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Brewin Dolphin Garden, Cleve West, Joe Swift, Lysimachia 'Beaujolais', M&G Garden, RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2104

© 2014 Ian Curley

Of all the RHS flower shows it is Chelsea where the gardens feature the most prominently. For some people they receive too much attention with reams of copy in the newspapers and the seemingly endless dissecting on TV. I have to admit that I do find certain elements of the coverage veers towards navel gazing and pretentiousness but I think this is inevitable when garden designers are discussing their contemporaries. It’s not just gardening which is guilty of this. Take a look at some of the food programmes on the TV at the moment and you’ll see the strange phenomenon whereby chefs are achieving a god-like status. And does anyone actually manage to sit through more than 10 minutes of any of those awards ceremonies without feeling nauseous? For me though, the gardens make Chelsea special.

The show gardens along Main Avenue are the starry element to the event. These are the haute couture of the gardening world. For most of us they are fantasy gardens but not for everybody. The Nancy Dell’Olio lookalike who stood next to me as we both looked towards The Telegraph Garden proceeded to tell the retinue around her that her own garden would look pretty much exactly like this by the end of the summer. It’s easy to dismiss these gardens as purely window dressing just as many do with catwalk fashion but just as the clothes we wear are influenced by the top fashion designers, their ideas filtering down to the high street, so do the trends, designs and plants used in the show gardens. I do shudder at the thought of how much money is spent on the large gardens but Chelsea has become a shop window for the best in British garden design.

I think the controversy that’s sparked every year when the medals are announced is fantastic. Why did so-and-so get a silver-gilt and not a gold, particularly when what’s-he-called got Best in Show? If the judges award more than 5 golds they’re being too generous, any less and they’re being too strict. I feel desperately for anyone who receives a silver or, even worse, a bronze. All that hard work and then you have to put on the brave face and say the medal doesn’t matter because the public love it. In reality we all know that if you go to all the trouble of putting yourself forward to design a garden you want silver-gilt at the very least. Or is that just my competitive streak talking?

Patrick Collins’ ‘A Garden for First Touch at St George’s’ – Chelsea 2014 © 2014 Ian Curley

I thought there was a lot to like about this year’s Chelsea gardens. Patrick Collins’ ‘A Garden for First Touch at St. George’s Hospital’ used the old rock bank and I loved the contrast his garden, built on a slope, provided to the relative flatness of the other show gardens. The planting was stunning, as was the use of the rusty steel, and it was one of the gardens which I felt offered realistic inspiration to your average gardener.

Matthew Childs’ Brewin Dolphin Garden received a silver-gilt but I really can’t see why he didn’t get a gold. Beautiful planting, stunning features and a joy to look at.

Cleve West’s M&G Garden. I love it from this angle. © 2014 Ian Curley

I’m a huge fan of Cleve West and was hugely looking forward to seeing his Persian inspired garden for M&G. Strangely though the garden didn’t have the impact I thought it would. It was beautifully executed and had fabulous planting but the front part of the garden which represented the dry, arid areas of the Iranian landscape slightly jarred. The odd thing was when I got home and looked through Wellyman’s photos it all seemed to work. Wellyman and I both came to the conclusion that the garden worked as a whole when viewed from certain points but not others.

The Rich brothers and their ‘A Night Sky Garden’ – Chelsea 2014′ © 2014 Ian Curley

The Rich brothers designed a fantastic artisan garden last year so I was looking forward to seeing their first show garden and I wasn’t disappointed. They take their inspiration from the landscape around their home in the Brecon Beacons, a place I know well. I loved the natural planting, the lack of bling and the idea that the garden will be used after Chelsea at an autistic centre in Cardiff.

The Telegraph Garden – Chelsea 2014 – I like the shot of colour here from Gladiolus byzantinus. © 2014 Ian Curley

The Telegraph Garden just didn’t do it for me, it was just too slick for my liking. Everyone seemed so taken with the pristine lawn but it just looked so green it could have been fake. Aren’t these types of lawns a little old-fashioned now anyway – a monoculture needing way too much attention, often of the chemical kind, and offering no real benefits to our native wildlife? Of all the gardens it felt the most corporate, the one which would appeal most to a city banker. It’s the type of garden I’d like to see less of at Chelsea. The geometric layout of Luciano Giubbilei’s Laurent Perrier Garden didn’t appeal but the planting was superb. A cool palette of creams, lemons and greens provided a nice contrast to the berry colours of reds and purples in evidence elsewhere.

Anchusa azurea ‘Loddon Royalist’ – Chelsea 2014 © 2014 Ian Curley

And that takes me to a point that has slightly niggled me for the last few years. The similarity in planting really can’t be a coincidence. Last year you couldn’t get stirred for cow parsley. Now I love a bit of frothy planting but I wouldn’t expect to see it on every garden. This year it was the turn of irises, aquilegia and Lysimachia ‘Beaujolais’. I know it’s spring and there are certain plants which are at their best now but the fact that the same plants, in the same colours turn up on different gardens is just a bit odd. Perhaps not so odd when you see that the gardens which shared the similar planting were all supplied by the same plant nursery. In the past it has been dismissed as ‘great minds think alike’ but, at last, Joe Swift suggested last night on the TV that it might well have something to do with nurseries presenting the designers with plants that will be at their peak for Chelsea week. The plum and claret colours I saw this year were really inspirational and I’m already thinking about ways I can incorporate them into my cut flower patch but perhaps for the gardens to be truly distinctive the issue of plant suppliers needs to be addressed.

 

 

How to Survive a Flower Show

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Carol Klein, Chelsea Flower Show, Joe Swift, Malvern Spring Show, RHS Flower Shows, Terry Walton

The flower show season is now in full swing, with Cardiff, the first, in mid-April and the prestigious Chelsea only a week away. This weekend was the turn of Malvern. Not too far from my home, the showground is set below the stunning Malvern Hills, which run like a spine through the Worcestershire countryside. It had been a while since our first visit, long before we had a garden of our own, so we thought it was about time we returned and on Saturday morning, under cloudless skies we set off. After a detour to buy some sun-cream. I know, would you believe it?

‘Best in Show’ winners Cacti-growing Specialists Southfields Nursery

Flower shows are big events on a grand scale, with huge marquees where plant nurseries display their wares, creating stands to show off their plants to their best and competing for a RHS medal and the ultimate ‘Best in Show’ award. Outside the marquees you’ll find row upon row of trade stands selling everything horticultural and more besides. At Malvern there was a botanical art exhibition; talks from allotment guru Terry Walton and TV presenters Carol Klein and Joe Swift and a multitude of independent food producers with tasty treats to sample and buy. You could see stunning floral art designs and artisan craft producers from jewellers to furniture makers. For the uninitiated shows like this can seem a little daunting with so much to see and buy, it can all be a bit overwhelming, so here are a few tips on how survive a flower show.

A gorgeous display of Sweet peas

Firstly, get there early to beat the crowds. Shows seem to get very busy by lunchtime. If you can get there as the gates open you won’t have to queue to get into the car park and queue to get your ticket and if you want to take photos it’s your chance to get some images without people walking into shot.

If you’ve followed my first tip then make the most popular attractions your first port of call. The show gardens and floral marquees can be hard to see once the crowds have built up. Don’t worry about the plant stands running out of stock. The nurseries come well prepared.

There are plenty of places to get some food and drink but if you want to save your money for shopping and a few extra plants it might be worth bringing some of your own sustenance. Don’t however eat your lunch whilst wandering around the plant exhibits. It’s rather off-putting to discover someone chomping on their potent smelling sandwich right near your ear, whilst you’re deciding whether or not purchase a delicate little Saxifrage. I apologise to the nursery owner for the lost purchase but I couldn’t linger. It was the equivalent of being trapped on a bus next to a Big Mac eater!!

Alchemy Gardens and Villagio Verde Silver-Gilt Medal Winners and their show garden Un Poco de Hogar (A Little bit of Home)

Bring some cash and a cheque book (yes they still have a use) as not all the exhibitors have access to card machines. Don’t worry if you run out of ready money though and you just can’t say no to the 8ft tall wooden giraffe, there are on site cash machines.

Beautifully displayed carnivorous plants exhibit

You can rack up quite a bit of mileage wandering around the showground so wear comfy shoes. This is not the place to worry about fashion. The celebs who will attend Chelsea next week may turn up in the latest wedges or towering heels but I bet they won’t walk much further than the Pimms tent. Wellies maybe necessary if it has been wet as thousands of feet on muddy ground can very quickly turn it into a quagmire. Heeled cowboy boots are not recommended if the limping lady walking past us, as we were leaving, was anything to go by.

And finally, remember to enjoy the experience. Use it as a day to be inspired and to acquire some goodies. The sites are large and it takes some stamina and leg work to see everything. Pace yourself and sit and watch the world go by, and a surprising amount of extendable mops (it really is amazing what you can buy at these places). Treating it as a military campaign may not make for the most satisfying day out, certainly not for the partner of the lady who marched past me shouting to her trailing companion that the plants she wanted were over there, pulling her already laden trolley behind her. He dutifully followed with a weary look on his face and the show had only been open an hour. If you have got an extensive list of must-buys make use of the on-site porter and plant creche services.

With Chelsea, Gardeners’ World Live, Hampton Court and Tatton all still to come there are plenty of opportunities to visit a flower show this year. For more information on the RHS show programme.