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.

Does anyone know what the foxglove in Chris Beardshaw's garden is? The planting list says Digitalis Alba, but as it's a pinky colour rather than white I think that's wrong!
Link to the garden here: www.rhs.org.uk/shows-events/rhs-chelsea-flower-show/exhibitors/2015/gardens/the-morgan-stanley-healthy-cities-garden

Sometimes they have to make last minute substitutions, if the original plants are not up to scratch - and the plant list would already be printed. Could that explain it?

Maybe - but I want to buy the one in the garden and I don't know what it is!

I heard several references to digitalis 'Apricot Illumination' (I think). Could it have been that?

Jeremy Bentham=ucl
The greenrememberedhills reminded me of the Ted Hughes poem not that the quote was from it. I suppose Houseman was 'blue remembered hills'' which made me think 'green into blue the hills run deep and limpid..." etc.

Oh when I say 'crush' I really mean admiration for their presentation and gardening skills. And personal skills. Some come across as more kindly than others.

I think the foxglove may be this one or its pink version.
www.crocus.co.uk/plants/_/digitalis-purpurea-dalmatian-peach--dalmatian-series/classid.2000019558/

Quiet gardening and paperwork day today gearing up for tomorrows Big Walk at the show. Trolleys have been found. Shoes have been identified. Meeting points have been arranged. A shopping list has been drawn up. I Am Ready. No camera though.

Yes, it's a beautiful quote funny - I'm glad you posted it! 'Limpid' is my word of the day.

I didn't mean to suggest there was anything wrong with crushes - I have a tendency towards crushiness (is that even a word?) so the absence of a garden crush is quite odd in my case.

I also LOVED on the coverage yesterday that the Cedric Morris iris guy named plants after his moggies, and they were called Benton Baggage and Benton Menace. I though the detective work that the rather wonderful Sarah Cook was doing to find them was amazing.

staceyandtracey what did you think of the flower show when you went yesterday?

I enjoyed all the science in todays programmes, also the look on the dark matter designers face when he sat next to the female scientist. He wasn't really coping socially. Rather sad really. Joe Swift is also a social disaster in my book. Oh well. Who am I to make such comments. Glasshouses and all that. Sue Biggs seems a good sort, the young 3 some were nice and the people's choice was brilliant. Monty remains my favourite. I know he isn't perfect but at least he isn't a backstabber like Joe. Fancy telling your co presenter in public that he might be too old for the job and want a rest. That is really bad manners.

No! Did Joe really tell Monty he's too old? Outrageous! And if we're getting into the realm of personal comments, Joe is too uncoof

I loved the science too. I was saying earlier today that I have a girl crush on Maggie Aderin Pocock.

brownieswithicecream I've just been through the bag of plant lists/leaflets acquired on Monday and Tuesday.

I had hoped the CB list might have had an addition, but it remains digitalis alba, with no addendums. Sorry not to be of any help.

Joe Swift was unbearably cocky at times but Monty slapped him down in the most gentlemanly way.
I adored the Asian garden with the beautiful orchids and stunning waterfalls.I don't think they won any awards though.One of the Asian designers was really funny and coy when being interviewed
I also loved the quirky cactus couple and her love for Chris Beardshaw.I could see them running a gardening programm all of their very own.
Dan Pearson's voice was mesmerising as well as his garden.

Sorry,I'm mistaken it won a gold medal - the Singapore 'hidden garden of kranji'.We're holidaying in Singapore this summer and are really looking forward to visiting the Domed gardens on Sentosa island - even the children.Hope it looks in parts like the Chelsea garden.
I really disliked the gardens with a preponderance of hard landscaping - too much slate and stained wood and white stone.But maybe these gardens just didn't translate well to television.

The show gardens are very beautiful in reality I felt really fortunate to be able to see them at the show. It is nice to have the tv coverage as one cant possibly see everything in a day!

Just spent a lovely morning catching up on the coverage. I enjoyed the science and the fact they are encouraging the next generation into horticulture. Loved Sparsholt College pub exhibit and like the idea of schools growing seed that has been into Space, will nudge DS's school on that.

Fair few ideas for my new shady border watching footage and some of the commentary has made me think more about the supporting cast as they put it. Enjoyed cactus couple am impressed they do it all from a 30 foot polytunnel.

What really came through watching this year is how all consuming the process is for the designers - highlighted by Dan Pearson coming back after a long break with something totally different (loved it) and the interview with Adam Frost and his lovely family. I hope he does stick to what he says, has a break from Chelsea to spend time with his family and concentrate on his Academy but comes back in a few years time.

One of the nicest things about buying plants from the nurseries in the marquee at sell off day yesterday was how healthy and well grown they were. I came away with a mahoosive Rachel de Thame lupin with lots of stems and new growth coming up from the base for my mother and when we watered it and put it in her border today she stared at it for a full 10 minutes before pronouncing that human beings could never match God in his creation! She loves pink.

The 4 foot show delphiniums from Blackmore and Langdon turned out to be in 5 litre pots! These were also brilliant as dad being red/green colour blind and partially sighted, even he could see them with their spires of blue from his bed through the window! They went well with the peonies.

The Wellington garden was so lovely as were the Rich brothers garden and the Chelsea Challenge garden and the Sentebele garden. It is nice to have the TV coverage as one can't possibly see everything but it is true that only when you see the gardens close up in real life do you realise what geniuses these gardeners are and how well deserved their medals are.

I felt a bit like a pleb going round an art gsllery though- you know 30 seconds per painting and all that. If the truth be told each garden could do with days of observation without getting tired and the stands in the marquee are just fantastic fleeting moments of observation don't do it justice. The BBC presenters did a really good job actually.

Dan Pearson garden waa a garden: a way of letting some wild plants be- like herb robert and buttercups- and planting others to grow like iris black aura.

I always feel sad on the Sunday after Chelsea, imagining all those beautiful gardens being dismantled.

I think more of the Show gardens this year are going on to have 'another life' elsewhere, from the coverage I have seen. (Last year I only knew of two - I could well be mistaken of course - which were Matt Keightley's WW1 garden and Patrick Collins' Garden for First Touch at St George's)

I love the thought of the gardens living on elsewhere.

Yes it is sad they are dismantled especially as even if one goes to the show one may not have seen all the gardens. i realise it is very hard work and a lot is very staged so the plants might die, but cant help feeling it would be nice to leave the gardens a little longer even f the marquee and the stalls go perhaps organise for watering to happen and they could be there for a month!.

Yes, it would be lovely if the gardens could be kept there longer but I guess the very wing and a prayer way some of them are planted may mean that they deteriorate too quickly for that. It does seem that more get reused or recycled every year, although I fear that there's still a lot of hard materials ending up in landfill (plants being composted I'm less worried about).

Pheasant - thanks for looking! And Mynight and Funny for your suggestions. I've decided to go with Dalmatian Peach and hope it looks ok.

Well I wondered what happened to the 43000 pieces of handcut slate not that I would have wanted any of it in my garden.
I would love the water features in the gardens!

I'm seeing where the people with cameras come from though as it is the only way to record Chelsea flower show for posterity.

Planting the plants excepted of course!

I'm a bit behind on the coverage, I've just watched Fridays, with the people's choice award.

Loved the science woman and her take on dark matter, pleased to see one of the gardens going to my local hospice. For those of you that got to go I am I'm going to persuade Dh to take me for my 50th which is quite soon

Your purchases funny sound wonderful.

My front garden is almost entirely stocked wth the spoils of a 2009 CFS garden. (I love it)

We have a slightly odd corten steel leftover in the back garden from last year. I have grown incredibly find of it!

There are also some luzula, peonies and camassia from CFS 2013.

I think of it as salvaging :-)

FOND not find, sorry!

I am all in favour of scavenging. I'd hate to think that all that slate ended up in landfill. Surely economics alone would dictate that they'd try to sell it on?

Forgive me if I've overlooked something you said earlier, PheasantPlucker - are you a CFS insider?

I really like the idea of the gardens living on and I hope this is something we see a lot more of in the future, to the extent that it nearly becomes standard for the majority of the show gardens . Lovely for people to take home a bit on sell off day though and I guess to some extent they do live on spread over many many gardens and people's memories.

Do go for your birthday Geoff, it is well worth the trip. But if possible join the RHS and go on Members day. We noticed a fair difference between going Wednesday one year and Saturday the next in terms of the quality of the flowers. Coach was very easy from down here as you walk round the corner from Victoria Coach station and there is a bus that then takes you straight there.