Wet weather couldn’t dampen the spirit of the Chelsea Flower Show, writes Hannah Genders.
It almost didn’t feel like Chelsea this year, with the grey skies and steady rain – I must admit I felt really sorry for the exhibitors who were outside, having to contend with such awful weather.
I was fortunate enough to have two days at the show this year; Sunday, which is still classed as a build-up day with many of the exhibitors frantically finishing their gardens, and Monday, which is the official press day before the show opens to RHS members on the Tuesday morning. Armed with my new camera, I was ready to be inspired.
The large show gardens on Main Avenue were certainly inspirational. Cleve West had created the garden for Saga Insurance, the main show sponsors this year.
Cleve’s garden contained some really dramatic sculptures throughout, with three massive bowls in the back section of the garden for collecting water.
Whereas most designers had packed the plants for a very full effect, Cleve had planted up in a way that was more like a real garden, allowing the plants room to shine and surrounding the areas with pea gravel.
It was a brave move and I am glad it paid off with the judges, who awarded him a gold medal.
Tom Stuart Smith’s garden for the Daily Telegraph won a well-deserved gold medal and also walked away with the Best in Show title.
The combination of rusted metal walls as a backdrop with copper coloured iris in the foreground was really beautiful.
On the corner of Main Avenue was Andy Sturgeon’s garden for Cancer Research. It was full of life and vitality with a large swimming pool and seating area under the curved waterfall.
As with all his gardens, the planting combinations were exquisite.
One of my favourites this year was in the small show gardens category: Chris Beardshaw’s garden, entitled “Growing for Life at Boveridge House”, really stood out.
The inspiration comes from Boveridge House in Dorset where Chris is involved in a restoration project.
The gardens at Boveridge were originally designed by Gertrude Jekyll and the garden Chris had created at Chelsea was classically formal with the soft planting associated with Jekyll’s style.
Pale blue iris and forget-me-nots were set off by a beautiful, pale yellow tulip called Tulipa ‘Spring Green’. The blue irises were still wrapped in paper on the Sunday just to make sure they were at their very best for the judging the next day.
Aside from this being a well executed exhibit, there was also a special message behind this garden. The house at Boveridge is now a residential home for young adults with special needs.
It is Chris’s intention to set up an educational programme to train these young people in all aspects of horticulture, under the title “Growing for Life”. A number of the young people had helped with the garden at Chelsea.
Having started my own horticultural career working in a special school farm and gardens, I can understand Chris’ enthusiasm for this project and it was great to hear that he received a gold medal for his lovely garden.
Just along from Chris’ garden was another eye-catching exhibit called Garden Africa (pictured above). This garden looked so different from all the others and it had been put together on a very low budget with a sponsor coming on board only at the very last minute.
The Garden Africa initiative uses garden-related projects to help fight the battle against HIV/AIDS and malnutrition in Southern Africa.
The Chelsea garden they had created was a typical example of the sort of garden they would build with volunteers on their training programme, complete with a little hut, the characteristic red soil and even an old car seat propped up in the planting.
It was very refreshing to see this little garden in amongst all the glamour of Chelsea and a privilege to meet some of the people involved in this inspiring project.
This year, what with all the bad weather, the Great Pavilion was the place to be. Rob and Kim Hurst from The Cottage Herbery nursery in Worcestershire had put together a beautiful display.
It really looked like a cottage garden and as well as celebrating 30 years of organic, peat-free growing, they also had two new plant introductions – a deep red nasturtium called ‘Indian Ruby’ and a very delicate Astrantia named after the nursery, which Kim informed me turned an apricot pink as the flowers matured.
Also under cover in the Grand Pavilion was the Kirstenbosch exhibit; with 27 gold medals to date this stand is always worth a visit. Using only plants native to Southern Africa, the designers had created a stunning feature with large earthenware pots and screens to sub-divide the stand.
The Barbados Horticultural Society created an incredibly colourful display and completed the experience with a steel band playing next to their stand on press day. You really could spend a whole day in the Grand Pavilion and never venture outside – there is so much to see and learn.
Despite the weather, Chelsea had managed to pull it off again – for sheer inspiration this really is the greatest flower show in the world.