RHS Chelsea Flower show
So on Monday I was lucky enough to be invited to the press day of the RHS Chelsea Flower show. It’s very privilaged ticket for two reasons. You get to look around the show with only a small amount of people so you really do get to stand back and view the gardens in all their splendour. And splendid they are! Next you get to see LOADS of famous people. They are everywhere it’s a real hoot spotting them. Especially if you’re with Daniel Hopwood as he seems to fail to recognise anyone. He’s way to cool for that. But I think its hilarious fun to see the people we see in TV in the 3D. Curiously most people are much smaller in real life. Joan Collins looked absolutely incredible. So immaculately turned out. What an old school diva.
With my TV hubby Daniel Hopwood smelling the roses
Anyway back to the flowers and I found the whole trip really inspiring and uplifting. Also in part as I’d just spent the whole weekend mowing and weeding the garden and feeling rather desperate about the task in hand. The theme at Chelsea this year was for quite wild style planting, loose and natural, which really appeals to my sensibilities. I got that tingly feeling that I’m about to embark on a new and fulfilling journey. To begin with the mountain felt far too high to climb but I bumped into garden designer Sean Murray, winner of the 2015 Great Chelsea Garden Challenge. While he had great admiration for The Great Interior Design Challenge it was gardening that hogged our conversation and having him explain the design theories about the garden we were stood by opened up a whole new door for me. One of my take aways was to always buy plants in fives, never just buy one plant. He says he got the inspiration from Nigel Slater who said you only need 5 ingredients to make a delicious meal. I wonder if I could apply the same theory to interiors?
The Morgan Stanley garden designed by Chris Beardshaw. A luscious mix of flowers and foliage along a curving path lead from a woodland setting across an open terrace into a sunny space. From majestic trees to low-growing perennials this design has everything you would expect to see in a typical British garden
A pathway winds under low lying ferns and trees and that gave this garden a magical spell like feel
Breaking Ground garden designed by Andrew Wilson and Gavin McWilliam. A colourful meadow area contains waves of purple salvias and umbels signify sudden thoughts and ideas. I love the wild meadow like quality against the sculpture
Packed with ‘take home’ ideas this garden is a living encyclopedia of solutions to bring horticulture to any urban environment. A combined private and communal space it blends ornamental horticulture with edible planting in an inspiring setting. Designed by Professor Nigel Dunnett
I loved the look of these bug hotels. It’s an idea I’ll be nicking for sure.
Dan and I with Dulux Creative director Marianne Shillingford and artist Jo Peel, who collaborated with Dulux to create the striking urban mural in the background
My favourite garden for me was this winsome cutting garden designed by Sarah Raven. She used Tricia Guilds love of colour to inspire the design and I just wanted to pick the whole lot up and take it home. Wouldn’t we all want a little tin roofed bolt hole to escape too?
The Chris Evans Taste garden was an allotment design by Jon Wheatley. I love it that a vegetable patch could make it to Chelsea, and in the words of Mary Berry, it was pure perfection!
We are in the process of designing and building a tree house for Arthur this summer. This should give my husband some ideas! This one is by Blue Forest the finest luxury tree houses
