Chelsea 2015

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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.

Wrong link!!
Try this one.

Still the wrong link.
This should work.

erm....this link might be the one you mean, pantsalive
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/2QKl4tL2FhrGdWy1b4WyGrM/vote-here-for-the-garden-you-think-should-win-the-bbc-rhs-peoples-choice-award-2015
I am keeping my vote secret Not, alas, that there is even a remote chance of there being a conflict of interest!

I am voting for James Basson's Provence Garden (Show) and Fernando Gonzalez's Pure Land Foundation (Fresh)

Thanks for reminding me that the voting opens today!

I loved the perfumers garden in Grasse - perhaps it was the really knarly old Rosemary - God knows where they got it from, it must have been at least 15 years old.

Sorry - that's the one I meant!
I loved his Fresh Garden 'After The Fire' in 2013 too, which he did with his wife, Helen.

I loved Chelsea BUT it is very crowded - perhaps it's easier to see everything on the telly (partly because you can't actually walk round the gardens).

That's the conclusion I came to, CruCru. Chelsea is so crowded that (for me) it defeats the object of going - as a short person, I get a better view on the telly.

Yes it's great, that garden. Funny person, I'm a bit of a fair weather April-October gardener, but I always look forward to your posts when I'm back.

Did you buy those old fashioned violas yet?

Well yes I have got some old fashioned violas as it happens!
green remembered your name reminds me of the end of a Ted Hughes poem ("This is a birthplace picture. Green into blue The hills run deep and limpid.....")
I really enjoyed Monty and Andrew Marr on telly today: the Marr show is a part of our family Sunday, and the Mondrian garden is my favourite on the box mainly because I have always liked Monrian and I think the garden is a brilliant exposition. Chris B talking about Lupins was bril. It is so nice to have all these gardening programmes! The BBC are doing a really good job for us at home IMO.

Well yes I have got some old fashioned violas as it happens!
green remembered your name reminds me of the end of a Ted Hughes poem ("This is a birthplace picture. Green into blue The hills run deep and limpid.....")
I really enjoyed Monty and Andrew Marr on telly today: the Marr show is a part of our family Sunday. In fact we knew when my dad was ill because he couldn't watch the Marr show so we called the doctor. We really admire the way he has carried on even whilst affected badly, and the Mondrian garden is my favourite on the box mainly because I have always liked Mondrian and I think the garden is a brilliant exposition. I don't think it is chance that so many of the VIP visitors have liked to sit in it for a while. It is the garden I would most like to have at home. I was so glad Monty was gently encouraging Marr to slow down a little.
However I voted for Chris B in my people's choice award vote because he created a stunning community garden, and watching him talking about Lupins was bril.
It is so nice to have all these gardening programmes! The BBC are doing a really good job for us at home IMO. Though I do feel sorry for Carol stuck in the tent.

sorry double post

Interesting, I assumed it was a Housman reference! (But green hills, not blue!)

I voted Jo Thompson for people's choice, coz I felt so bad she didn't get a gold.

That Kazuyuki Ishihara is a phenomenon. His gardens are unbelievably stunning.

As a bit of a Chelsea Veteran I'll let you into a secret: go on Wednesday morning at 8am via the Bull Ring entrance. Tuesday at 8am there are billions of keen gardeners waiting to get in: Wednesday visitors are a bit more laid back and tend to have an extra hour or so in bed. On arrival go straight to whichever bits you want to see most and they will be very uncrowded. So you have to choose between Artisan Gardens (where Purbeck Ice Cream is waiting for you), Show Gardens or Marquee. We did Marquee first this year, it must be a bit like how it is for the Queen. Spacious, cool, lots of people wanting to talk to you, and the pick of the stuff for sale (exhibitors can now sell pre-packed selections of small plants, like you get mail order.)

Have a plan for the rest of the day, get the good bits done asap and go home at lunchtime because after that it does get a bit zoo like.

Repeat annually.

Dan Pearson is getting my vote this year - his garden wasn't half bad either.

Now, for me, blue remembered hills is a Dennis Potter reference.

That's an intriguing tip about going to Chelsea on the Wednesday. I still think I'd prefer to watch it on the telly - yesterday's programmes were especially good - and spend the ticket money on plants, but maybe ...

Ha ha, yes, it is an A E Housman reference! Although his were blue as well. I think Potter was referring to Houseman. Well, anyway, mine are green, at least most of the year.

My secret crushes gardener wise are Monty and Diarmaid Gavin. The gardener who made me smile most (in writing, though) was David Lloyd, who died a few years ago in his eighties.

takes notes for next year on Chelsea strategy

I have two (not very serious) questions:

1. In terms of plantsmanship (not design, not landscaping) how big do you think the difference is between the quality of the plants at Chelsea and the quality that can be achieved by a good gardener in an ordinary garden that has to last more than a week?

1. Why do they keep playing Meaghan Trainor 'Lips are Moving' over the TV coverage? Is it intended as a subtle insult to the person whose story is being covered?

high fives greenremembered for Housman

(I suspect that Hughes, Potter and all of em were also referencing Shropshire Lad. When I was doing my PhD - which is a seriously miserable experience o the whole - a band of comrades and I used to sneak into the Housman room at the uni, where there was a staff-only bar with squashy sofas, nice art and seriously discounted drinks. I can remember crying with laughter so often, so Housman is always associated with this feeling of happiness, even at his most melancholy.

Though we did nearly get expelled when we had far too much one day and decided to take the autoicon of Jeremy Bentham in the corridor outside to the pub of the same name. We got as far as the gates before the porters descended).

My (not so) secret gardener crush would be Cleve West I think.

And my old man, who works in the same field (or garden!)

Oh yes, Potter was referencing Housman, but one of the (many) gaps in my knowledge of literature is Housman, so the Potter link is more meaningful for me.

I do have a horticultural crush on Monty, but was bereft when Geoff Hamilton died. When I was even more of a novice gardener than I am now, he was like my kindly uncle, giving me weekly tips on how to knock my garden into shape.

Maud - oh, you express it perfectly! That's how I felt too. One of the few times where I've cried when a 'celebrity' died.

I think Chris Beardshaw is very handsome, but it doesn't extend to a crush. I don't really fancy any of the gardeners, even though I realise some of them are gorgeous. Maybe it's because gardening is a bit of an emotional refuge for me at the moment, and that would be to complicate it!

I do have tremendous admiration (girl crush?) for the women gardeners out there, working at the top level and holding their own.

A team of three women (Sarah Jarman, Arit Anderson and Anna Murphy) won the 'RHS Fresh Talent' award in 2013. I would love to see them back. They were mentored by Sarah Eberle.

I didn't cry over GH but I did feel very sad and it was a long time before GW felt right without him. (I was also bereft when Frank Sinatra died, although I never deluded myself he was an avuncular figure).

I have tremendous admiration for Carol Klein, as she is such a plantswoman.

I love Carol Klein!