The darling days of May

May has always been my favourite month of the year.

As a child, I used to love that we could play out in the garden so much later than usual... when really we should have been in bed on a school night.  I remember the blossom in the mini orchard at the bottom of our garden too ... three or four small apple trees and four pear trees, which I used to sit under making daisy chains.

It was my son’s birthday yesterday and  mine on Thursday , so there have always been lots of celebrations in May for our family. I even got married in May on my birthday and so did my daughter so there’s extra reasons to celebrate and make lots of happy May memories.

It’s not just one mad month of partying though. May is the month when my heart sings for so many different reasons...

For waking early and hearing the birds chattering away madly....
For having those first lazy  lunches and suppers outside in the garden ......

For the long May morning walks with the dogs as we amble across the fields and down the lanes around our cottage. Inhaling the scent of late spring, and feeling the gentle warmth of the sun on our backs in the lush Leicestershire countryside.

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When the garden becomes more colourful... and I can finally plant out the tomatoes , beans and courgettes and squash at the end the month.....

When I can drive home from work with the windows down , be home by seven and still manage to spend time in the garden

When I can be inspired by so much around me ....May  is a month of such promise....

And of course May is the month of the greatest flower show in the world... the RHS Chelsea Flower Show! It was Press day yesterday and I was there being inspired by the passion and the plantmanship, interviewing so many lovely people and seeing friends from the Garden Media  Guild for a lovely gossip..

But that's another blog post......in the meantime, for me, May really is the loveliest month.

Press Day at RHS Chelsea in the Grand Pavilion





Even though it was hot outside at Chelsea, it was beautifully cool inside the Grand Pavilion. Less densely packed than previous years, there was an unusually airy feel and individual stands were easier to find.

Mind you, you couldn't miss the Hillier Nurseries stand which dominated the pavilion, and no wonder it won another gold from the judges, just as the Hillier stand has done so for the last 72 consecutive years.. What looked like a cool grey, giant, helical spring slinky toy, provided an usual bower to sit and ponder.

The surrounding planting of trees, shrubs, climbers and perennials was lush and plentiful and there were two paeonies which I wanted to dig up and take home. "Sarah Bernardt", with the palest of pink blowsy charm was really showing off and I also liked this "Krinkled White.



The Burncose Nursery stand is always worth a good look and this year proved no exception.



My favourite stand however was the David Austin Roses rose garden which also was awarded a gold medal. A delicious drift of the scent of hundreds of roses  on the air wafted my way, drawing me to the stand....



So cleverly designed and planted, seeing so many roses at the peak of their perfection was an absolute delight. I wanted to sit awhile, to inhale the heady scent and feast my eyes on the pretty pinks, the calming whites and creams and the pale yellow and apricot shades .

But no, there was far too much to do - I did manage to catch Alys Fowler, one of my favourite gardening columnists, for a quick interview under the rambling roses on the stand though.

I adored the Guernsey Clematis Nursery stand too. Beautiful waves of clematis cascaded at shoulder height as I walked through the stand. The pink streaked "Corinne" and the deep lavender "Parisienne" from the Boulevard collection caught my eye.

It was there that I met the delightful Rosemary Powell and her son Tony, who were admiring the clematis. Apparently Rosemary has been a customer of this nursery for many years, and cross bred some clematis creating new plants, naming them after her grandchildren.

Apparently this is Rosemary's 84th visit to the Chelsea Flower Show...the only years she didn't visit were during the Second World War when Chelsea was cancelled. Now I'm not one to ask a woman's age...after all, it should be classified information. But I did have to ask Rosemary how old she was, and the answer was 102.

Rosemary and I have agreed to meet up next year.

So, these were my highlights from the Grand Pavilion this year, but I didn't see it all in detail unfortunately. There was simply to much to do workwise - I couldn't even look at the trade stands let alone do any shopping. Literally, there was time for a 20 minute break to have something to eat and go to the loo. And that was it!

I'm not complaining though, because being at RHS Chelsea is a delight, an inspiration. For one week, this is the horticultural hub of the world, it's dynamic, it's packed with such creative and passionate people  and I couldn't miss this amazing annual experience.

Above all, it's fun! Where else could I have a chat with some walking and talking trees?

Press Day at RHS Chelsea 2017

Every time I've been to Chelsea, it has always been hot. Driving through the countryside on Monday  to an early train, I could feel the promise of a scorcher. I was right.

They say the sun shines on the righteous, and it was true. The garden designers and plant growers and  The Royal Horticultural Society were all blessed with a beautiful day which enhanced their beautiful creations and created an almost holiday vibe to what is the greatest Flower Show in the world.

But it wasn't a day off by any means. I was with my friends Dave Andrews, garden designers Chris Gutteridge and Karen Gimson, to provide live content for four radio programmes on-air, and pre-record an hour long programme for Sunday...the longest running gardening programme on local radio in the country.

Our first port of call was the Linklaters Garden for Maggies which was designed by Darren Hawkes. This was attracting a lot of attention, being a sunken garden and also a secret garden., surrounded by a ten foot high hedge. Once inside, you view the garden from above, a contemplative garden, a sanctuary..designed for cancer patients, but being Press day it was rather busy.

Main Street here at the Chelsea Flower Show in some ways reminds me of the Champs Elysee in Paris. Stylish, expensive, the place to be and the place to be seen, this is where the main show gardens are and where the celebrities can be seen posing for countless photographs.

 You couldn't miss The Silk Road Garden, Chengdu, China which was created by architect Laurie Chetwood and garden designer Patrick Collins. Big, bold and vibrant, it celebrated the culture, history and plants of the area.

I was really taken with the viburne pragense bruns though...to see so many on one stand was glorious, and I did like the epimediums......Wudang Star, Fire Dragon and Mandarin Star, just as exotic as their names.

Oh, and there were a couple of animatronic pandas too!

Further up Main Street was James Basson's design for the M&G Garden. Now this was awarded Best in Show, which has really ruffled the foliage of many visitors.
 Malta, a limestone quarry, and grasses. Mmn, I usually like his designs, but this one didn't get me oohing with delight. There again, I don't like grasses.  I never have, never will....I'm just the same with Abba songs. I've loathed them a passion since "Waterloo", and I wince when I see their songs on a programme's playlist, and I have to say "Here's Abba and ....."

So leaving the ( at least for me)  horticultural equivalent of Abba, Karen and Chris were in raptures ...they were really appreciating the terrace, the woodland, the delicious planting of the Morgan Stanley garden. I coveted the oak and limestone pavilion, and then as I interviewed and shared a glass of prosecco with Dewi, a delightful Chelsea pensioner, I was entranced by the playing of the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain.

Certainly  the Welcome to Yorkshire garden fulfilled its brief, featuring a beach, a cliff, a shoreline and an abbey ruin. Tracey Foster has designed one of the biggest gardens, with over 3,000 plants and tonnes and tonnes of sandstone and chalkstone. I liked this.

And do you know, I rather liked the 500 years of Covent Garden designed by Lee Bestall. I loved the arches, the apple trees, the delicate palette of planting to reflect apple blossom, all reflecting  such an iconic place and how it developed.

So, those were the show gardens that caught my eye. There's fewer of them than usual, but there were more artisan and fresh gardens which are always a source of pleasure. They're far more accessible than the Show gardens, with more affordable ideas and inspirations, so I din't feel short changed at all.

Now, you may call me biased because I work for the BBC, - you'd be wrong, but I really appreciated the Radio 2 Feelgood gardens featuring the five senses. For me, the two that worked the best were the Anneka Rice Colour Cutting garden and the Chris Evans Taste garden.

 

 

 First of all , the cutting garden. This was an absolute delight, a feast for the eyes with the wonderful colour combinations. Gold, pinks, magentas, all packed so cleverly and artistically into the space. So many plants in nine square beds...loved, loved , loved....

 

This is a collaboration between Sarah Raven and Tricia Guild, two women who have done so much to bring colour and joy into our homes and gardens.

It was also so good to see vegetables take pride of place in The Chris Evans Taste Garden. Mary Berry knows all about the best and freshest ingredients for her recipes, and these were really celebrated here.

The glossy red stems of the chard and the sheer crispness of the lollo rosso made me want to hop over the piece of string and go and pick, pick, pick to my hearts content.

There were so many other gardens I only caught glimpses of, we were running to such a tight schedule. One of the last ones we recorded was a thought-provoking one which I'm so pleased won gold.

Mind Trap, sponsored by idverde is the creation  of Ian Price. It's the first time he has exhibited at Chelsea, and I suspect it won't be the last.

From the outside, you can see what it's like to be trapped in the centre of the garden, the four metal walls almost closing in. Ian has been living with depression for the last fifteen years, and this garden is a manifestation of his feelings when the black dog looms.  Yet there's hope too, with much more vivid coloured planting outside the walls showing that there is hope, and colour can come back into your life.

Ian is such a good interviewee...not slick and glib, but honest, personal and sincere. His garden spoke to so many people including the judges. I look forward to seeing more of his designs.

So, with so many gardens to see at Chelsea, this is merely a personal memoir of some of them.



 Next time here on the blog...the Floral Pavilion, with planting perfection!

Press day at the Chelsea Flower Show - The Grand Pavilion 2016

The first time I ever went to the Chelsea Flower Show, ooh, must be twenty years ago, walking inside the Grand Pavilion was like walking into a steamy bathroom after someone has sprayed the most pungent perfume liberally all over themselves. It was so humid, and packed with people,  Mama and I beat a hasty retreat as she felt a little faint.

This year all was blissfully cool inside the Pavilion, but I still couldn't spend as much time as I liked in there. There was so much to see and admire and I was rather taken with the National Chrysanthemum Society's display....especially with this beauty

The Alpine Garden Society's stand was so pretty, enticing groups of dainty plants which I pored over.

I always think of rhododendrons as marmite plants...among my friends, we either love or hate them.
I like them, and was interested to see the Burncoose Nurseries stand which celebrated 100 years of the Rhododendron Society. Charles Williams who is the senior partner of the nursery, and owner of the Caerhays Estate in Cornwall ,was telling me a few lovely stories about his great grandfather who was a founding member of the society .
 

 

I haven't yet planted any peonies in my garden, even though I love to receive a bunch of them. After seeing the Binny Plants stand, this must be rectified. I was almost salivating in delight at the snowy beauty of the Duchess de Nemours and the white double Mme Claude Tain. The pink , rose shaped flowers of The Fawn also delighted, and I was so busy oohing and aahing over them , I completely forgot to take any photographs of them.  If you did, please let me know!

 I did manage to photograph this bed though, packed with every type of lavender imaginable from Downderry Nursery, celebrating its 25th anniversary this year. From a distance, it looked like a living patchwork quilt. Lavenders are my must-haves in any garden, and there were some I've not seen before , I really have taken a fancy to. I loved the bright, white Edelweiss , Heavenly Scent- a mid purple lavender and the sweetest Little Lottie, the shortest pink available.

 
 

 But it's not just all about the flowers inside the Great Pavilion, I loved this display of potatoes from a husband and wife team who told me they were only hobby growers. Only! I loved seeing all these black potatoes for the first time.

 And to see these allotments was a joy, perfectly planted produce in raised beds, with a shed and an allotment notice board made me itch to pick a few plants and eat them there and then.

 

 

 

 

 

The day went all too quickly, well we were working, but perhaps I should spend two days at Chelsea next year..there's simply too much to take in all at once. Even going through a tunnel to the loos made me stop and stare...

I love Press day...but you do have to leave by 3pm so that Her majesty the Queen and the Royal party can visit. We left at 3 minutes to the hour, even so, I felt like clinging to the gates and refusing to leave .....

Next year Chelsea, next year.....

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....