The 2015 RHS Chelsea flower show opens tomorrow, but today ahead of the crowds, Mark and I had a preview of the gardens on show.
Our first impression was that there is more variety in the garden styles this year. This has been an improvement from last year with more interest and each garden having something special to offer. Of the hundreds of photos we took today here are just a small sample to whet the appetite.
The Sculptors picnic garden is one of the artisan gardens, these re smaller than the main gardens, and often whimsical in style. This one really captured our imagination, with great planting, and many interesting details.
The Laurent-Perrier Chatsworth Garden is hard to capture in just one photo, the garden occupies a large triangular plot and is simply stunning. The garden is naturalistic in style and reminds us of Trebah gardens in Cornwall. The attention to detail is simply superb with a wild natural look that must have been very tricky to get just right. I can't imagine this will get anything less than a Gold Medal.
The Brewin Dolphin Garden uses slate to great effect covering walls and flooring throughout the garden. The planting looked a little rushed to me, as if it hadn't quite had enough time to bed in. This may have been down to the volume of hard landscaping, or perhaps the heavy rain this morning.
UK TV audiences will may have seen the Great Chelsea Garden Challenge on TV last week, winner Sean Murray's garden is a front garden with space for parking. A very good solution to a tricky problem that is increasingly seeing many gardens getting paved over.
From Singapore a taste of the tropics, The Hidden Beauty of Kranji is an explosion of colour and exotic plants. Very few would survive a British winter, but we enjoyed the design of this garden and the riot of tropicals was great to see.
The Time In Between by Husqvarna and Gardena was another favourite for us.
I was expecting more from The Beauty of Islam Garden, having travelled to Morocco and seen gardens in palace settings, we anticipated something with a more romantic twist. This felt rather sterile like a courtyard in 5 star hotel. A wasted opportunity perhaps.
Beyond our Borders by Apha represented the risk of pests and bugs being transmitted by modern horticulture.
One of the more surreal parts of the day, Miss Sweden 2012 stood in a pool of water in the World Vision Garden.
This pear wasn't part of display garden, but we did both agree it was a very fine pear.
Pure land foundation, large sinuous white flowing walls were the main feature, the plants seemed something of an after thought.
Chris Beardshaws Morgan Stanley Healthy Cities Garden will be relocated to a housing development in Poplar East London after the show.
A large head and box balls, in another sales garden. Some of the sales pitches were interesting gardens in their own right.
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| M&G Garden |
Bank of Canada Garden.
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| The Homebase Garden... a bit bland... |
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| ...and even more bland, The Telegraph Garden. Apparently inspired by Mondrian, but without the crisp lines or colour. |
All in all it was a good show, we had to dodge the showers in the morning, and didn't really have enough time in the grand pavilion. However plenty of variety this year, and a number of ideas that we may try and use in our garden.
More posts to follow in the next few days, but if you can't wait check out our Facebook Page for more photos.
Gaz and Mark
This gardening blog follows our journey as we create our Tropical and Exotic themed garden. We hope you'll enjoy the journey as much as we do. We started our Exotic Garden in 2005 and this site will show its development, as well as our travels, both abroad and within the UK to gardens, nurseries and friends.
Dear Mark and Gaz, thanks for posting about the RHS Chelsea flower show 2015! How exciting that you got in one day before the regular crowds do, you guys really must have good connections ;-)!
ReplyDeleteYour photos of the gardens are great! My favorites are the The Time In Between by Husqvarna and Gardena garden, the M&G garden, The Sculptors picnic garden in this particular order. I noticed again that I prefer gardens where the plants are playing the main role and not the hardscape or architecture or even an Ex-Miss Sweden (!).
Thanks for covering this exciting garden show for us!
Warm regards,
Christina
A pleasure Christina! Love the mix of exotic and traditional English planting at the M&G garden :)
DeleteThe first two, oh my--must see more! All of them really are more interesting than last year. Look forward to more details.
ReplyDeleteI think those first two are exquisite Shirley!
DeleteThanks for transporting me to Chelsea guys :) 'Tis much appreciated. Look forward to more of your posts and to the medal results tomorrow morning.
ReplyDeleteA pleasure Anna!
DeleteOh I am green with envy, it must be so lovely to go round on press day and actually be able to see the gardens without having to jostle to see a tiny corner of a garden.
ReplyDeleteIt was nice Libby :) although the other days have got a great buzz to it too!
DeleteI love that garden shows over yonder your way create the gardens outdoors.Makes for better photo taking for one thing ! Wouldn't I love to see Chelsea one day ...though Great Dixter is the top of my list. I'm going to spend quite a bit of time perusing your photos on FB..
ReplyDeleteOutdoors make a big difference Kathy, feels and looks 'natural' :)
DeleteThanks for the initial peak at the Chelsea show! There's no US coverage anymore (that I'm aware of) so we usually have to wait for uploads to appear on YouTube. The exhibits do look more varied - and interesting - than last year's cast. I look forward to your future posts.
ReplyDeleteThat's interesting to hear Kris, we presumed that the series shown on the BBC here are franchised by a U.S. network. Might be worth looking in to?
DeleteI love your shot of Sean Murray's Great Chelsea Garden Challenge garden, I think it's my fav, parking or not. I look forward to soaking up all your extended coverage.
ReplyDeleteWe love that garden Loree, very inspiring!
DeleteThank you for posting all these fab photos, I was relying on your Chelsea coverage as I wasn't lucky enough to get a press pass like last year. the TV does tend to concentrate on interviews and close ups.
ReplyDeleteI love Dan Pearson's rock garden and stream, it must win best in show surely! But then I'd give Dan Pearson a prize for just being there. Sean's garden look great too, was there a car parked in the drive? there was in the sketch/plan and I thought it was a great idea (sponsorship deal) but maybe they decided against it?
The garde with all the hand cut slate was on TV, apparently it has taken 5 months to construct, after spending a day clearing weeds from our patio (haven't even started on the courtyard paving) I imagined weeds colonising every crevice!
Hope you both had a fantastic day x
Dan Pearson's garden is exquisite Celia :) and so is Sean's. No car was parked though! And the slate installation looked stunning but 5 months to construct, wow!
DeleteGreat preview! I liked some of the gardens. The one with white walls and floor makes me think of Santorini.
ReplyDeleteIt did for us as well Lisa :)
DeleteI can't believe I didn't bump into you! Especially as I saw Miss Sweden too - I must have spent too much time wondering who on earth she was and not spent enough time looking at who was photographing her! It's a much better show this year - Dan Pearson's garden is breathtaking. I usually pity whoever has the triangle plot as it's such a difficult position, but he made it seem the totally right plot to have.
ReplyDeleteDan Pearson's garden is exquisite Michelle, he's done an amazing job and on a very challenging plot too! Sorry to have missed you, so many things going on and so many to catch up with but not enough time....
DeleteYour commentary is every bit as interesting as the gardens themselves.
ReplyDeleteThanks Ricki :)
DeleteMy favorites from among your photos were the Time In Between and the Sculptures Picnic gardens. You are so lucky to have this fantastic show at hand!
ReplyDelete