pattie Barron
The world’s greatest annual flower show ended with a 90-minute sell-off on Saturday. Visitors to Chelsea could take their pick of the brilliant blooms on the stands. Her Majesty was nowhere in sight by this point, having witnessed as she does every year the huge array of spectacular creations by the designers, landscapers and planting teams.
I donned the compulsory hi-vis jacket, passed on the optional metal-capped boots and ventured forth down the bark-chipped paths of RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2017, dodging the plant vans, pulleys and TV crews in order to see how the exhibits – and the exhibitors – were progressing.
Not for the fainthearted, Sarah Raven and Tricia Guild’s exhibit, the “Anneka Rice Colour Cutting” garden, one of the BBC Radio 2 Feel Good Gardens, showed the zingy end of the plant spectrum. This was a garden brimming with exciting colour combinations, just there for the taking. Pink cosmos, gold and
orange poppies and ruby-red lupins – here once again – looked positively harmonious under Raven’s expert eye, while lime green alchemilla offset navy-blue delphiniums. Luscious!
One of the Main Avenue show gardens, “500 Years of Covent Garden”, was inspired by the London tourist hub’s floral heritage. Designer Lee Bestall copied the arches from the old market garden, bought wonderful old apple trees out of retirement and designed furniture derivative of old fruit crates.
Creatures ran wild over the terrain in front of the Grand Pavilion but being made of driftwood were unlikely to do much damage.
Inside the three-acre pavilion – with enough room to park 500 buses – was packed with floral displays and medal-winning plants. Each flower exhibit vied for attention, in its own unique way.
RHS Chelsea Flower Show highlights