Chelsea thoughts?

[CountingCrones]

I enjoy the annual coverage, watching trends develop, seeing new plants and planting combinations.

Although I understand austerity is the reason, radical reduction in the number of show gardens is a shame as a viewer. I love to see them.

I particularly like the timber benches and masses of colour in The Octavia Hill Garden. The garden built to handle floods and heavy rains was another very striking idea.

Anyone else’s impressions? Any lucky souls visiting it?

Hello CountingCrones,

I’m off to the show on Friday.

Happy gardening
TheSustainableGardener

I really struggle with Chelsea. It's like the Instagram of gardening.

The presenters repeatedly talk about sustainability and environmental friendliness, but it must have such a high environmental cost to built and transport all the gardens. The first BBC programme coverage showed masses of plastic pots in every garden they covered. I know some of the gardens then have permanent homes elsewhere, but the transport effort for that must be huge.

I'm thinking I'm glad I decided not to go, the weather isn't exactly ideal.

The tv coverage irritates me; they spend too much airtime on show gardens and interviewing every random celebrity in sight, but not enough about everything else.

Share a photo or two if you get the chance - I'd love to hear what it's like in person.

@Uncooperativefingers - be fair, Chelsea predates Instagram by about 100 years! I

t's one of the main fundraisers for the RHS, inspires countless gardeners across the country and has put a lot of effort into sustainability and biodiversity in the past 10 years or so. The RHS has been a crucial part of the campaign for peat free gardening.

In wealthier times, my local authority regularly submitted show gardens. They are now in parks across the city and have been providing joy and tranquility to locals for decades. I definitely believe those gardens can have incredibly useful lives after the show.

As ever, I like some of the ideas, but I'm always left wondering who can afford a garden like that, and what do the show gardens look like after a summer of neglect/kids/dogs/bad weather.
And I'd also like to ask who has a balcony as big as those in the balcony category at Chelsea. Room for 3 tree ferns and a seating area? Yeah, right.

I know it predates Instagram. But has definitely been "Instagram-ified".

And your comments about "efforts in sustainability" are sort of what I mean: I suspect there is an awful lot of green washing going on.

They still haven't banned peat for show grown plants (and won't until 2026). Concrete is still widely used, with the odd garden being highlighted as "concrete-free", but that is by exception. And, as I say, the mounds of plastic pots was awful to see.

I enjoy watching Chelsea every year. I've always wanted to go but been put off by the thoughts of the crowds and the fact you can't go on the show gardens anyway so the views are restricted. For now I enjoy watching it from the comfort of my home!

I love the National Garden Scheme show garden with the winding paths and those beautiful multi stem trees. I wasn't so keen on Carol Klein's yellow and green spotty suit (but I love her regardless!)

I really hope they’re not going to keep showing that houseplant garden in every programme. They’ve done it to death already and it’s only Wednesday afternoon.

I love the Tom Massey garden for Wateraid.

I've found the coverage I've seen pretty depressing to be honest, but that might just be my general mindset. It makes gardening seem soulless to me, what with "must have" plants and what I'd call "concept garden design", plus all the unnatural flowering times and obsessive control over the plants.

Like a previous poster, I'm pretty tired of the constant sustainability chat considering how wasteful the show and industry is as a whole. I worked in a small family-run plant nursery and was gobsmacked at the amount of healthy plants and plastic being thrown away. Even staff weren't allowed to "rescue" them to take home.

I'm also fed up of being told by baby boomers like Monty that having a tiny space is no barrier to gardening or growing food. It's patronising to try and get younger people on board by romanticising our financial misfortune.

The year I went, I must have taken about 300 photos. That year I also recorded all the tv programmes and watched the lot. I reckon that about 95% of what I saw and had photographed never made it anywhere near telly, even in the background of a shot.

Oh and the peat-free thing, they'll have trouble bringing that rule in, especially for some of the really old mature plants & trees, because how could they ever be able to either know or be able to prove it? Also for specialist plants that only grow in that sort environment, what happens there?

It is all very well them banging on about peat-free, but the industry has yet to find a quality, reliable alternative in the quantities needed for commercial growers, let alone the general public.

the show gardens look pretty similar with their planting - lots of white flowers , silver birch, cottage garden plants, woodland themes.
I think they look great but the variety is limited this year imo

and why was Monty cross about the young woman from Slovakia (iirc) winning Best in Show? Her garden had a gold medal and I thought lovely - but he made a pointed comment about the judging being too tick box and not enough creativity. Was it because it was too (dare I say it) boring?
He wanted one of the Tom's to win.

I'm also fed up of being told by baby boomers like Monty that having a tiny space is no barrier to gardening or growing food. It's patronising to try and get younger people on board by romanticising our financial misfortune Yes, especially when they then go on warble about cut-and-come-again salad leaves and herbs. A couple of handfuls of salad and oregano for a few months doesn’t equate to “growing food”. It’s a lovely treat now and then, and worth doing, but doesnt make much of a dent in what you need to buy in

Also for specialist plants that only grow in that sort environment, what happens there? Interestingly, they’ve found some of the peat bog insectivores actually grow better in peat free

Agree - they talk good on sustainability and biodiversity.

But this show is really hostile to the environment - everything is grown (with many duplicates in case) to be at peak during show week, whether that's it's natural time or not. Trees are hired and transplanted there for a week, then dug up again. Hard landscaping is created then dismantled. For every bit that is donated after, there's oodles that's just scrapped. Loads of vehicle journeys - for construction, exhibitors, staff and visitors. This year it's raining, but on a dry year, the water consumption is colossal.

And just as the lawn that's there the rest of the year begins to recover (usually replanted so single species grass, not the typical diverse mix found in normal lawns), it's time to rip it all up again

It is meant to be the acme of horticultural shows, but it's very, very greenwashed

We're going Saturday when the weather is supposed to be lovely. It's a once in a life time thing for me, I've been to Hampton Court once and am looking forward to going to Chelsea once - but then that will be me done.

If you're looking for something to put in a salad/sandwich then forget cut and come again and grow Giant Red Mustard leaves - they give a really good crop and are so easy to grow.

I came on here to say that.Brave of them to criticise the judges.

The best garden I've seen on the Chelsea coverage was the actual community garden Anne-Marie Powell visited. A proper garden, all long grass, floppy apple trees, bug hotels and bird feeders made from scrap by kids, people enjoying growing real plants with wonky leaves. Heaven.

I went to Malvern recently - half a dozen small show gardens and a thousand stalls selling things. It was like paying £30 to get into a market.

I enjoy the coverage but I don’t get the sustainability aspect either, it makes no sense!

Wear comfortable shoes, take water, paracetamol, notepad & pencil, and get there before it opens. You'll then have a reasonable window to look round the show gardens before the hordes arrive and stand there 6 deep. Once you've done the show gardens, go and get a coffee before everyone else does! While you're drinking it you can look at the map in the programme and locate what else you would like to see.Then you can take the rest of the day to wander about in a casual manner. If they are doing something to camera, avoid that bit and go back later when the rubberneckers have gone.

Great advice from DrJoneslpresume,

In the past I have taken small 75cl bottles of frozen mineral water to the show which serves to keep a packed lunch cold and it a refreshing drink as it melts.

I went yesterday, it was lovely despite the rain! We did the show gardens first and the one that won gold was really special and felt very peaceful despite very similar planting to a few of the others. It is difficult to see them, but if you persist and shuffle along you can get to the front to take photos and get hold of a plant list. I loved Anne-Marie Powell's garden too, quite a few plants in there I intend to buy.

Once the rain started we spent most of the day in the pavilion and that was also lovely, in a different way. Take antihistamines if you need them! I forgot and started sneezing as soon as I walked in 😂I thought the David Austen stand was surprisingly poor this year, very little variety and all a bit of a mess. Loved the big clematis stand and the hostas and proteas.

I must admit I also like the stalls - I love a nice bit of gardening tat. Sarah Raven's stall was very pretty, and I lusted over many greenhouses. Did some good celeb spotting too, saw all the BBC people except Monty, also Trinny and an actress I can't quite place. I love watching a bit of filming, it's so interesting to see how much goes into a few minutes of TV. Francis Tophill looked bored out of her mind until the cameras were rolling.

I've been to Chelsea once before and Hampton Court a couple of times. Wouldn't go every year, but it's a nice treat. This was my first rainy one and it was quite hard work.

Wasn’t impressed with the coverage of the NAS living with autism masking garden. Monty had clearly done zero research and spectacularly missed the meaning of it. The AIDS and water gardens had loads of info on the reasons for the gardens and gushing. Expected better from the BBC.

I don’t have a problem with Chelsea not being environmentally friendly but more with every day gardening-all those millions of plastic pots and trays, huge plastic bags of compost, plastic containers for fertiliser.
Little effort to reduce this.
i try to grow from seed more and use minimal bags of compost.

I first went in 2000 and have been twice since - really enjoyed it but was lucky with the weather each time and the amount of time we were able to spend there.

I think this years tv coverage is the worst - so repetitive,

I would really like to sit and walk around Mr Ishihara's garden - so sad he didn't receive a gold medal as in my humble opinion from tv viewing it's beautiful (when I saw his gardens in the years I visited I was mesmerised each tine as they were just stunning).

I’ve been to Chelsea many times and always enjoy it. The tv coverage I find quite dull. Way too many interviews on niche subjects or with people who don’t have the skills to be on tv.

Gardening is very subject to fashion and fads. The current ‘righteous’ gardening fashion is very tedious. I remember when there were show gardens at Chelsea with Mediterranean planting, jungle plants, unashamedly contemporary schemes- now it’s all about subdued blues and whites, forest bathing, stagnant ponds, mindfulness. There isn’t enough variety. The charity agenda has become more important than the gardening and design element. The only memorable garden this year was the Water Aid one, and even that was a bit bare.

I wish they had a ‘front and back of terraced house’ category, as this is all that the majority of gardeners have to work with. It would be so useful to get inspiration in a more practical setting.

I agree they should ease off the coverage on house plants, anyone can Google how to look after a house plant - it isn’t gardening and there is no design involved.