
It seemed really strange for us this year walking into the Chelsea Show ground without having a garden of our own to go to, having had courtyard gardens here for the last 3 years. Nonetheless, it was great to meet up with friends both old and new and support our fellow designers.
Thankfully, the weather held out on the day of our visit, despite some brief showers early in the morning. Some gardens seemed to be drying out towards the end of the day and some designers were frantically watering their plants to keep them perky.
As always with Chelsea, the quality of most of the gardens was excellent and the nursery exhibits and floral displays in the Great pavilion were amazing. In the pavilion our favourites were the ‘Cayman Islands’ stand (Gold) that recreated an underwater scene with plants placed to resemble a coral reef; we stood there for ages taking it all in, the detail was wonderful. This is a must see and well worthy of the Presidents Most Creative Award. We also loved the Plants with Altitude exhibit which had some really intriguing and interesting alpine plants. The scent in the pavilion was also a knockout with the heady smell of roses and sweet peas.
Amongst our favourite Show Gardens were the ‘Chetwoods Perfume Garden’ (Gold), with its romantic planting, the ‘Leeds City Council Garden’ (Silver Gilt) which had a great feeling and emotion to it and the ‘Canary Island Tourist Board Garden’ (Silver) which had some fabulous exotic plants and a striking memorable layout.
The small gardens didn’t disappoint as usual, although we were at a lost to see why James May’s ‘Paradise in Plasticine’ Garden (No Medal) was included in the Show at all especially as it robbed another gardener of a great opportunity of having that space. Indeed, we have since learnt that this plasticine garden subsequently won the ‘People’s Choice Award for the Favourite Small Garden’. It seems a complete irony that at the world’s best flower show an exhibit without a single living flower in it wins an award for the Favourite Small Garden – The world’s gone completely bonkers!!!!!!! As twice winners of this award ourselves (2006/2007) we always thought artificial flowers were banned from Chelsea, much like the gnomes that we have heard a lot about this week. Ho hum there’s nowt as queer as folk.
Strangely, the ‘Modern Rock Garden’ was one we did like, even though we don’t normally like contemporary gardens, along with the fabulous ‘Helios Eco Chic Garden’ (Gold, Best Urban Garden) and the ‘Children’s Society Garden’(Gold). Amongst the courtyard gardens the ‘Giles Landscapes Fenland Alchemist Garden’ (Gold) well deserved its accolade of ‘Best in Show’ and ‘The Entente Cordial Garden’ (Silver Gilt) was bright, memorable and well executed.
Amongst the trade stands we very nearly got the wallet out to give a good home to an 11 ft high giraffe made out of recycled oil drums. These were amazing and may well be coming back to Bishop’s Stortford with us at a later date, must start saving!

All in all, Chelsea felt a bit different this year, not surprising given the reduced number of gardens as a result of the credit crunch but it was a wonderful Show and we really enjoyed our visit. One thing is for sure we will try our hardest to get back their next year, not visitors but exhibitors once more – watch this space.