Gardens
Ringing round Chelsea
Ursula Buchan
The Chelsea Flower Show is well known for the range of new gardening aids exhibited to the public for the first time. This year, 'Best in Show' was the mobile telephone. Several exhibitors, particularly those standing in the outdoor gardens (which are laid out on two sides of the large marquee), were hard at work with some of these cunning little tools.
Not surprisingly, therefore, one of the gardens on the Rock Garden Bank was sponsored by Cellnet. The idea, horticul- turewise, was to basically conceptualise the office garden interface, but with a Mediterranean feel (because, as the brochure informed me, Cellnet are in- volved with the development of a pan- European cellular network). Viewed from the purely aesthetic or horticultural stand- point, it was not much of a garden, being rather overburdened with staring reconsti- tuted stone paving and walling and planted, sparsely, with mainly tender plants which would have to be put some- where in winter. (Just pop them in to Reception?) However, what was really rather marvellous about this garden was the way the fountain area closely resem- bled a gushing telephone mouthpiece.
Cellnet was, however, paradoxically kicking against the most recent trend. Generally speaking, I can report (with some thankfulness) that Chelsea was rather more of a Flower Show than usual. There was less hard landscaping than of yore and less battiness, although the Wim- pey Chenies garden kept the flag of gim- mickry fluttering with their young execu- tive couple's seaside garden complete with surf board propped against the fence and sound of waves crashing on the shore.
The unwonted accent on flowers may have had more to do with the extraordin- ary season than any brainwave on the part feel absolutely rotten about letting Colin Moynihan down .
of exhibitors. Nevertheless it was salutary. The 'Cabbages and Kings' garden designed by Ryl Nowell was an Alice in Wonderland fantasy, complete with a pair of striped pavilions, but was saved from being irritat- ing by some clever planting, much of it bright but none of it garish. The Daily Telegraph's garden, designed by Arabella Lennox-Boyd, on the other hand, was in soft pastel shades — white, pale pink, blue and mauve against the dark green of yew — and used well-grown herbaceous plants from Four Seasons Nursery and roses from Mattock's. Although the garden was in the best possible taste (Sir Roy liked it) and architecturally satisfying, it caused me to worry slightly that such a brilliantly ex- ecuted but, in the end, unadventurous colour scheme would do nothing to cure the chronic subtlety which so afflicts the upper middle-class gardener.
In the marquee, the unusually early summer meant that many plants which are normally ruled out as too late-flowering found a place. The tyranny of the rho- dodendron (the only large shrub family apart from lilacs which naturally flowers in late May) was temporarily broken. The roses, usually forced into uncharacteristic paleness, looked their very best; there were excellent stands from Peter Beales, David Austin and John Mattock. There were the same crocuses on the bulb stands which are yearly brought out of the fridge for Chelsea, but they flourished alongside a wide range of hardy and half-hardy summer perennials, notably on the Hop- leys, Hoecroft and Glebe Cottage stands. Goldbrook Plants staged an exhibit to show the enormous range of American- bred hostas now available, while Efenechtyd Nurseries eloquently demons- trated the superiority of the Streptocarpus over the Saintpaulia, however skilfully grown by the African Violet Centre. As you would expect, the visitors (or, those who came on the first Members' Day, at least) seemed far more interested in the double scented sweet rocket (recent- ly rescued from near extinction and seen on the Hardy Plant Society stand) than they were in garden accessories, but even the non-floricultural displays were of an unusually high standard. There was fine lead statuary from the Bulbeck Foundry and well-designed plantation-grown fold- ing teak furniture from Ryte Designs. Even Agriframes, best known for their fruit cages, managed some stylish Gothic garden arches. I had my usual mild bout of claustropho- bia in the marquee in mid-morning for, despite valiant efforts by the RHS to restrict numbers, the show is still too crowded for real comfort. Never mind, next year, I can always ring up instead.
Ursula Buchan's book, The Village Show, with photographs by Hugh Palmer, will be published on 28 June by Pavilion Books at f1.5.99.
Previous page
