One to watch
The Yeo Valley Organic Garden
It is always exciting to see young talent on the Main Avenue of the show. This year, Tom Massey is returning to Chelsea with an exciting design inspired by Yeo Valley Organic Garden, which places wildlife, biodiversity and sustainability at its core. A stream runs through the garden, seamlessly connecting different areas and habitats, from open perennial meadow to productive woodland. The design showcases Tom’s ability to capture the beauty of the countryside with a touch of wild planting and interpret it in a way that is new and imaginative. Suspended above the water is an egg-shaped, steam-bent oak hide, which adds a contemporary twist to the naturalistic setting. If this garden is a measure of today’s young talent, the future is bright for Chelsea’s Main Avenue.
The indisputable star of this year’s Chelsea is the season. For the first and perhaps only time nurseries and show-garden designers have the chance to play with a completely different palette of plants at our premier show. While this year’s show is still a little early for celebrating the ‘fifth season’ (that period from late summer into autumn when all those grasses and perennial plants we know so well come into their own), there is still an opportunity to enjoy a richer, darker, chromatic range of colour than the usual show date of early spring generally allows. Designers will have an opportunity to work with plant combinations that more accurately reflect their own style, since fewer gardens nowadays are made with a May-June highlight in mind. Let’s hope their displays provide some much-needed beauty and joy.
Chelsea usually rides in on the coat tails of spring with everything bursting into life as the days lengthen. But here we are at the other end of the season, witnessing flowers fading and the slow descent into winter. Designers haven’t had time to properly plan for this, so will be unable to exploit all the opportunities September provides, but as they scramble to avoid the temptation of the clichéd New Perennial, expect to see plants and combinations that will make you go weak at the knees. The growers are in uncharted territory here so serendipity will play a bigger role than usual, but watch out for annuals you’ve never seen, beautiful seedheads, grasses that are actually in flower, late-summer bulbs, even perhaps ‘dead’ things, and undoubtedly dahlias to die for.
While show and feature gardens tend to draw a lot of attention, there is always fierce competition among the trade stands, the standard of which seems to improve every year. It’s no wonder, given that entrants carefully select a designer to create a backdrop to showcase their products, rather than accessorising their stand with a few pots. This year, outdoor furniture maker Gaze Burvill has teamed up with Ann-Marie Powell to create a display that reflects our need for places in which to relax and reconnect with nature, and the importance of the provenance of materials (the more local the better). The stands aren’t judged with quite the same rigour as the show gardens, which may contribute to their effectiveness. It gives designers the chance to relax and explore design in a more spontaneous and enjoyable way.