Hours spent on feet: 8.5
Hours spent in heavy rain: 9
Garden magazines bought:0. None on sale but also weaning.
What can you say about Chelsea? Some people say it is out of touch with real gardeners and that the show gardens are not rooted in reality. It's pricey, it's crowded, only investment bankers and celebrities get to go into the gardens (possibly the only time some of them go into gardens at all) and it's in England so it will probably rain. Nevertheless, 157000 of us flow through the gates of the The Royal Hospital Chelsea every year. Although it poured down all day and some of the show garden concepts were, erm, hard to understand, the atmosphere was buzzing, thanks to both friendly exhibitors and a throng of ordinary gardeners always ready to pass the time of day with strangers with a witty comment about one of the more outlandish features.
The hype is all about the show gardens. Heavily sponsored, the theme is all around the concept or 'meaning' behind each design. Mostly the concepts were lost on me, or else I read up on the theme and then looked up from my show catalogue (£10 a time) and said to Le Photographe, 'I still don't get it.' The only theme I could really relate to was Chris Beardshaw's garden for Arthritis Research. Chronicling Chris's own journey with a condition similar to rheumatoid arthritis, the garden had three rooms to represent his own journey. I have a related condition and could understand his depiction of the time around diagnosis, using a statue and shaded wooded area to represent the loneliness and despair. I have to say I don't remember feeling as if I was sitting in a perspex shelter but still, I understand where he was at. More importantly, it looked great, with stunning planting and perfectly placed sculpture that gave the garden a restful and contemplative air. I was delighted to hear that Chris's garden won the People's Choice award this evening and that may be as much to do with simply being a lovely garden to look at as well as there being 10 million people in the UK with arthritis who may well also relate to his personal journey to living with this condition.
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| Chris Beardshaw's garden |
For sheer opulence of planting, the type I really went to see, my favourite garden was Roger Platt's 'Windows Through Time.' The garden represented looking back over a hundred years of Chelsea through the eye of a sculpture. I wasn't sure what the little thatched house (reminiscent of an Ethiopian village houses known as tukuls) meant but frankly who cares when you have eyes only for an astonishing grouping of plants.
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| Sumptuous planting by Roger Platt |
As someone addicted to high-gloss garden magazines, I am familiar with Jinny Blom, who normally produces gardens that dreams are made of. Unfortunately her Forget-Me-Not garden representating Lesotho went wrong somewhere for me. with too many materials that did not seem to harmonise together. The acerbic garden writer Anne Wareham likened it here to being akin to 'a helipad and an ashtray' and I can only say that I am sorry that I agree. Fortunately I am neither rich enough nor do I have sufficient room for a helipad so it will not be one of those feature so often lauded about that I can 'take home from Chelsea.' I do however, have an ashtray.
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| Jinny Blom's garden. NB the gnomes are not part of the design. |
It is always wonderful to look at gardens; however the place where I really lost myself is The Great Pavilion. What was great was not only the floral displays but the way you could wander around top nurseries and talk to the growers, each of whom was happy to answer any question. Blom's bulbs were on standby to review the photos of my failed tulips (not given enough water), Bowden's Hostas advised me I was wrong to crush snails as this provides food for slugs and also that a pot sprayed with WD40 makes your pot all the more slug resistant. Both Warmehoven's (alliums) and Raymond Evison's (an amazing tunnel of clematis) were happy to spend time explaining to me some of the processes in the run up to the day. Despite the huge crush, all the exhibitors had time to talk and there was not a touch of snobbery about a silly question or a gardening novice like me not knowing that delphiniums don't always come true. Things did become a little overheated in the Pavilion during a cloudburst that seemed to send all 40,000 visitors of the day inside in one go. Evison's had wisely devised a one-way system for human traffic through their clematis tunnel, something David Austin's might have learned from, as a four way entry system into their rose stand proved inevitably too popular and it looked like some people had collapsed or perhaps sat on a poor Rose Munstead Wood.
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| THOSE alliums: winners of the Diamond Jubilee Award |
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| How did your tulips do this year? |
Exhibits can look as good as you want but what really makes up these events is the atmosphere. Despite the hype, the celebrities and the big-name sponsors, the bulk of the crowd is made up of ordinary gardeners like you and me. Strangers smiled and shared a joke all day, suffered the rain together and raised eyebrows at the Twitter garden knowing that we all shared a love in common. Although I almost lost an eye many times thanks to umbrella spokes, had my toes trodden on and we all ended up wearing complimentary disposable macs blazoned with an investment bank logo, the atmosphere was joyful at all times. Chelsea goes from being brash, bizarre, beautiful, inpsiring, expensive and exhausting but it is a wonderful opportunity to unite yourself with the ordinary gardener within the crowd. I'll be back and out of pocket next year and already looking forward to it.
You have some great pictures of the gardens and views I had not seen....I like good flower shows for the artistry and ideas.
ReplyDeleteThanks Donna...the number of views is endless and the show has about 2-3 hours of prime time TV coverage every day for 7 days over here. Chelsea surely has its critics but the appetite of the British public is endless when it comes to gardening!
DeleteWhat a lovely balanced post, it is too easy to be critical about the elitism represented by the show gardens and forget that there is so much else that is enjoyed by "ordinary" gardens.
ReplyDeleteThanks Janet. Yes there are definitely elitist elements. I like the fact that ordinary people can vote for a garden. There should be more opportunities created for people to go in the gardens in perhaps a few small special events. I realise the show gardens would not cope with thousands of people but it would be nice to admit a handful of real gardeners as well as investment bankers. Perhaps the RHS should run a competition for a special late evening for those of us who actually own a spade. Power to the people!
DeleteI was lucky enough to go on two dry days so could wander at leisure. I agree with your reaction to the show gardens, my favourite was Roger Platt's planting - fabulous if overcrowded but some pleasing combinations to tuck into the memory bank. Did you get to see the Artisan Gardens tucked away in the woods? I think they were best of all! I grabbed a few plants to lug home at the sell-off so I have my own little bit of Chelsea in the garden now .. and will definitely be going back next year!
ReplyDeleteHi Caro, by the time I got to the Artisan Gardens,it had been raining solid all afternoon, I had been on my feet for 8 hours, I had had a spat with Le Photographe and had tried and failed to buy a glass of wine as you could only buy a bottle in that part of the grounds. It was also extremely slippery over there so it was becoming hard to keep up the enthusiasm.
ReplyDeleteI did like the Japanese garden as it was so restful, also the sheep sculpture in the Yorkshire garden (but not the bicycle wheels) and the Hebridean garden. Unfortunately for the NSPCC theirs was second to last and I had so much of gardens with meaning (theirs was particularly 'message heavy') I was running out of coping skills. Unable to appreciate the Wateraid one for all the same reasons which is a shame as I like the charity.
Looking forward to reading your reviews on your blog. Off to Colombia Road this morning...will I come back empty handed ??? :-)
The Chelsea Flower Show is on my list of things I want to do if I ever manage to get to London again. In the meantime, I thoroughly enjoyed your review - it was almost like being there. The English garden, in all its cliched glory, has always been my garden ideal. Sadly, it is pretty much impossible to achieve in hot and humid North Carolina.
ReplyDeleteHi Sarah and thanks for your very kind words about this post. Despite the cutting edge design at Chelsea, it was the huge drifts of perennials tempered with box that seemed to really draw the crowds. I'm sure you know what I mean if you're a fan of the English Garden. Actually there is a magazine called The English Garden if you're really after some 'eye candy' (and they deliver internationally...).
ReplyDeleteI would love to experience Chelsea. The helipad garden is a bit weird. I don't get it, either. 9 hours in the rain? WOW! I love garden glossies but so much seems unattainable for the average person so I take them with a grain of salt. It's like watching a supermodel who swears she eats cookies all day complain that she doesn't understand the rest of us. It's all just fantasy! :o)
ReplyDeleteThe helipad garden was meant to represent the landscape and houses of Lesotho apparently. I hope that helps you!
ReplyDeleteI think there is some honesty at large regarding what it takes to have a garden or stand at Chelsea. One nursery owner (Kelways) confessed on national television to growing 1000 peonies and 2000 irises in hope of having a couple of them right for the week. I suppose this is the gardening equivalent of a supermodel admitting to only living on celery and her gym membership pass.
Hi Claire, I am slowly working my way through posts, trying to catch up, haven’t been writing or been on the computer much the last week, much better to be outside in the garden :-)
ReplyDeleteGreat post about Chelsea Flower Show, last time I went was in 2005 so these days I only see it on the telly. I saw Chris Beardshaw's garden, I thought it looked lovely but I bet it was even better in real life. I could kill for some lupins in that dark red-purple colour!
I also remember the very welcoming growers that would answer any question you hit them with, I miss that direct contact with people who has firsthand experience, but I am afraid Chelsea Flower Show is no place for me anymore – too much walking.
I hope you enjoy the good weather and that your garden has really taken off this week, I am still waiting for my roses but not long to go now!
Hi Helene, yes loving the weather! I bought my first David Austin rose (Munstead Wood) last year and it is just coming into flower - so exciting! Unfortunately Munstead Wood was one of the ones that had been sat on at Chelsea. I had bad dreams about the fact that it is in B & Q compost (Le Photographe came back with that one day but no-one could hear my screams :-)) but it is just fine.
ReplyDeleteI have also been searching for that lupin. It's called Masterpiece and is available on the internet but seems very expensive. Haven't looked hard for seeds and lupins are a bit daring for me with the slugs. Haven't seen many since applying the Nemaslug but I still have quite a few snails.
I found the lupins at Crocus:
Deletehttp://www.crocus.co.uk/plants/_/lupinus-masterpiece-pbr/classid.2000006311/
but they seem much bluer in their photo then in yours. I liked the colour in your photo much better :-)
I actually think for once that the ones in my photo are more like I remember them. This is a bit strange because I just used my camera phone. I did hit the enhance button as it was a dull day but don't usually find that this enhances things to an unrealistic degree. Not sure why this is really, I do remember being particular struck by that lupin....
ReplyDeleteClaire, I love your post, interesting!
ReplyDeleteI'd like to visit Chelsea as well.
I'm Nadezda and over Casa mariposa. Nice blog title!
Happy weekend!
http://northern-garden.blogspot.com/
Hi Nadezda and thanks for visiting the blog. Do you have similar garden shows in Russia?
ReplyDeleteHi Claire, thanks for bringing us your perspective of the show. I wish I could have gone. I watched all the coverage and my favourite was also Chris Beardshaw's garden. The planting was just incredibly beautiful, it's what I want my garden to look like. Although I realise that it isn't really realistic as all the plants would have been forced into flowering at the same time, which is why it looks so amazing.
ReplyDeleteI also aspire for my back garden to have a similar look! One thing I wonder is the value of the plant sell-off on Saturday. If all those plants have been forced into flower and heated etc, how good will they be in a real garden? I met a family member of one of the exhibitors in the Great Pavilion recently. Apparently she had to act as bouncer to the crowd who went wild at the sell off, some of whom tried to nick a few plants (and were successfully apprehended). I guess no-one goes quite as wild as the Brits when it comes to gardening.
ReplyDeleteFound you via Sunil's Garden.... Loved this post about Chelsea. I lived in London and went several times, on my own, early mornings before the coaches arrived so that I could "do" all the gardens and get out of the way! One year I went on the last day and hung around - went home carrying a huge pot of hardy geraniums.... tiny pink flowers - a new one that year. Many years and a house move later, I still have loads of it, and so do many gardening friends. It's an early one, the first out in my garden, and I have it tumbling over a border edge, 9 inches above the ground outside my dining room window. Don't have the name now, but it's always a joy and is my "Chelsea Geranium"!
ReplyDeleteHi Susan, thanks for visiting the blog. That's a great story about your geranium and of course shows me up for what an old cynic I am for suggesting the plant sell off might not be worth it! Of course if I had been there it's guaranteed I would have given in and bought something.
ReplyDeleteHardy geraniums are great for being "as described." I chopped one in 4 last year and all portions are thriving.