A day at RHS Malvern Spring Festival

It was a very early start on Thursday - I was off to Worcestershire for the RHS Malvern Spring Festival. As I sped down the M6 and M5, the sun was shining, I was singing along to songs on the radio, and there was that delightful sensation of anticipation.

What gardens would I fall in love with? Which plants would knock my socks off?  And what would my overall impression of the festival be?

The Malvern Hills are a wonderful setting, and it's such a spacious and well laid out festival .Wide paths too and flat grass.....bliss, as it was my first week of walking without crutches after fracturing my ankle.

First stop was a meet up with other members of the Garden Media Guild just inside the Floral Marquee  in the Plant Finder Parlour. Just past ten o clock  in the morning and quite a few were standing happily chatting with a glass of ice cold prosecco in their hands. How wonderful I thought, so promptly took a glass and joined them.

It was good to catch up with a rather formidable looking Matthew Biggs again .

He was dressed for his role as plant hunter Ernest Wilson who brought such an eclectic collection of beautiful and rare specimens back to the UK at the beginning of the twentieth century. I knew of how he'd found the ghost tree or handkerchief tree, ...see here
http://thinkingofthedays.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/days-in-limelight.html

but Matthew really brought his work to life in a dynamic and humorous way which the audience loved. Unfortunately though, I didn't have time to watch his interpretation of the life of George Forrest in the afternoon.

I loved Jekka McVicar's garden at last year's Chelsea Flower Show so was rather keen to see the Health and Wellbeing Garden she's designed which will be a permanent feature at the Three Counties Showground.

A circular garden protected by a dry stone wall, there was lots to look at. I always love lavender edging and there's so many herbs planted here in the raised beds by Woodblocx, I lost count.  Tashkent mint is a new one to me which I liked. But this isn't just a calming garden for reflection, it's a working one too ..as a learning space for Pathways, a day service working with adults with learning disabilities

I made my way to the Grow Zone where gardening charities and organisations were showcasing their edible beds. I  was keen to see Sara Venn and her team from Incredible Edible Bristol. They've created 35 food community gardens in the last three years. It's a wonderful achievement -  Sarah is so passionate about her project, she's a real dynamo.

 But this venture isn't just about plants, it's about people too. Luke, one of the volunteers , was telling me how he joined within a few hours of coming to live in Bristol. He's found a great bunch of friends who share his love of gardening and he's an enthusiastic advocate  for what they're trying to achieve.

The raised bed from  Rush Farm Biodynamic in Worcestershire was a picture of vitality and health. Sebastian Parsons who farms there and who is Chief Exec of the Biodynamic Land Trust was just as perky as his plants, eagerly explaining how he and his sisters have transformed Rush Farm.



 

 

Hotfooting it back to the Floral Marquee, before it got too hot, there was almost sensory overload from the sight and scents of so many plants and people. So much to admire, but if I had to choose three plants which I coveted...two of them were paeonies from Primrose Hall...the beautiful "Sarah Bernhardt" 

 

And the elegant "Mothers Choice"

 









 







And thirdly , this pretty as a picture Phlox...."Clouds of Perfume" from Hardy's Plants.

Wandering outside, the first show garden I looked around was this...The "At one with ...a meditation garden from Howle Hill Nursery. With Japanese maples, three springs, statement pieces and a cooling pool harmonising so well, I'm not surprised that this garden won best in show. There was such a sense of timelessness and serenity here...



 

But it was the Villaggio Verde garden "The Retreat "that I wanted to sit in. A hot saltwater spa, the clean lines of the terrace, the large olive trees, leading into a Mediterranean  planting of olives and lavender, were so evocative, so delicious, I could have set up camp there with a picnic of prosecco, olives and nuts.







Itching as I am to be near the coast at this time of year, I liked the vibrancy of "The Ocean "spa garden designed by Michel Damien



There was a queue to walk around the Buckfast Abbey Millennium Garden. This detail intrigued me as I waited but time was pressing, I became aware of everything I hadn't yet seen....so I moved on....

 

 

 

 

Other visitors however were relaxing and tucking into street food and picnics by the bandstand....

That's something I like about Malvern...plenty of benches and places to sit down and take the weight of your feet, and just watch the world go by.

Joe Swift found the perfect place to sit a while, but he wasn't relaxing , he had some pieces to camera  to do for Gardeners World.

As for the shopping at Malvern.....there's so much to tempt you into spending far more than you should. Plants, clothes, paintings, food, and of course the bigger items too. Now my old ash tree no longer stands centre stage in my garden due to Storm Doris, there's no shade.  I was very impressed with these huge parasols from Instashade which use Australian fabrics which know how to withstand the searing sun . One day, one of these shall be mine!

So, a rather successful festival ......and I 'm looking forward to the RHS Malvern Autumn Show, which takes place on the 23rd to 24th September.
See you there....

 

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....