The big names were back at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show this year – Jo Thompson, Tom Hoblyn, Joe Perkins, Nigel Dunnett, Tom Massey – sponsored by The Newt in Somerset. It was difficult to define an overarching vibe, but you would be happy to wander up the path and linger in any of the gardens, large or small, surrounded by scent, dense planting and the sound of birds and bees.
In the pavilion, the eye-catching displays included a magnificent cascade of country-garden flowers covering a wicker coffin, by the Farewell Flowers Directory. This collective of British growers is surely pointing the way forward for floral funeral offerings.
Green is good
The mood was gardens as refuges – as a place in which to hide away. A cornucopia of trees and shrubs created this cocooning effect, including spectacular pines for evergreen structure. Tucked in among them were edibles such as currants and the Sichuan pepper tree, beautiful as plants, but serving a dual purpose. River birches, Cornus kousa and Japanese zelkova were popular, while Kazuyuki Ishihara’s bronze Japanese maples, in his exquisite tea garden, helped to win him the show’s inaugural Garden of the Year award.
As for weeds along the paths or an imperfect lawn, as in the RHS and BBC Radio 2 Dog Garden, designed by Monty Don and Jamie Butterworth – well, we’re all more relaxed about such things these days, aren’t we?
