The Chelsea Flower Show

I can't believe after all the cold and damp of the Jubilee celebrations that just over a week ago my son Matthew, daughter-in-law Lynsey and I were basking in glorious sunshine at the Chelsea Flower Show. We had looked forward to this since getting the tickets as a Christmas present and we weren't disappointed.



Brewin Dolphin Show Garden

Equipped with our map of the site we planned our route and the first show garden we came to, the Dolphin Brewin garden, just happened to have won Best in Show. It was beautiful as it combined the formal structures of yew topiary and beech hedges with lots of herbaceous planting.

Dolphin Brewin Garden

The next garden didn't seem at all out of place in the sweltering heat of Chelsea.It was Trailfinders Australian Garden.
This one was designed by Jason Hodges and was much more about features such as a plunge pool, barbecue and pizza oven (all the things essential in an aussie backyard) rather than the planting.

Trailfinders Australian Garden

The next garden, which featured a Victorian greenhouse set in an English country garden, more than made up for the lack of flowers with its' amazing show of blooms.

Country Greenhouses Garden

We went on to visit, Fresh Gardens, a new for 2012. These smaller gardens had no brief and so no constraint and consequently some quirky new ideas emerged including the QR Code Garden which was very appropriate as it was also the first year that smart technology had been used at the RHS.I had already noticed the QR codes earlier and enjoyed using my QR reader app on my phone to try and get more details of some of the plants I had really liked.

By now it was time for refreshments and so Lynsey and I enjoyed a cool glass of Pimms.

After our refreshments we headed for the remaining  large show gardens.

Homebase Teenage Cancer Trust Garden

This lovely garden, designed by the television gardener Joe Swift, had four bold cedar wood structures that framed  the foliage but the stunning part was the colour palette of burgundy and rusty brown. For this alone it deserved its Gold Award.

The World Vision Garden, The Laurent-Perrier Bicentenary
Garden and TheArthritis UK Garden.

The Telegraph Garden

The RBC Blue Water Garden

Our last stop before lunch was Diarmuid Gavin's giant pyramid shaped terraced garden. It won the award for "most creative show garden" which I'm sure you will have seen on the BBC when it had Chelsea pensioners forming a guard of honour on each of the seven levels.

Westland Magical Garden

After a sit down and a bite to eat we looked forward to exploring the Artisan Gardens, mainly because they were set in the tranquil wooded Ranelagh Gardens which provided welcome shade. We were in for some lovely surprises as designers such as Kaffe Fassett and Orla Kiely had some amazing sheds and summer houses.


Kaffe Fassett's summerhouse



Orla Kiely's shed

The garden I most wanted to see in the whole show was the Satoyama Life Japanese garden. It was designed to reflect the symbiosis between our lives and nature and reflect the simple life of the Satoyama region of Japan It was tranquil and absolutely gorgeous and definitely deserved to win Best Artisan Garden.It made me want to go back and visit Japan again.

Satoyama Life Garden

There were lots of other stunning artisan gardens but none compare with this little gem.

All that remained for our tired little feet to do was get us to the Grand Pavilion to soak up the atmosphere and select a few to special plants to drool over. i was delighted when the first display I saw on entering was Hewitt-Cooper's carnivorous plant display. I had become fascinated by these after visiting Charles Darwin's house in Kent and I went on to feature these in both fabric and wallpaper designs for my Final Major Project at college.

Hewitt-Cooper Carnivorous Plants

I will leave you with some delightful bulbs that caught my eye.

Tulip, Fritillaria and Alliums