Chelsea Flower Show

Off for a big walk with the dog to admire all the amazing wild flowers, cowslips, orchids, and all the rock plants, bistort, spiked veronicas, and the amazing tree. Real nature- and then will spend the afternoon tending to my large cottage garden, as all the peonies, tree and herbaceous, are bursting open, and the meadow full of poets narcissi, campion and so much more. A real garden, it even has weeds and I love it.

It is a shop window, nothing more or less where everything must look it’s best to attract custom.

That's probably why I like it, but then I have just had a new kitchen too.

I like watching Chelsea, I’ve been a couple of times but Hampton court is easier for actually seeing stuff up close , I had a pump for my water feature bought at Hampton , till I cut the cable when pruning !
Peonies and delphiniums and rhododendrons and lots of other plants were introduced so long ago that we forget they are not local , but how we would miss them

Katie59

“It’s definitely not all about pot plants Katie59, I’m guessing you’re not into gardening or you wouldn’t say that.”

That’s a peculiar thing to say Casdon .

I’m clearly into gardening, I’m an RHS member and visit a lot of other gardens, we also have a large garden of our own that I try to keep as I want it to look, despite the weather challenges.

I don’t think it was a peculiar thing to say Katie59, because you said ‘ Sorry not keen on flower or garden shows, just a collection of pot plants’, which is a massive generalisation, and dismissal of everything else that happens at them all.

I don’t go to Chelsea these days, it is too crowded, the marquee is always packed so you can’t see what you’re interested in, and it’s just too ‘showy’ compared with the others. But - I’ve never known any gardener dismiss all shows, which are all completely different, as ‘just pot plants’ until you did.

It's a "show", an opportunity for professionals to introduce themselves to the paying public and for many, it's the shows that keep them afloat for the rest of the year. I went to the RHS Malvern Spring show recently with friends and it was a lovely day out. Although it's not all about the plants, another friend is a regular gold medal winner at all the shows says they are crucial to her business.

I enjoyed my visit to Chelsea on the day that the plants were being sold to the public. People were walking along carrying huge plants and loading cars with trees.
I don't understand what you mean by real nature and real gardens, fp. Do you mean untouched by human hand? If so, can I call my garden real if I am cutting my grass?

Vanillasky

^It is a shop window, nothing more or less where everything must look it’s best to attract custom.^

That's probably why I like it, but then I have just had a new kitchen too.

We went to the Ideal Home Exhibition too.
And a kitchen exhibition which was on in Torquay years ago, where we saw the first induction jobs. They seemed very scary!

I need a new kitchen so I might look for another exhibition.

Fleurpepper

Off for a big walk with the dog to admire all the amazing wild flowers, cowslips, orchids, and all the rock plants, bistort, spiked veronicas, and the amazing tree. Real nature- and then will spend the afternoon tending to my large cottage garden, as all the peonies, tree and herbaceous, are bursting open, and the meadow full of poets narcissi, campion and so much more. A real garden, it even has weeds and I love it.

Some of us can like both.

Looking at Chelsea on tv and the weeds in my garden and lawn and finding out which ones are best to keep for bees and pollinators and which not.

I love it highlight of my year and I’m glued to it. I really like the format proffered Alan presenting it though.

This year some gardens have rubble and weeds and homeless theme. Will it get a gold medal? Will be interesting to see...

I'm off to the Garden Centre
👋

I’m not a fan either, having been persuaded to accompany my keen gardener DH. SO crowded, and just false and unreal. I suppose the clue is in the name, it is very much a show, and I expect the small gardens will give people ideas. When I got home and looked at our garden, I just felt like a wanted to bulldoze it for a second until I realised what I had seen at Chelsea was not real. I’m also aware that it gives a lot of pleasure to many.

Callistemon21

Fleurpepper

Off for a big walk with the dog to admire all the amazing wild flowers, cowslips, orchids, and all the rock plants, bistort, spiked veronicas, and the amazing tree. Real nature- and then will spend the afternoon tending to my large cottage garden, as all the peonies, tree and herbaceous, are bursting open, and the meadow full of poets narcissi, campion and so much more. A real garden, it even has weeds and I love it.

Some of us can like both.

Looking at Chelsea on tv and the weeds in my garden and lawn and finding out which ones are best to keep for bees and pollinators and which not.

Of course, I do, in fact. But not Chelsea Show style- as Bazza says, so crowded, false and unreal.

Watching the bulldozers and what happens before, and after- makes me feel very sad.

I love gardens- RHS or not, all over the world, be it Wisley, or Hidcote, ot Coton Manor, or so many others. They do change and evolve, and are real show cases, but they are real. And surrounded by birds and other wildlife. Chelsea and such shows, for me, represent all that is wrong with this world, I feel it deeply.

Not important if some of you don't get it, but perhaps you could try and see why I am saying it.

I accept that the planting is unrealistic in terms of flowering times, but it is a show and they do explain the ruses they go to in order to have the plants all flowering at the same time. My problem with Chelsea, or rather the bbc coverage is that they keep going over and over the same gardens for the whole four or five days, often ignoring or briefly skating over the small artisan gardens. By the second day I’m ready to switch off! My other beef is the mentioning of the sponsors during every programme. I thought the bbc were supposed to be advert free?

Almost forgot, weeds, or wildflowers are the flavour of the month this year, along with rubble and junk.

Miss going there in person but have to admit that you get to see a lot more of the gardens on the TV without all the crowds. Don't understand the desire for weeds which the presenter said were everywhere this year, alright in a show garden but most people spend time trying to eliminate the weeds from their own gardens.

Fleurpepper I was last in Switzerland about this time of year in 2019. I have to agree that the wild meadows are beautiful.

I am spitting feathers as the saying goes. Our TV mast has chosen now to rejig itself after a long wait and it chooses chelsea week. Have attempted to retune and can get some programmes but not BBC1 or 2 so missing chelsea!!!

Madeliene
Why not get it on i player on your device.

Alan Titchmarsh has criticised the CFS, well last year’s in particular, for a prize going to a beaver enclosure and rewinding projects. He says they are not gardening. I suppose he has a point.

Rewilding

I was amazed last night to discover that my garden is 'on trend' - lots of white with 'pops' of magenta at the moment in the back garden, cornflowers and poppies in the front!
I don't think I've ever been on trend with anything in my whole life before!

Chelsea is like the London fashion show - everyone goes, no-one would actually wear anything on show there but it's good for networking and catching up with the new ideas.

lixy

Lovely to see, all so clean and tidy and not a weed in sight.

I visited RHS Wisley a few weeks ago and there weren't any weeds there either thanks to a thick mulch - amazing!

My garden is a tad more 'natural'.
Looking forward to the rest of the week.

Apparently one of the designers spent £30 per clump for dandelions, so I think there must have been a few weeds!! He could have saved some cash and come and dug up all of mine for free .

lixy

I was amazed last night to discover that my garden is 'on trend' - lots of white with 'pops' of magenta at the moment in the back garden, cornflowers and poppies in the front!
I don't think I've ever been on trend with anything in my whole life before!

Chelsea is like the London fashion show - everyone goes, no-one would actually wear anything on show there but it's good for networking and catching up with the new ideas.

lixy Same. Never on trend - but I love 'seeing' our garden trending

I love Sarah Price’s Nurture Landscapes. Garden. A well deserved Gold.

I’m now able to grow irises in my new garden. They hated the high alkaline soil in my old one. I’ve inherited Kent Pride and they’re looking great alongside the alliums I planted last autumn.