Chelsea 2015

[meglet]

I've accepted my garden will never even be 10% as gorgeous as those gardens, but I can dream.

Highlights will be on bbc2 all week I think.

Is anyone going? I've only been once (2001). Came home with a Chelsea pensioner tea towel.

(Sorry, that last comment about the Cloudy Bay garden)

I didn't love the moving shack - but the Rich brothers are so fricking gorgeous I might just forgive them

I've just been watching last night's show and Joe does seem very determined to pick fights with the judges and quibble about the judging.

The shack on rails didn't appeal to me either and I'm too old to find the brothers appealing, except in the horticultural sense

Yeah Joe's being a bit of a bitch about it - picking holes in all the medal winning designs, all seems a bit political! He's not a patch on Monty

Has Joe had a bad experience at the hands of the judges (there already seems to be an issue about the sponsor keeping his medal, but that's something different)? It all seemed to go beyond dispassionate enquiry about how marks are awarded; it sounded to me as if he had an axe to grind.

have had mumsnet free week so didn't see this thread but shovetheholly there are planting schemes (kind of) from the gardens on the RHS site - at least I think that's where I saw them. Am obsessed with the Jo Thompson garden so went hunting for plant list and there's a drawing of the planting on there - might be "inspired by" rather than exact.
I went on Monday as someone offered me a press day ticket through work and it was amazing - oggling almost every garden with barely a person around me and endlessly bumping into film crews who just seem to pop up every two second interviewing Brendon from Strictly. At one point the rain was horizontal - god knows how they got all the telly stuff filmed that day.

Oooh, cooper44 thank you so much! That will help no end. I would like to be able to buy or download a kind of booklet that actually had the design drawn out, if you see what I mean, along with planting schemes. (Such a wondrous thing may exist and I may just be ignorant of it)

Am SO jealous of your press day ticket. How exciting and wonderful to have that privilege of seeing everything looking so pristine.

Am intrigued by the comments on Joe's bitchiness - I need to watch this show! Part of me thinks it's not such a bad thing to have some questioning of the judges' authority, but it sounds like it was more than that? I have seen him speak at the Malvern Show, and he is much quicker, wittier and funnier in real life than he comes over on the telly (he used to creep me out a bit, in all honesty, but actually I think I often just mistook his sense of humour - he is quite sharply sarcastic in the best British kind of way).

I am ashamed to say I have an irrational dislike of Monty (find him a bit pretentious, think his gardens look a bit crap on the telly, and miss the down-to-earth days of good old Geoff Hamilton, but all of this is probably me just being knee-jerk unfair on the poor fella).

I didn't find Joe bitchy I have to say - yes sour grapes on the not keeping his gold medal (understandable! and actually I think he was just using that humorously for the telly) but I didn't blame him for pressing the RHS judging - I felt like Jo Thompson was robbed - her garden is SO beautiful, gorgeous planting but yes no annoying bloody sun rooms that whizz around on rails. I felt like the RHS are quite keen to be cool and young and so the Rich brothers are a bit of a gift for them. I'm being cynical about it though.
love your irrational dislike of Monty shove - I don't think he's great at live tv whereas I love him on gardener's world. I saw him talk a couple of months ago and he was very entertaining and it's amazing seeing what Long Meadow looked like when he arrived.

It is completely bonkers that I dislike Monty! I think I just grew up as a kid thinking that Geoff Hamilton was what gardeners should be like (my Dad looks and acts a lot like him too) and not velvet-and-braces wearing individuals who use words like 'irridescent'. (This is utterly hypocritical, since I use words like 'irridescent' all the time, and have an appalling tendency towards braces).

But then I have form for bad judgement. I used to like Alan Titchmarsh, before I actually read anything he had written (bleugh, bleugh, bleugh to all the nostalgia, it is like listening to a really, really bad and endless version of The Lark Ascending played on wheezy old recorders) and before I knew he was a kipper.

I suspect you may be right about the Rich bros being the young face of the RHS, cooper. (Maybe I'm also cynical). I am glad you didn't like the garden either, as I often wonder if I am being unfair and the TV pictures just don't do a garden justice.

Hello all, just de-lurking to ask if anyone else thinks Monty's been looking at Mumsnet? On Chelsea just now he first mentioned the social media reaction to Joe Swift and at the end he said about orange geums being the hottest plant at Chelsea this year (Orange geums have been talked about ALOT on the Potting Shed thread).

And finally, but most importantly, did anyone else find Dan Pearson extremely fit?

Hmm. We often speculate in the potting shed on whether we're being read by the GW researchers but I don't flatter myself that we are. In talking about orange geums, we've probably been reflecting the fashion rather than creating it but, Monty, if you're reading this !

ooh I hope not - there's been a bit of Monty bashing today.

I have a (mature) crush on Monty, Dan Pearson, James Wong and Chris Beardshaw , all strictly for horticultural reasons. Being modern (ish) Carol Klein also appeals to me.

The potato man in his kilt today came close to being on my favourite list too.

I shouldn't think anyone from the BBC bothers to read or take note of mumsnet as they are far above us mere mortals!

I'm thinking I might go into the marquee first this time. It is wonderful being able to watch on TV I must say but I shall never forget my first time going to the show. More than anything, flowers and gardens are as much about scent and movement as about the 2 d picture one sees on the box.

It was really nice today to be shown all the trees and in the mondrian garden, the emerging alliums!

I really liked the Kipling poem quote. I've posted a bit of it before on the potting shed thread.

I didn't realise Rachel was my age as looks so much younger and prettier!

Heehee, that potatoe man looked like he's existed on potatoes alone for the last 50 years!

I've also had a massive crush on Monty for donkeys years although he's old enough to be my dad.

I went to Chelsea once. I was disappointed. You can buy plants at the other RHS shows and the Gardeners' World show. Disappointing. With all the hype, I expected it to be so much better than it was. I may be old and jaded but I just felt I'd seen it all before. It sounds grumpy but these days I'd rather go and visit a real garden than look at a load of installation pieces with plants.

You can find planting lists for 2 gardens here
www.crocus.co.uk/chelsea/
the plant list for Jo Thompsons garden is here
www.mandgchelsea.co.uk/2015-garden/plant-list/
plans for her garden are here
www.telegraph.co.uk/sponsored/gardening/mandg-chelsea-flower-show/11515932/jo-thompson-garden-designs.html?frame=3256550
Chris beardshaw's garden and planting list is here. lupin 'masterpiece' is sold out everywhere incidentally.
www.rhs.org.uk/shows-events/rhs-chelsea-flower-show/exhibitors/2015/gardens/the-morgan-stanley-healthy-cities-garden

Chelsea was the first ever garden show I visited though I remember being taken to a garden festival near Stoke once decades ago which was amazing with cable cars over wild flower meadows.
I can see that after a bit one might think it a commercialised set-piece but it genuinely seems to me to be more than that. Rather like ski-ing. Though it is true there is a jaw-gratingly irritating and elitist social and commercial set, the fact remains it is very enjoyable and those who are put off by the social hype are missing something.
The cost and the crowds, the lack of ethnic minority or family-in-poverty attendance, and the limited life of the gardens are separate issues.

As for garden 'prescriptions'. I'm with the RHS lady and want to see outside spaces where children can play.

There should be a day when only those on benefits (dla, child benefit, pension tax credit, working tax credit, unemployment benefit and any family where the children get free school meals and the like) should be able to apply to get free entry on production of their benefit card in my opinion.

Description of my first visit to Chelsea
funnyperson Sat 25-May-13 21:03:40

The hoi polloi went to chelsea today from this neck of the woods. I was so excited I couldnt sleep and got asthma and diarrhoea and had to be medicated upto the eyeballs. Mum convinced herself it woud a be too crowded and too much and said she wouldn't go. Dad got excited that we were going so then he got ill(ish) so I ended up going alone at the crack of dawn and got there at 7.30 am thinking I woud get back home by lunchtime and see dad and then go and watch summer eights final day and cheer on DD. rofl.
Add message | Report | Message poster
Rhubarbgarden Sat 25-May-13 21:07:03

Did you stay all day FunnyP? The crowds got the better of me by 1ish so I didn't hang around for the sell off. Which gardens did you like?
Add message | Report | Message poster
funnyperson Sat 25-May-13 21:14:08

The weather was gorgeous and it is fair to say that my mouth was probably open (when it wasn't smiling) and my eyes popping for the first hour at least. Dear Readers I tell you now that any gardener who has not been to the Chelsea flower show at the crack of dawn and stayed till the incredible sell off on the last day has not lived. The gardens are stunning. But stunning. The tv doesn't do them justice. Not even remotely. The flowers are incredible. The people who design the gardens, and the garden companies who come are so pleasant and informative to talk to. The sculpture stalls are wonderful. There is every kind of wacky garden fountain on display. There are artisan retreats. There are arias from la Boheme being sung live. There is Purbeck ice cream. There are birds, butterflies, trees, and it all smells of outdoors and green and garden and flowers and the whole thing is a sight for sore eyes.
The Australian garden was beautiful and I too thought of echt. The physicians artisan garden was very very pretty. The Laurence Perrier garden poncy in a very very good way and very relaxing to watch.
Will talk plant detail tomorrow.
Main themes were purples, whites, greens with splashes of orange. Lots of purple aquilegia, white anemone blanda and purple irises. But those gardeners are genuises. Their planting is subtle and varied and never looks OTT.
Add message | Report | Message poster
funnyperson Sat 25-May-13 21:19:13

I stayed till 5.30 and had lots of breaks (well, coffee and cake at 11, veg miso soup at 2, choc ice cream and another rest at 3.........you know, hobbit fashion)
The place was quiet until 11 when I think it is fair to say it heaved and having breaks was the sensible option. It then got quiet again at about 3.30.
My favourite gardens were the Physicians artisan garden by the Welsh botanic gardens team, the Australian garden, the Laurence Perrier garden and the Bradford garden
The trees in the Japanese garden were stunning the homebase garden was also stunning. Which did you like best?
Add message | Report | Message poster
funnyperson Sat 25-May-13 21:21:47

Clematis COuntess of Wessex looked very pretty indeed on the clemaic stands. Lemon dream looked good too, I thought of Maud. The roses were interesting because as they were all in flower, one could smell them and immediately one pink rose could be seen to be better than another.
Add message | Report | Message poster
funnyperson Sat 25-May-13 21:23:25

In short, Gentle Hermione smells rather odd whereas Queen of Sweden is rather nice.
Add message | Report | Message poster
funnyperson Sat 25-May-13 21:25:56

The sell off is amazing (prices very very reasonable for fantastic plants and all reasonably sedate not the scramble the newspapers make out) and fine because it means the plants are going to good homes, and watching the plants being taken home at the taxi stand is very amusing indeed. As is getting ones own plants home. Those who fared best had fold up plastic IKEA type trolleys.
Add message | Report | Message poster
funnyperson Sat 25-May-13 21:27:21

The only thing is the outing is an expensive one. Therefore not an everyday treat. I will stop posting now. Sorry.
Add message | Report | Message poster
HumphreyCobbler Sat 25-May-13 21:29:20

It sounds WONDERFUL. rofl at hobbit fashion, I do that. You sound thoroughly happy.

I was surprised at how television does not do justice to the gardens after my day at Malvern. I must go to Chelsea next year.

It has been wonderfully sunny and warm here today. A lovely day.
Add message | Report | Message poster
funnyperson Sat 25-May-13 21:32:12

This is the sensible sort of thing to take
www.esedirect.co.uk/p-3300-folding-box-cart.aspx
as it keeps the plants you buy safe from being squashed.
Did I have one of those??DId I heck.
Add message | Report | Message poster
funnyperson Sat 25-May-13 21:46:59

I do by the way wish to explode a common myth about Chelsea which is that the only people who go apart from royalty and tv commentators are 60 something females.
This is not the case. There were loads of very hunky men there, 16-60 average age 40 something. The younger the male the more technically sophisticated the camera inevitably hanging round the neck with the macro lens. Most men, however, appeared to be with partners.

funny Your enthusiasm is SO infectious! I have to go!

Funnyperson is one of the most eloquent writers here on the sheer joy of growing things and making a garden (and the description of hunky men probably doesn't hurt!)

ah funnyperson thanks so much for all those old posts - so entertaining.
and also for the tip off re masterpiece - I have been obsessing over it all week....will wait until next year.

Mind if i join you? I love Chelsea. My family think I'm mad as I record all the coverage to watch when I can. Don't do anything garden related for the rest of the year.
You can vote for your favourite garden www.mumsnet.com/Talk/gardening/2381773-Chelsea-2015?msgid=54474483#54474483 this afternoon for the People's Choice award.