The RHS Chelsea Flower show 2019

It's Bank Holiday Monday, and the early morning sunshine disappeared ages ago. I'm in and out of the garden dodging the short, sharp showers as I try to catch up on some weeding.

My garden needs quite a lot of attention, but as I look out over a few swathes of cow parsley and the "wild area" at the side of the cottage where the bees are madly buzzing in and out of the hardy geraniums, lemon balm and forget me nots, I don't feel as guilty as I normally would.

Why? Well, I can see hints of this year's RHS Chelsea Flower Show in my own garden.

This time last week I was at the outstanding, the most must see flower show in the world. It was Press Day and once again there was that familiar flutter of excitement and anticipation as I walked through the gates.

The first garden to view was the Wedgwood Garden, a quiet oasis designed by Jo Thompson to mark the 260th anniversary of the pottery company.

Arches, water and a pleasing pastel palette of blues, pinks, creams and apricots made a welcoming and peaceful impression - but there was great excitement when a young woman wearing nothing but a Wedgwood blue, embroidered body stocking arrived to pose for photographs.

On Main Street all the gardens are of a very high standard... triumphs of design and in the past I've seen some very showy gardens, some designs of such form and precision. This year though, the gardens are so much more naturalistic and wild, so much more accessible with  the key themes of gardens being havens to escape into, to relax and to have fun.

There was no time for relaxation or a leisurely stroll through the show though... there were interviews to do and features to record, so I didn't take half as many photos as I wanted to.

I adored the eye-catching and oh so evocative "Welcome to Yorkshire "garden featuring a canal and lock gates, a vegetable plot and a cottage garden. Beautifully done, as was Andy Sturgeon's M and G garden - a vision of woodland, water and new growth.

I was particularly taken too with the Resilience Garden which celebrated a hundred years of forestry, with its message of how trees and forests will have a leading part to play in the fight against climate change.

Another garden that stood out was the CAMFED Garden. As soon as I saw the packed red earth path winding its way through a vibrant garden full of edibles, I was immediately transported to Africa. To Zimbabwe, where the Campaign for Female Education is helping girls in poor rural communities to stay in education. Banana trees, sweet potatoes, cassavas, ground nuts and grains were all jam packed into huge oil cans in the soil, just like in Zimbabwe, where they are showing how women are being taught to grow their own food and develop their own agricultural businesses... this was an inspiring garden.

In the Great Pavilion, perfection and plantsmanship were celebrated as always by around eighty different nurseries... I loved the Stihl Hillier garden which won a gold medal.

From the pastels to the vibrant colours on the Grenada stand... and this Richmond Red knocked my socks off.

So did the aroma of all the spices from this lush Caribbean island. The designer Catherine John certainly knows how to win another gold.

Whizzing outside again, my heart sang when I caught sight of this completely riotous and glorious 

display near the artisan food stalls, 

My heart missed a beat though, as I found the D-Day 75 Garden.

It pays homage to the last surviving Normandy veterans, and the centre piece is a statue of Bill Pendell who died in December. He's seen looking across the shingle and sea thrift at a statue of his younger self with his colleagues, as they rushed up the beachhead at Arromanche all those years ago.

Stark and poignant and so sincerely done, many of us looked on quietly.... and I'm so pleased that this garden is now being rebuilt overlooking Gold Beach in France as a lasting legacy.

By now it was time to leave and on the train home to reflect on such a different Chelsea this year. Oh and to look back through the photos I took... one of my favourites being this one on the Sarah Raven stand. I was about to interview Joanna Lumley when Rachel de Thame appeared... happy air kisses and a short chat later, Carol Klein popped up and they all wanted a photo together. Three wonderful, talented and lovely women enjoying the moment, and enjoying Chelsea.

So did I... a wonderful day at a a fantastic show which highlighted the natural, the wild and as always,  the beautiful.

Press day at Chelsea Flower Show 2016

I love the month of May and I love the Chelsea Flower Show. I love having a birthday too ....so when Press Day and my birthday coincide - well, let's just say I was in seventh heaven.

There was an early start on the 6.54 am train to St Pancras, a mad scramble on the tube and a brisk walk to get to the Royal Hospital Grounds  early with my friends and colleagues Dave Andrews and Chris Gutteridge. First stop was coffee and a meet up with garden designer Karen Gimson who would be walking and talking around the gardens with us.

Here they are with the lovely Jenny Agutter.

But at Chelsea, there's so much to see and do, so we were given 45 minutes to have a quick squizz around and choose a garden each to discuss. I literally whizzed around the site, refusing to be diverted by all of the shopping opportunities. That's a first...
Gardens, gardens, gardens! Obviously, we couldn't talk about all of them, but these are the gardens we decided to feature...

In pole position was Diarmuid Gavin's The Harrods British Eccentrics Garden. I stopped, entranced by the octagonal folly, seduced by the topiary and terraces, those open gates which drew me in.

I loved the planting - the Duchesse de Nemours paeonies , the verbascum , the roses , the box and the angelica.

I loved the quirky little potting shed too, but then came the sheer theatre, and the surprise....the garden started to come alive. The topiary which twirled around, the box which rose up from the beds and then retreated, the border which danced around the folly. Inspired by Heath Robinson's designs,
this attracted a lot of attention.

Speaking to Diarmuid later, he said that he had designed this for fun, not for a medal, and I believed him. But it turns out the judges like a bit of fun too, and he was awarded a silver gilt medal. Quite rightly so, as this garden lived up to it's British eccentric brief....in short, bonkers but brilliant!



A very striking garden was "God's own county - a garden for Yorkshire. It was designed by the rather dashing Matthew Wilson who now lives in Rutland, but who spent hours up in Yorkshire getting a feel for his brief..

 We were taken by the stained glass and stone inspired by York Minister using the same methods which were used back at the beginning of the 15th century. I loved the planting to reflect the jewel like colours of the glass.

Last year in May, I blogged about the RHS report on Greening Grey Britain and how paving over our front gardens could be negatively affecting our wellbeing.

See here..
www.thinkingofthedays.blogspot.co.uk/2015/05/days-of.html

This year designer Ann- Marie Powell
has come up with the RHS Greening Grey Britain for health, happiness and horticulture garden.

Wow, this packed a powerful punch packed with flowers, fruits and vegetables planted into every single inch. Beans and tomatoes grown on a  rooftop, a water feature to sooth, a wildflower meadow, a pergola covered with roses and plenty of benches to sit and chat, to think.

 

 

 I loved it, a garden full of verve and brio, just like Ann-Marie Powell.  She's a brilliant interviewee...so funny, and honest...she was particularly grateful that her garden was the only show garden not being judged. I think though that she might have won something. Certainly, there are some ideas here which I'll be using in the next few seasons.

 

Then it was onto my favourite garden of the show, The St John's Hospice - A modern Apothecary designed by Jekka McVicar. In the hurly burley of Chelsea, this exuded calm and tranquillity in both the planting and the landscaping.

 

 

 

 

 

The cooling trickle of water onto the raised cobbles, the densely packed thymes were so pleasing and the bees were loving the lavender and herbs. This was a perfect, living embodiment of the healing power of plants.



 

 



 

 

 

When talking to Jekka McVicar  the experience of creating this garden and growing all of the plants wasn't quite as stress free and relaxing as the final garden. In fact, she told me that she won't do another one, that's it...which I think is rather a shame as many loved this quiet reflective spot, including the judges who gave her a silver gilt medal. Mary Berry sitting here with Jekka rather liked it too.

 

But for Karen and Chris , the garden which really took their fancy was Andy Sturgeon's Telegraph Garden. Reverential mutterings about perfect form and execution could be heard...and intakes of breath as they admired the geologically inspired garden.

Then a decisive "Best in Show" from Karen,with Chris agreeing...and they were right, as Andy Sturgeon was awarded the title of yes, the Best in Show.

 

The most stunning exhibit though  was Finally , the 5000 Poppies project. Set up by two Australian women who wanted to crochet 120 poppies to lay at the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne three years ago, in memory of their fathers, this has become an emotive, symbolic and stirring triumph, designed by Phillip Johnson .

Against the backdrop of the Royal Hospital Chelsea, we could only stand quietly, admire and inwardly weep at the stirring sight of 300,000 poppies individually crocheted.

 

 

 

There's more on Chelsea to come....