Chelsea's Great Pavilion May 22, 2009 Come with me for a wander around the Great Pavilion at Chelsea in just 34 slides. Such wonders and colours are there to behold and people to meet, but sadly I can't waft the scent at you which was wonderful. Except for the roses, surprisingly - did anyone else find the vast stands of them were curiously lacking in scent?I'm a useless pap though. Whilst I managed to capture Jekka McVicar, Chris Beardshaw (especially for Arabella) and Christine Walkden, I totally failed to with the very orange Alan Titchmarsh, plus James, Lila das Gupta, Bunny Guinness, James Wong and Wayne Hemingway :( James as usual was a delight though I did tease him rather about his new role as TV's royal commentator. My friend H now calls me a garden tart because I was forever going off and chatting to people, but that's the best bit of the show! I was expecting to be disappointed at not being able to buy plants, but in reality I found the stands were much calmer places than usual with plenty of time to have a natter with the exhibitors.I needed to visit Raymond Evison not only because I'd buy his whole stand if I won the lottery, but also because I wanted to thank him for my Clematis 'Crystal Fountain'. He's such a gentleman. I had a very long chat with Jekka McVicar and found out she reads this blog! How chuffed am I? :D We discussed her final Chelsea, the gnome controversy and the future of the RHS. There's 957 plants on her largest exhibit ever and her first water feature - designed by her husband. A passer-by asked 957, why didn't you go for 1,000? Jekka simply smiled graciously and said - Because it only needed 957.A call at Writhlington School's Orchid Project exhibit was a must because I met one of the exhibitors on the train to London. It's a fascinating project and they're now seeking to reintroduce an extremely rare orchid back into the wild in Sikkim, India. They're having problems in getting a permit to do so - do you know of anything that could help them? I was also told that gnomes aren't the only banned article from RHS shows: flags are too, so they had to 're-brand' the prayer flags sent from the school they're twinned with in India as 'prayer banners' ;)Other highlights were the exhibits from the Caribbean, the native flora of Kirstenbosch and the amazing vegetable creations from Jersey Growers. The spirit of Medwyn Williams at Chelsea is alive and well as he advised them on the staging of the latter exhibition. I resisted ordering everything off Solva's Heuchera stand, though a friendly chat with them yielded my very own Heucheraholics pen and fridge magnet - something reserved for very special bloggers :) I thought the floral art would leave me cold, but the demonstration of how to put elegant posies and bouquets together was fascinating. My absolute favourite though was Winchester Growers' Dahlias. It was an incredible stand cram packed with what must have been 1000s of blooms which don't usually flower until at least July. Have a look here for more information on how they did it - it was touch and go on whether they'd actually make it to Chelsea.What a fun and inspirational place. Tomorrow, I'll reveal my favourite show garden. Get link Facebook X Pinterest Email Other Apps Comments Zoë22 May 2009 at 17:52This is the one thing I really missed about not going this year. The opportunity to loose myself amongst all the beautiful plants in the Floral Pavilion. Lots of wonderful picture though, so I don't feel quite so bereft now.ReplyDeleteRepliesReplyHermes22 May 2009 at 18:51Thank you for such an interesting tour - so much better than the BBC in my opinion.ReplyDeleteRepliesReplyHappyMouffetard22 May 2009 at 20:21Wonderful photos again, VP. I look forward to your favourite garden.ReplyDeleteRepliesReplyFrances22 May 2009 at 21:14Hi VP, thanks for doing this for those of us not able to attend and especially those of us not even able to see on TV. The wheel of fortune Jersey veggies were delightful, and the lavender display amazing. How much more color it was inside. That is what I have always thought Chelsea was like, color everywhere, and flowers. Not so much the trees and shrubs of the outdoor exhibits. I crave the Eremurus, but have not been able to get it going here although Christopher of Outside Clyde in North Carolina, not that far from here can grow it.FrancesReplyDeleteRepliesReplyHelen/patientgardener22 May 2009 at 21:15Why was I not surprised that you visited the Solva stand!! I am having second thoughs about Chelsea and think I might give it a go next yearReplyDeleteRepliesReplyCanadianGardenJoy22 May 2009 at 23:01Hi there VP !Amazing tour .. amazing designs : )I think I would have had to live there for a while .. just too beautiful to let go of ? LOLReplyDeleteRepliesReplyVP23 May 2009 at 10:19Zoe - so glad I've helped to close the gap a bit. It was your posts from last year which inspired me to go this year.Hermes - you flatter me :) I think sometimes a still image does more than a moving one and of course you have longer to really take things inHM - Favourite garden's on its way!Frances - weren't those veggies fantastic! Yes there was lots of colour, especially in the Great Pavilion and I think you'd have loved the scent too. I'm tempted by the Eremurus - but I've a feeling I've looked into them before and found they're not really suited to my soil. I must look again as they're real floral fireworks aren't they?!PG - I thought of you herding me past their stand at Malvern! I think you'd love Chelsea too.Joy - I'm still there - in my head at least :)ReplyDeleteRepliesReplyArabella Sock23 May 2009 at 18:34I think we have nearly the same set of photos from the pavilion! Also I fell in love with podyphillum (or whatever it is) 'Spottie Dottie' at Malvern, great plant, great name! I saw Jane Perrone had mentioned it somewhere too. Well done on the Beardshaw front - I only saw him in the great distance up on the filming platform!ReplyDeleteRepliesReplyeasygardener23 May 2009 at 21:07Lovely photos. I saw the Heuchera stand - I'm not usually a great fan, but I did find myself warming to them. Jekka McVicar's stand was superb, though I couldn't see the Gnome!ReplyDeleteRepliesReplyVP24 May 2009 at 20:42Arabella - I've lost my heart to Spotty Dotty! I thought you'd be glued to CB for the entire day :0EG - thanks. Jools and Sean are so enthusiastic about Heucheras, I'm not surprised it rubbed off on you a little. As for Jekka McVicar, she sent Borage home apparently! But wasn't her final stand at Chelsea just fantabulosa? :)ReplyDeleteRepliesReplyAnna25 May 2009 at 21:35A really great slideshow VP. Thanks for the close up of Jekka McVicar's stand - I heard her lecture a couple of years ago and her knowledge of herbs is formidable. Loved the veggie wheel.ReplyDeleteRepliesReplyVP26 May 2009 at 07:41Anna - I've been to Jekka's Herb Farm a couple of times when she's had her open days. It's an inspirational place. And I loved those veggie wheels too.ReplyDeleteRepliesReplyMr. McGregor's Daughter29 May 2009 at 10:21Thanks for the mini tour. Someday, I hope to go. It would be worth it just to see Evison's display, although those food displays are works of art too. I hope you like Clematis 'Crystal Fountain' as much as I do. It's a terrific plant.ReplyDeleteRepliesReplyVP29 May 2009 at 12:50Hi MMD - good of you to drop by when the arrangements for the Spring Fling must be reaching a crescendo!I love my C. 'Crystal Fountain' - it's my second attempt though as the first turned out to be a sport!I hope you can come on over to Chelsea some day - perhaps we need a Spring Fling there! I do hope it goes well and I'll be thinking of you and all the fun you'll be having.ReplyDeleteRepliesReplyAdd commentLoad more... Post a Comment I love hearing from you and welcome thoughtful conversations :) Comments aiming to link back and give credence to commercial websites will be composted!
That blue flower: A spring spotter's guide April 12, 2020 Spring is a prime time for blue flowers and my daily walks currently have several from the same plant family* lining the local footpaths. As I walked past the Donkey Field the other day, I overheard some children ask their parents** what the pictured blue flower was. It reminded me it's often mistaken for those other familial blues and this time was no different, as they said it was forget-me-not, instead of the green alkanet it actually is. As well as similar flowers, most of these plants are hairy in their nature, flower around the same time, and favour damp, shady places. Many of them are great for pollinators too, especially bees and this week's warm weather has certainly drawn them to these flowers. This makes it even more likely for these plants to be mistaken for each other and it's a great opportunity for me to put together a spotter's guide in case you find the same flowers on your outings. Staying with green alkanet, the key features which set it ... Read more
Red Nose Day - Gardening Jokes Anyone? March 13, 2009 The nation goes ever so slightly bonkers on Red Nose Day - hurrah! Previously, it's been very easy to join in - usually via a dress down day at work plus lots of people up to mad things at the station and in the office. Everyone smiling for once - it's a real feel good day and all in a good cause. This year's different - every day's a dress down day for me now - my friend L suggested yesterday that perhaps I could have a dress up day instead and whilst that's a good idea, I confess that ballgowns and tiaras don't really feature in my wardrobe: scruffy student's always been my favourite look. So my Red Nose Day contribution for this year is to compile a list of gardening related jokes. For each one (clean ones only please) you leave in the comments below, I'll make a donation of 50p to the cause. Here's a few for starters just to get you warmed up: Q Why do potatoes make good detectives? A Because they keep their eyes peeled. Q What did the grape... Read more
Jack Go To Bed At Noon July 22, 2011 Last year this rather exotic looking flower appeared on mine and several other allotments for the first time. Having been stumped (again) by Mr Allotment Warden as to its identity, I rushed home to find out what it was. It's salsify, aka the marvellous Jack Go To Bed At Noon - named as such because its flowers always close by midday. Here you can see both open and closed flowers - making it seem even more exotic and alien than in the first picture. I think this must be the cultivated version because the flower in my Francis Rose Wild Flower Key looks exactly the same in form, but is bright yellow in colour and called meadow salsify . Its other common name is Goatsbeard, which must be a nod to the fantastic dandelion-like clock which forms the seed head. With 'parachutes' like those shown above, who knows how far our plotted plants came from. I rather like the photographic dissection of the seedhead found in this link . Salsify is edible: its lateral shoots and fl... Read more
#mygardenrightnow: heading into summer with the Chelsea Fringe June 03, 2017 Ahhhhhh, that's better! I love walking through dewy grass in bare feet, not that there's much in the way of grass on my back lawn this weekend. My wild and woolly lawn has morphed into meadow of sorts this month, which even NAH admits looks attractive*. It's also proved a great source for my Flowers for mum project so far, yielding self-sown perennial cornflowers, lamb's ears, and lemon balm in addition to the blooms you can see. These originated from elsewhere in the garden, the ox-eye daisies must have blown in from the A350 nearby. * = he got very stroppy about the weeds aka self-sown foxgloves in the lawn one year, so he's come along a bit since then. Skimble's demanding to say hello to you too. He does enjoy the patio when it warms up. If the embedded video doesn't work try this link instead. The Nectaroscordum are a revelation. I planted the bulbs around 2 years ago, but it's only this year they've bloomed properly. The bee... Read more
The 52 Week Salad Challenge Begins January 06, 2012 Hurrah - lots of you have said you're up for the 52 Week Salad Challenge and lo, here we are in week 1! We have people from the UK, France and the USA all eager to have a go, so our salad is fast taking on an international flavour :) Quite a few of you asked questions on how this is going to work, which is where today's kick-off post comes in... The main idea is that we all grow and/or forage some salad leaves to eat every week this year. What and how much is entirely up to you. We're in completely different locations, have different tastes, levels of skill and resources available so devising something more specific to suit everyone would be very hard and might not be what you'd really like to do. Over the year I'll be posting every Friday with ideas of what to grow, techniques to use and anything else I can think of that's salad related. I've already got oodles of ideas, but if there's something you'd particularly like me to post about, t... Read more
Chelsea Fringe 2014: Shows of Hands - Episode I May 17, 2014 The gloves NAH used to build the raised bed . The effects are L to R, top to bottom: Original photo, Warhol, HDR, Green tint, B&W, Posterize, Boost, Cross process and Sepia Welcome to Shows of Hands - my Chelsea Fringe project for 2014! As you can see I've been having a bit of a play around in Pic Monkey for my first contribution. You're welcome to join in between now and 8th June 2014. The idea behind this year's project is to highlight the tool most precious to a gardener: their hands. How do I take part? It's simple. All you need to do is take a photo of hand(s) in a gardening context and then share it via your blog or other social media (such as Twitter or Facebook), then make sure I know you've done so. I've set up Mr Linky below for your blog contributions. The Chelsea Fringe photo on the right sidebar links to this post, so you can easily find it again when you're ready to add your contribution. If you share your photo on Twitter, ... Read more
Make Use of Mildew August 06, 2014 On my garden patrol this morning I spotted some powdery mildew on a couple of my new Verbena bonariensis plants. I suppose it was almost inevitable as I prefer to grow my plants hard - this means no water for them unless they look absolutely desperate. This approach means plants root themselves more deeply and have a better chance of survival during spells of dry weather like we've had lately. However, it also means I run the risk of problems like today's, especially with any garden newbies planted late in the season. We've had a good drop of rain overnight, so this should help my plants survive. I'll mulch them later today to help lock in the moisture as it's water stress which encourages the mildew to take hold. I've also removed the infected leaves and sprayed the rest with a milky drink.* I'm also pleased to find there's a use for my infected leaves. Oliver Ellingham at Reading University has started a PhD - sponsored by the RHS - researchi... Read more
For National Tree Week December 01, 2024 It's the final day of this year's National Tree Week today and I want to celebrate the tree which stopped me in my tracks recently. At other times this has been a very big week for me, having organised and helped to plant thousands of trees in south Wales as part of an Earthwatch project in the 1990s. Those days feel like they're part of another life, but it's good to be reminded how important trees still are to me, simply by just being there. The pictured tree is towards the end of my walk into town and I must have walked past it hundreds of times, but for once I saw it properly for the first time. It was just as the different combinations of colour from green through yellow and orange to red were at their finest which helped to catch my undivided attention. It's not the tallest specimen in the world, but wow, it really helps to soften the brutalist concrete of the shops behind it. Then I looked at the leaves more closely, and realised it's a liquidambar aka... Read more
Gardeners Question Time: In which "Dog's bottom" may be said September 29, 2016 My third visit to a recording of Gardeners' Question Time last week didn't disappoint. Eric Robson was in the chair (hurrah!), with Matthew Biggs, Anne Swithinbank and Chris Beardshaw ready to answer our questions. I went on my own this time, but that didn't matter as there were plenty of people to chat to during coffee beforehand and whilst we took our seats. I met a mother and daughter celebrating their birthdays that day, plus I sat next to a couple who were at the same recording I went to three years ago. All manner of plants and photographs were clutched by prospective questioners, all hoping to be called down to the front row of seats reserved for those chosen to pose their query. Producer Dan reassured everyone, 'If you're not chosen, it doesn't mean you're a bad gardener'. Our powers of clapping were tested, and a few gardening jokes told to make sure we were in good humour, whilst Hester posed with her enormous recording boom, and Pet... Read more
Earth and Sun and Moon * March 30, 2025 It's been great to have some quality time on the patio this week culminating in yesterday's partial eclipse. With the live stream to hand, we had fun with our hastily made pinhole projector (a piece of card pierced with a paper clip), playing with the image on our hands, then NAH decided to carefully take a direct photo of the sun. 'That won't work', I said, and I was right... and wrong, with the sun behind its mackerel sky veil blazing forth as usual, but the camera lens flare revealing a perfect image of the sun bitten by the moon. * = I've had Midnight Oil's Earth and Sun and Moon on the brain all week; especially appropriate for yesterday's celestial event. Read more
This is the one thing I really missed about not going this year. The opportunity to loose myself amongst all the beautiful plants in the Floral Pavilion.
ReplyDeleteLots of wonderful picture though, so I don't feel quite so bereft now.
Thank you for such an interesting tour - so much better than the BBC in my opinion.
ReplyDeleteWonderful photos again, VP. I look forward to your favourite garden.
ReplyDeleteHi VP, thanks for doing this for those of us not able to attend and especially those of us not even able to see on TV. The wheel of fortune Jersey veggies were delightful, and the lavender display amazing. How much more color it was inside. That is what I have always thought Chelsea was like, color everywhere, and flowers. Not so much the trees and shrubs of the outdoor exhibits. I crave the Eremurus, but have not been able to get it going here although Christopher of Outside Clyde in North Carolina, not that far from here can grow it.
ReplyDeleteFrances
Why was I not surprised that you visited the Solva stand!! I am having second thoughs about Chelsea and think I might give it a go next year
ReplyDeleteHi there VP !
ReplyDeleteAmazing tour .. amazing designs : )
I think I would have had to live there for a while .. just too beautiful to let go of ? LOL
Zoe - so glad I've helped to close the gap a bit. It was your posts from last year which inspired me to go this year.
ReplyDeleteHermes - you flatter me :) I think sometimes a still image does more than a moving one and of course you have longer to really take things in
HM - Favourite garden's on its way!
Frances - weren't those veggies fantastic! Yes there was lots of colour, especially in the Great Pavilion and I think you'd have loved the scent too. I'm tempted by the Eremurus - but I've a feeling I've looked into them before and found they're not really suited to my soil. I must look again as they're real floral fireworks aren't they?!
PG - I thought of you herding me past their stand at Malvern! I think you'd love Chelsea too.
Joy - I'm still there - in my head at least :)
I think we have nearly the same set of photos from the pavilion! Also I fell in love with podyphillum (or whatever it is) 'Spottie Dottie' at Malvern, great plant, great name! I saw Jane Perrone had mentioned it somewhere too. Well done on the Beardshaw front - I only saw him in the great distance up on the filming platform!
ReplyDeleteLovely photos. I saw the Heuchera stand - I'm not usually a great fan, but I did find myself warming to them. Jekka McVicar's stand was superb, though I couldn't see the Gnome!
ReplyDeleteArabella - I've lost my heart to Spotty Dotty! I thought you'd be glued to CB for the entire day :0
ReplyDeleteEG - thanks. Jools and Sean are so enthusiastic about Heucheras, I'm not surprised it rubbed off on you a little. As for Jekka McVicar, she sent Borage home apparently! But wasn't her final stand at Chelsea just fantabulosa? :)
A really great slideshow VP. Thanks for the close up of Jekka McVicar's stand - I heard her lecture a couple of years ago and her knowledge of herbs is formidable. Loved the veggie wheel.
ReplyDeleteAnna - I've been to Jekka's Herb Farm a couple of times when she's had her open days. It's an inspirational place. And I loved those veggie wheels too.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the mini tour. Someday, I hope to go. It would be worth it just to see Evison's display, although those food displays are works of art too. I hope you like Clematis 'Crystal Fountain' as much as I do. It's a terrific plant.
ReplyDeleteHi MMD - good of you to drop by when the arrangements for the Spring Fling must be reaching a crescendo!
ReplyDeleteI love my C. 'Crystal Fountain' - it's my second attempt though as the first turned out to be a sport!
I hope you can come on over to Chelsea some day - perhaps we need a Spring Fling there! I do hope it goes well and I'll be thinking of you and all the fun you'll be having.