Anyone else following RHS Chelsea?

[starlingdarling]

I am obsessed with the giant water feature from Sarah Eberle (see photo). Every year I'm amazed by how much they can do in the smaller gardens too. I wonder what their budget is?

While some of the gardens would translate into real gardens (and indeed some are moved to permanent homes after the show) some are pure theatre (the Leeds canal lock being a case in point). What is astonishing about those gardens is the attention to detail - that every piece of moss or lichen on a dry stone wall, every weed growing through a crack that make the scene so realistic has been deliberately placed or planted there - so it looks as if it has been there forever when in fact it was put up in a week and will have disappeared without a trace the following week. In fact it's not the hard standing that I find spectacular - building a wall or a path or a shelter - it's the huge trees that are transported to the site and look to all intents and purposes as if they have been growing there forever, as if they were seeded there.

OK now I want Sicilian Honey Garlic too. Yours is flowering now, so same ish time as other alliums? How tall is it, I see 60-90 cm is that correct?

Yes - it's about as tall as the Purple Sensation alliums with some small variety between each plant, and flowers about the same time as the PS - maybe just a few days behind. (60-90cm is accurate).

The bees love it too, as it's open so easy for them to get to the pollen.

Thanks so much, RockAndOrRoll ! They're in my Farmer Gracy basket right now! and I'm wondering what else I need

Lynne Benfield Malvern is one show that I’ve not been to, it’s in the diary for next year.
Did I just notice centranthus growing in pots at the presenters feet. I love them, they grow all up the sides of my drive. Some people think they’re weeds and get rid of them.

I love this as well, started growing it about 4 years ago and it’s slowly multiplying.

Oh oh oh oh I’ve got one honey garlic in a vase after the squirrel decapitated it.

i didn’t know that’s what it was, I must have got the bulbs in my poundland half price bulb raid a few years ago.
it’s very pretty!

Do the pensioners get to go after hours?

Yes, there is a generous allocation (it's their back garden, after all!) for those who wear the scarlet, plus an allocation for their guests and for Royal Hospital staff. At least some of those are after hours tickets

I think some of the gardens are becoming a little far fetched tbh pushing too many boundaries.

I have wanted to visit but the arial shots on the beeb have made it look so packed you'd never see a stand or exhibit

”Wild flower gardens etc but putting a faux beaver dam or canal is several steps on from that (to be expected perhaps, in a showpiece).” You’re right, of course. But if you came across something like the Leeds garden next to a lock keepers cottage, I think you’d be quite happy to call it a garden. Maybe the rewilding garden was saying “nature can be beautiful, you don’t have to replace it by manicured bushes and plants from foreign climates”? Though the beaver dam is pushing it. No matter how wildlife friendly I make my garden, it’s not going to be visited by a beaver (nor a red squirrel, for that matter)

The thing I don't get about the Beaver Garden et al is that they bring in the landscape and the gnawed sticks, for that air of authenticity... but then they erase any damage from any other pests. So no slug eaten leaves, no aphids as that would get them marked down.

Like that donkey garden from a couple of years ago when they lefgninnthe 'donkey footprints' but erased the human footprints.

That is my struggle with Chelsea overall really, the artifice. I'd like the gardens to be a bit less 'perfect' and to not reject plants for a slight nibble or break or for not being in full flower. But then the perfection could reign in the floral pavilion where the individual plants are being shown off.

Though the beaver dam is pushing it. No matter how wildlife friendly I make my garden, it’s not going to be visited by a beaver (nor a red squirrel, for that matter)

Neither will mine but my friend up in Northumberland has red squirrels visiting her garden. I'm very very jealous.

We went this year. Just got back home today (we went Thursday). I love gardening, plants, anything horticulture. It's been my dream to go and I'd originally booked to go 2020 which was cancelled so I was really looking forward to it.

To be honest, I doubt I'll be going next year...

Basically, it was just too too busy. Six deep around the edges of the show gardens so had to queue to see anything. So difficult to move even up and down the main avenue because of the crowds.

Food was pricey which I guess was to be expected (330ml standard bottle water was £3.50). Long queues for food but then no-where to sit down. Ended up eating lunch stood up which wasn't ideal. We had been there over 6 hours and I was knackered so we sat on a kerb to have a coffee.

It is also a bit smaller than I expected. The stalls were nice consisting of the usual brands that you'd find advertised in the back of aspirational gardening and lifestyle magazines.

I enjoyed speaking to some of the nurserymen and women in the pavilion, there was a lot of knowledge and passion there which really made it worth it. I also managed to buy some unusual varieties of miniature Hosta which I could take home on the plane.

Other RHS Flower shows seemed far better value for money. Whilst the show gardens were perhaps better at Chelsea, that is little use if you can barely see the gardens.

I would prefer that RHS either gave time slots for tickets so people were spread out a bit across the day, or increased the price of the ticket but allowed fewer entrants, or even reduce the number of tickets sold per day and then run it for a couple of extra days.

They can't really run it for longer because

a) things start to wilt
b) time taken to dismantle and the Royal Hospital having other event bookings - there isn't much wiggle room! Also RHS staff will be moving on the the next, and the exhibitors will be prepping or all the rest of the summer shows (not just RHS, all the big ones)

It's definitely a victim of its success. There's less in the marquee than there used to be (to allow space for crowds). I thought there were more corporate boxes this year, and fewer of the small exhibition gardens in the Ranelagh Gardens part of the site - more commercial stands instead. I'm hoping some of that is temporary - getting in the retailers to help re-fill post-covid coffers

Oh the plus side, also more loos

I went this year and it was amazing. The smells
are amazing.

What channel or catch up is this on please ?

It's on BBC iPlayer

@mpsw Thank you 👍

I went this year and as stunning and beautiful as it was it was far too crowded. The pavilion was probably the highlight, the David Austen rose stand smelt divine.

I didn't get to enjoy or appreciate the outdoor gardens much as the crowds around them made it difficult.

For the price you pay including food and travel I definitely don't think it's worth it. The angling on the television gave me a very different expectation to reality. There wasn't much place to sit which was difficult on a hot day, standing for so long.

I'm glad it's off my bucket list though I've always wanted to visit. The lupins everywhere were spectacular as was the peony display.

Couldn't go this time round, but one thing you can't get from the television coverage is the incredible fragrant smell that hits you like a sledgehammer as you walk into the pavilion. Nothing else like it.

Some friends of mine have won a gold medal, so thrilled for them, typically I missed them on telly!

I'm up to episode 7 (Wednesday) on iplayer. Does anyone know if the Cloud Gardener who was on Gardeners World is shown in an episode? I'd like to have seen the garden featured in the programme. (The guy who recreated his 18th floor balcony.) I know the Queen spoke to him so I hoped to see his garden in that episode.

@CoralBells I don't know if he's been on the BBC programmes as I've not been watching but he does have his own YouTube channel.

Thanks @Chishnfips
I'm watching him on episode 8 on iplayer now 🙂

I've been away, missed some on tv and would like to watch Thursday evening's episode on catchup - anyone know which episode that is please?

anyone know which episode that is please?
Episode 9

I think that Chelsea doesn't do it for me because it's like haute couture. It may look fabulous (actually it looks ridiculous, mostly) on a six foot, size zero, teenage model but what relevance does it have to my life? Similarly what relevance is Chelsea to my sandy soil, shady borders and pest-eaten plants?