Chelsea 2008 - A Personal Perspective

I had never been to Chelsea before – I hate crowds! A friend of mine goes every year and has her own way of getting the most out of the visit. It involves getting up with the birds, getting on a train early enough for there still to be a seat and arriving at Chelsea just before the gates open. That’s the way to do it – but I don’t want everyone to know otherwise it will spoil it for me next year!

It was possible to get up close and personal with all the gardens and we could wander around the perimeters at our leisure, taking photos from any angle we liked. I have to admit that few of the gardens this year had the wow factor for me. Don’t get me wrong. They were beautiful and amazing and I love green but did find myself yearning for a splash of colour. You couldn’t get two more opposite gardens for colour than the Laurent-Perrier Garden (sponsored by Laurent-Perrier UK Ltd) designed by Tom Stuart-Smith (Best in Show) and From Life to Life, A Garden for George (sponsored by The Material World Charitable Foundation and Olivia Harrison) designed by Yvonne Innes.

Tom Stuart-Smith’s design of paths winding between cloud-pruned hornbeams underplanted with predominantly green herbaceous planting with only the occasional white flower adding highlight resulted in a very calm and tranquil space. The use of zinc tanks brimming with dark water that silently overflowed enhanced the contemplative mood.

In complete contrast Yvonne Innes’ garden hits the visual sense head on. The area representing the psychedelic ‘60s has nothing subtle about its colour scheme with oranges, purples, pinks and yellows all vying for attention. However even this changes to something more subtle. At the end of the bright path through the garden is a beautiful ornate pavilion for contemplating the world surrounded by subdued and perfumed planting.

My favourite Show Garden was The Savills Garden (sponsored by Savills plc) designed by Philip Nixon. I happen to love geometric shapes in a garden and Philip used these to perfection both on the horizontal and vertical planes to give a sense of framing. His inspiration came from how galleries and museums display pieces of work and I particularly loved the tall grassy heads that gave the illusion of being ‘painted’ on to large white panels. Planting was more colourful than some gardens but the palette was kept to a minimum with green, white and pink dominating.

After we’d taken hundreds of photos of the main gardens we moved onto the smaller Urban and Courtyard gardens. It was still quite early in the morning and again although the crowds were beginning to build it was possible to move around more or less unhindered and I was keen to see the garden designed by Adam Frost and built by his own company, New Ground Landscapes. It had won Best in Show and having attended two courses at Barnsdale Gardens (Garden Design and Construction) jointly run by Adam along with David Stevens I wanted to see first hand the results of his hard work. Again it had my vote as it was very geometric and if more front gardens looked like this one the world would be a better place. The use of texture and colour in both the hard landscaping and planting was excellent and water travelling from the house through pools towards the front of the garden added sound and movement.

Two other gardens that seemed to be attracting interest and a lot of questions from visitors were the Green Living garden designed by Phillippa Probert of Outer Spaces and Urban Rain designed by Bob Latham of Bamboo Garden Design. Both incorporated living green walls that added an extra dimension to the space. This type of planting is becoming increasingly popular, now being seen on the side of large city buildings across the world. These two gardens proved they can look just as good in much smaller locations.

Before moving on to the Courtyard Gardens, that are located a little away from the main show garden area, we decided to take a stroll around The Great Pavilion while it was still more or less empty. Now here was colour – a whole kaleidoscope of it! But it’s not only the eyes that have a lot to take in, it’s the nose too. All those flowers under one roof produces a wonderful aroma but I have to say the best of all came from the Ken Muir Ltd stand whose display of strawberries produced a bouquet that made me want to reach for a dish, spoon and some cream. Unfortunately none were to be had but I hope the strawberries I’m growing at home make me feel the same way later in the year.

After a quick snack break we headed for the Courtyard Gardens. One that caught my eye did so not because of the planting or design but simply because of the craftsmanship needed to build a crofter’s house. It is often hard at Chelsea to believe that the walls and buildings that seem so permanent are only there for the Show. The Motor Neurone Disease – Shetland Croft House Garden designed by Sue Hayward Garden Designs (sponsored by Martin Anderson, Shetland Islands Council) won the BBC Small Gardens Peoples’ Award which I am sure means almost as much as the RHS Gold Medal.

After touring the rest of the small gardens we then started on the accessories stands just before lunch. By this time (probably about 11.00 am the crowds had definitely arrived and when passing the large Show Gardens I noticed they were now four or five bodies deep. I had thought that with plants not being on sale at this show I would be able to hang on to my money so didn’t take much cash with me. Thank goodness they accepted credit cards! I did resist a large stone gorilla (I’m sorry, but who would want one of those in their garden!) but did spot a small fat bird for a lot less money.

By now we needed to rest our feet and feed our stomachs. There is a large selection of food and drink available ranging from a Seafood and Champagne restaurant to Fish and Chips. There are seating areas, picnic area and seating around a bandstand complete with Champagne and Pimms bars. We had taken sandwiches so as not to waste time queuing (although I did not notice particularly long lines anywhere) but I did leave my bottle of water unopened and went for a Pimms instead. It was strange to think this was central London, sitting in a grassy hollow surrounded by trees and not a building in site. I then realised why my daughter had always thought the Chelsea Flower Show was held in the countryside somewhere.

As we left just before 2.00pm laden down with stone birds, lanterns, and other assorted items, battling against the flow of people entering the grounds, the heavens opened and we just made it to the station before getting soaked. It had been a very good day and I had enjoyed my first ever Chelsea Flower Show. I will definitely go again to see for myself what the latest trends in gardening are and decide if I will incorporate them into my own designs – or not.

© Sharon Brown 26th May 2008