Chelsea Images



M & G Garden - designed by Bunny Guinness - Silver Gilt Medal



Lawrence Llewelyn Bowen in the M & G Garden waiting for the film crew

M & G Garden

 Still the M & G garden

M & G Garden

All the above the M & G garden

Principality of Monaco Garden - Gold medal Winner

All above A Monaco Garden

Jekka McVicar plants

Royal Bank of Scotland New Wild Garden

B & Q Garden

Chelsea Flower Show 2011

On wednesday, popped up to London to the Chelsea Flower Show with good friend Jane, who is an RHS member and very kindly got the tickets.

Camera batteries ran out within first 10 minutes, and replacement batteries were not properly charged so only gave me another 5 minutes - how disappointing (and disorganised - yet I thought i'd got it covered!! ) is that!

So was unable to get photos of most of the gardens except a few, or of any of the incredibly beautiful flowers in the large covered halls.

In retrospect, this was no bad thing from my point of view as it meant I could concentrate on what I was seeing rather than just doing a David Bailey, but sadly from a blog sharing point of view it stinks - as did the bark they had everywhere on the ground between the undercover stalls! 

It made Jane feel quite nauseuous, and was a rather unpleasant underlying smell to the beautiful David Austin roses, and the wonderful Peter Beales roses.

NB: have deliberately left some of the photos overly large and spilling out so as to enjoy the larger pictures

Highlights for us:

The above mentioned roses! Magnificent - every rose more beautiful than the last

The large purple Alliums! Every shape and size appeared in most every garden!

All of the wonderful gardens - the plantings were fantastic this year, very soft and cottage gardenish!

The beautiful soft pinks and mauves of the plants in the Laurent-Perrier garden designed by Luciano Giubbilei - what a hunk! Also a Gold Medal Winner and one of my favourite gardens here this year

The M & G garden with beautifully arranged  fruit and vegetables (and lurking celebrity!) - another favourite of mine, it was so magical with the dappled shade and sunlight - many of the photos above are from this garden.

The wonderful little Artisan Gardens - they were all fantastic, especially the "A Postcard from Wales" ( Laugharne is my very favourite place in Wales and I especially enjoyed the BBC coverage of the making of this garden with the designers)

The Gold Winner of the Artisan gardens was the Hae-woo-so  (emptying ones mind) Garden.
"Hae-woo-so - is the Korean word for the traditional Korean toilet. The inspiration behind the garden is that for centuries the Korean people believed that going to the toilet was a cathartic experience and considered it to be highly spiritual." Quote from the RHS website! Go see the pictures here, its a lovely peaceful little garden with a little wooden loo!

Seeing Diarmuid Gavin sitting in his Irish Sky garden with a child (presumably his?) on his lap, and watching the "eye pod" being raised and lowered

The atmosphere at lunch time with the Jazz band dressed up in top and tails singing jazz numbers, including the Charleston, very Jeeves and Woosterish, whilst we picknicked on the grass with the multitudes!

Go and visit the RHS website for details of the Chelsea Flower Show , for 360 degree tours of all of the show gardens together with a wealth of information!

NB: If you read this before 4pm GMT Friday 27th May, you can vote online for the People's Choice Award by going to the RHS website

M & G Garden

What's your favourite garden (s) from what you've seen on TV , on the RHS website, or at the Show??

(My fav Show Garden - the M & G kitchen garden
My fav Artisan Garden - A Postcard from Wales)