London flower show dazzles with stellar craft, design
I just returned from a trip to London with 30 Dixon supporters to visit the Chelsea Flower Show and to tour select gardens in England. The flower show was amazing. Although I had traveled to England before and have been to large regional flower shows here in the States, I was not prepared for the size, scope and energy of this show, which was celebrating its 100year anniversary.
We arrived at the members- only preview day about a half-hour before opening time to discover long lines and an excitement in the air that I can only compare with a major sporting event in this country. The show was sold out months before opening day, and scalpers outside the venue were hawking outrageously priced admission tickets that they had the foresight to purchase for profit in anticipation of the tremendous crowds.
In fact, this show is a huge deal covered by all the British media and visited by the queen and other royalty as well as numerous celebrities. This excitement is a testament to the fact that gardening is a serious pastime in the United Kingdom.
I was dazzled by the displays both indoors and out, most of which looked as though they had been planted for years, or at the very least for months, even though all had been installed within just the past few weeks. The horticulture and the craft and design of these displays were stellar.
Many of the plants were forced to flower early by using a climate-controlled growing system to have them at their peak flowering time during the show, even if they normally might not flower in the The temporary indoor and outdoor displays at the Chelsea Flower Show in London look as though they were planted months or years ago.
garden for weeks or even a few months. This acceleration of the bloom time indoors is called forcing, and the result of having everything in bloom at the same time is breathtaking.
I was dazzled to see hundreds of varieties of roses blooming at the same time, almost two months before they would be flowering in the garden; and a clematis display with over 100 different vanities blooming and twining on a tunnel that must have been carefully moved from a greenhouse given the way they had connected with the structure. I must admit I was very jealous of the displays of lupines and delphiniums, which were at the peak of perfection and that I so long to grow in Memphis.
The large individual display gardens were sponsored by many different countries, and the winner for the “Best Show Garden” was Australia. They had an overthe- top design with a rock formation and a waterfall with hardscapes very similar to the created topography at the Memphis Zoo. It was planted with tree ferns and many other plants indigenous to Australia.
In addition to the display gardens, numerous vendors were selling everything from antique garden spades to edgy garden art, with lots of unique offerings not found in the U.S. Although many plants were familiar to Mid-South gardeners, some might have been misidentified because they were so much larger and more robust than we see in our gardens.
I felt proud for the Dixon and the Mid-South when I found out that we have been growing the plant that was chosen the plant of the century: a Mahonia called Soft Caress, which is aptly named because it lacks the spines found on the leather-leaf mahonia. We have Soft Caress growing in the woodlands and in the formal gardens at the Dixon.
I think of how far we have come in Memphis since I was a boy working at Four Fives Nursery on Summer Avenue. We now have worldclass public gardens in Memphis, a huge base of master gardeners and more plant societies than ever.
If we can keep up the pace, who knows when we will be able to host a world- class garden show, complete with display gardens, forced f lowers and vendors from around the world? I’m excited about the future of Memphis horticulture.