Gardening David Wheeler
AUTUMNAL CHELSEA
Unlike the horticultural faithful and, indeed, Her Majesty, I have never been a regular attendee of the Chelsea Flower Show.
Once every three or four years has been enough – not least because, for the past 40 years, I have lived some 200 miles from London. And why, anyway, would anyone want to leave their own garden in the glorious month of May?
And apart from the designer show gardens, there’s the recurring risk of sameness in the marquee, where growers and nurserymen profile their delights in – sometimes – similarly repetitive displays. True, there are always new plant varieties to discover, but these soon find their way into television programmes, gardening columns and, thankfully, commercial outlets.
I first went to the Show 50 years ago and most recently in 2017. The coronavirus pandemic caused its cancellation last year, but in the hope that the disease will be well under control by later this year, the Show’s oh-soregular (since 1912) third-week-of-may slot has been shunted on to the third week of September.
Leaving aside visitors’ thoughts on a four-month postponement, I have instead been talking to some of the movers and shakers closely involved with this annual spectacle.
‘The Royal Horticultural Society is our premier gardening charity, running five stunning gardens, to say nothing of its horticultural advisory service. Much of the money for these activities comes from the Chelsea Flower Show,’ says Christine Skelmersdale, proprietor of Broadleigh Gardens in Somerset, one of our foremost specialist bulb growers, who served on the RHS Council for 11 years.
She adds, ‘2020 saw a devastating reduction in [the Society’s] income across the board – so it is totally understandable that it will wish to attempt to have its premier show in 2021. While it is disappointing that it cannot be at its normal time, and very hard for the exhibitors of spring-flowering plants such as tulips, what a great opportunity it offers exhibitors who would not normally be able to exhibit or have a chance to show another range other than the stale Chelsea standard fare.
‘Just imagine the pavilions filled with spectacular displays of dahlias, gladioli, asters, tender perennials like salvias – all of which will be at their peak as well as the more normal traditional herbaceous plants and trees and shrubs.’
‘How will Old Roses be made to defy nature and bloom in September?’ asks Michael Charlesworth, chair of the Heritage Rose Group. ‘Their absence may be missed this year, but the wondrous colours of late summer and autumn will be welcomed.’
Woody-plant expert and RHS insider Maurice Foster agrees. September ‘creates an opportunity for plants to be exhibited that never get a look in at the spring event and, though it is a little late, we might see a good show of colourful late-summer performers such as hydrangeas. Magnolia grandiflora might come into play alongside the more lowly ericas, callunas and daboecias [heathers]. There are some very good buddleias worth showing, along with loads of fuchsias, hebes, hibiscus, abelias and, perhaps, some hypericums.’ While possibly ‘a little early for autumn colour, plants like oxydendrum and some maples might be showing a leg’.
Echoing Christine Skelmersdale’s concern about the RHS’S vital cash flow, Maurice charitably concludes that the move ‘is an interesting social and horticultural experiment, as well as a kind of vaccine for the Society to help it combat the financial pandemic’.
A Chelsea September seems to be winning favour all round. I won’t book my train ticket just yet, but the week of 21st to 26th September is heavily inked in my diary.