Chelsea Flower Show’s 2020 star? Sophie’s back garden!

IT ISN’T quite the sprawling horticultural spectacular that Sophie Raworth is used to covering for the BBC, but at least it’s familiar.

For this year she will host the Chelsea Flower Show not from 66 acres of skilfully landscaped grounds, but from the 25ft back garden of the home in South West London she shares with her husband and three children.

Pride of place goes to auriculas, flowers that cost little more than a takeaway coffee but whose exquisite, brightly coloured petals have made them a favourite of gardeners, who display them in single pots on racks called ‘auricula theatres’.

Miss Raworth, 52, said: ‘They are beautiful alpine plants. My theatre’s a bit makeshift, but it’s how you display them. I have more than 20 now in purple, mauve, pink, yellow and white.’

Viewers won’t get to see much of her garden, with its jacquemontii silver birch trees, tulips, Libertia grandiflora and Japanese anemones but, will instead be treated to digital tours of the work of world-leading garden designers.

But Ms Raworth admitted: ‘I’m missing the camaraderie, the build-up, and seeing the growers and nurserymen.’