Chelsea in bloom again!

Happiness radiates like the fragrance from a flower and draws all good things towards you.

Maharishi Mahesh Yogi

I briefly mentioned it in last week’s blog – this week marks the 106th Chelsea Flower Show!

The biggest and most famous flower show in the world, Chelsea Flower Show is as quintessentially British as the Queen, fish and chips and Pimm’s and lemonade, all of which can be found at the show if you time it right!

I used to call Chelsea my guilty pleasure, now I’m getting a little older however, I look forward to the event, wax lyrical about it before and after and drag many of my friends with me who like me instantly get hooked. Every year I gasp and sigh, every year I promise myself I’ll do a little bit more with my own little patch of South London. I’ve come to expect that every year it gets better and better and this year did not disappoint!

The Main Avenue was, as always when the sun is shining, awash with floral dresses, camera crews and excitable horticulturists gathered in clusters around the Show Gardens, the much-anticipated enclosures, designed by some of the premium landscape architects in the world, are the first gardens most people see. This year, the official theme is reconnecting with nature, with associated themes highlighting sustainability including a push to inspire green-fingered visitors to adopt ‘urban farming’.

I’ve probably mentioned before; I genuinely admire the modern royals and was super excited to see the Duchess of Cambridge’s show garden. For the first time, Kate has co-designed a garden along with Andree Davies and Adam White, a pair of landscape architects who have twice won the coveted RHS gold medal, (if you’re married to the future king I don’t suppose it’s too difficult persuading the best of the best to get on side!!). The royal project, named The RHS Back to Nature Garden, focuses on woodlands as inclusive settings where families and communities come together to make happy memories. By emphasising the role that nature plays in physical and mental health, the design nods to the RHS's partnership with the NHS. It’s a triumph, I loved it! A beautiful but simple touch along the winding path through the garden is a sprinkling of forget-me-nots – a tribute to Princess Diana, awwww.

The show is sponsored by some heavy weight companies and the M&G Investments garden is one of the centre pieces. This year, the prestigious M&G Garden has been designed by Andy Sturgeon. It’s a stripped back extravaganza, designed to celebrate “the beauty of nature’s extraordinary power to regenerate and colonise all kinds of landscapes with new growth”. Loved it!

Much fuss this year has been made of Tom Dixon’s “Gardening Will Save the World”. Designed in partnership with IKEA, with its garish neon pink hue, it’s not for traditionalists but it still won the coveted Gold Medal! For me, as a member of the uninitiated, it was errrr…… okay but I much preferred the far more, nostalgia-inducing “Welcome to Yorkshire” garden. Designed by Mark Gregory, the garden features a canal, lock gates and reclaimed masonry walling. Loved it!

Perhaps the most emotive and thought-provoking garden, is “The Greenfingers Charity Garden” designed by Kate Gould, which was created for a hospice to provide a space where seriously ill children can come together and enjoy the fresh air with their loved ones. Not a dry eye left the garden after reading some of the heart wrenching stories!

Take a right when you reach the bottom of Main Avenue and walk alongside Jonathan Snow’s “The Trailfinders: Undiscovered Latin America” Garden. With its cascading waterfalls contrasted with a bright red walkway, you'll find yourself instantly transported far away. The garden has been designed to raise awareness of South American’s “fragile and beautiful ecosystems”, which are currently under threat from urbanisation, over-farming and logging.

Having replaced the “Fresh Gardens” at last year’s flower show, the “Space to Grow” gardens return this year, reflecting new trends and planting patterns in the gardening world today, I think they’re hoping to inspire the gardener in all of us and fair play!

For me the highlight of the Space to Grow Gardens is Jilayne Rickard’s “Giving Girls in Africa a Space to Grow”. With its vibrant colours (lush green crops sprouting out of red soil) and climate-smart agriculture, this female-led landscape is vision of a brighter, vibrant Africa. Again, Loved it!

Something I missed on my first visits to Chelsea was the Artisan Gardens, with the vast crowds you can easily be swept past! Tucked away to the left Main Avenue, the Artisan Gardens offer some of the most aesthetically-pleasing spectacles of the whole show. Wander along the woodland trail and first stop to admire Graham Bodle’s “Walker’s Forgotten Quarry Garden”. With its rustic coloured flowers and fiery wood-burning stove, it's a visual feast of cosy, autumnal escapism.

You know me by now, I love my food which to be honest is one of Chelsea’s biggest draws for me. Trailing around spectacular horticultural master pieces is hungry and thirsty work I can tell you, thankfully, the Artisan Gardens neighbour the site's collection of gourmet food trucks and most importantly, the champagne tent. The Fortnum & Mason marquee is also close by which serves the most AMAZING seafood platters and light bites as well as Pimm’s, (alcohol free drinks are also available!).

Thank you, Chelsea, for another year of inspiration!

What’s on this week?