Chelsea Flower Show – Where is a spare pair of legs when you need them?
We visited the RHS Chelsea Flower Show on Wednesday. It is the most famous garden and flower show in the UK and lasts for five days. Our visit lasted 7 1/2 hours – my legs were pushed to the limit with all that walking. Surely some scientist could come up with a pair of spare legs you could carry around in a back pack. They can build complete walking robots – I’m only asking for the legs not the whole caboodle. I also took 280 photographs….Eeeek!
Here are a few of the highlights to give a flavour of the gardens on show. Some gardens are named after their sponsors in case you were wondering about the strange names.
The garden judged best in the whole show was the Daily Telegraph garden designed by the Swedish landscape architect Ulf Nordfjell. I really liked this one. Great planting and clever use of water and large rocks.
Daily Telegraph Garden
Daily Telegraph Garden
Daily Telegraph Garden
This next one was a bit too manicured and clipped for me, but the flower colours in the centre were beautifully rich.
Laurent Perrier Garden
Laurent Perrier Garden
Look at these Pitcher plants and Irises – a perfect combination!
Foreign & Colonial Investments Garden
Foreign & Colonial Investments Garden
There were small Urban gardens.
Marshalls Living Street
Children's Society Garden
Nostalgic courtyard gardens.
Fenland Alchemist's Garden
Jacob's Ladder
Eco gardens.
Future Nature
A fun “underwater garden”. These plants looked so realistic masquerading as undersea plants.
Cayman Islands Undersea Reef Garden
Very modern gardens.
PSI Nursery Garden
A minimalist take on a rock garden.
The Modern Rock Garden
The Modern Rock Garden
Finally we have the oddest garden at the show. It was made entirely of Plasticine modelling clay. The RHS gave it a Plasticine “Gold Medal” award for effort.
Paradise In Plasticine
Paradise In Plasticine
The whole visit was very enjoyable and when we got tired we sat with a cup of coffee, and listened to the musicians playing on the Bandstand!
Music on the Bandstand
12 comments
You have some great shots of the show gardens. I enjoyed enlarging each one, studying the plants and design, pretending I was there. I could imagine having a variation of some of the designs in my garden, while others made me smile. The Cayman Islands display did remind me of the last time I went snorkeling at a coral reef.
Northern Shade: Yes enlarging does allow you to see more clearly. You would have felt quite at home in the Coral Reef garden!
Never been to Chelsea before, it was always too far away and now its even further out of reach. I always used to watch it on tv though. Thanks for the photos, hope your posting more.
Judith: Yes I see Chelsea would be hard to reach now
Your photos really show exactly how each garden looked – very clear indeed! Wish I had that knack…
Emma: Thanks – luckily there were not to many people around to block the view!
Great photos, best I’ve seen of the show so far I think.
Strange you hadn’t heard about the Future Gardens show. JAS was one of the judges selecting the gardens being built there. Anyway, I am looking forward to it, might go a couple of times to see the seasonal differences, its about 1.5 hours for me, but motorway all the way!
Zoe: It is odd I hadn’t heard about them – or perhaps the name just hadn’t registered with me
Your poor legs! Yes, they did invent the extra pair – it’s called a Segway.
Garden shows are so exhausting – you keep pushing yourself to see everything and try to soak up all the details. Mentally taxing as well as physically! I went to a lecture by Ulf Nordfjell at our most recent (and probably last) big garden show in Seattle. His slide show had technincal difficulties but what he showed of his Chelsea stuff was amazing. He’s quite a formalist, no? I couldn’t quite picture incorporating any of his style into my own garden (I’m more of a Fenland Alchemist, I guess) but it was pretty incredible nonetheless to be in his eminent presence. Hope you share more of those almost 300 pics soon!
Karen: I looked up the Segway – fun – I could have done with one!
Ulf Nordfjell’s garden was surprisingly accessible, much more relaxed in reality than in pics, (though still very formal in plan of course).
Brilliant, Denise
Thanks for sharing your photos. It is so much better to see real images from a visitor to Chelsea rather than all the TV ones. You did well to get such clear (people free) images. I went pre new marquee and we couldn’t get anywhere near the show gardens (sea of umbrellas) and we were like a non-stop train going around the marquees!
I’ve been trying to catch up on my recorded BBC footage of the show. I had in my head James May, as he had no real flowers, couldn’t be judged. I thought he said something about that although I could have picked it up wrong. That being the case how was he able to built it… I thought they had to submit design plans? Yes, it must have been an odd one to see alright
No garden really caught me eye this year. What caught your eye seeing it for real?
Shirl: As always I liked bits of each garden though I did like the Ulf Nordfjell one. Unusual for me as I’m not usually keen on more modern gardens but I could live with this one.
I remember the older Chelsea days to – a real squash – it’s much more comfortable now and the new Marquee is very spacious and airy.
I’m baffled about the James May garden too – surely the original brief would have included the fact that the flowers weren’t real! I don’t know how he got away with it. How can they refuse garden gnomes after this
And here I thought the Chelsea flower show only had flowers. How little do I know. These gardens are very cool. Those large rocks are indeed a neat use. I like them all except the minimalist rock garden. I even really like that modern one. Pretty neat!
Tina: There are flowers and vegetables in the giant sized marquee – and Show gardens and stalls for garden sundries (eg. greenhouses, lawnmowers, sculpture, gloves, plant labels outside).
Thanks for sharing your pics, they give me a much better idea of the scale of the gardens than the telly usually does.
Your poor legs and feet, why don’t they built conveyor belts at Chelsea?
Yolanda Elizabet: It’s surprising that TV doesn’t always show the gardens at their best – I think it’s the presenters getting in the way!
Great photos – the colours come across so well. I’ve seen a much wider range of plants and gardens on people’s blogs than on over a week of TV coverage. The TV coverage just seems to concentrate on a few gardens.
HM: I agree. The TV coverage just doesn’t do it justice.
Lovely shots. It looks like you had a great day on Wednesday
I’m afraid The Telegraph garden didn’t do it for me apart from the fantastic rocket-like Eremurus!
VP: Ah those Eremurus. Amazing and I’m sure they must be difficult to grow otherwise they would be in everyone’s gardens!
I LOVE that Daily Telegraph Garden. It’s so black and white. The black hardscaping makes me rethink my design plans for a back yard structure I’ve been planning.If it’s okay with you, I’d like to use that picture (and credit you of course) as one of the example inspiration gardens in my test of a web site project I’m working on. It’s not live, I’m just drawing up sample screens to show people, to get feedback and see if this web site is something people are interested in. Would that be alright?
Megan: Fine with me!
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