How to build a show garden - an insider's view into designing and building a garden at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show
Behind the scenes at the greatest flower show on earth
It requires a different level of madness to design and build a garden at RHS Chelsea. Over a year in the planning, sometimes longer, designers and builders commit to building these gardens in less than three weeks. Today, I’m taking you behind the scenes: by the time you get to the end, you might wonder why on earth anybody would put themselves through it.
Hello everyone… and this week, a slightly different post to the one I’d planned.
A sharp encounter between my hand and dogfood tin entailed a trip to A&E, and that means that I’m typing this with one hand.
Whilst everything should be back to normal next week, I’m unable to type for the next couple of days - I’m so sorry as I have the loveliest selection of romantic plants for you in the Top 100 Romantic Plants series - next week!
But what I HAVE done is recorded this so you can maybe listen to it over a cup of tea or on a dog walk, or even whilst gardening - let me know what you think!
I hope your day is sunny and full of garden inspiration
As it’s the RHS Chelsea Flower Show coming up soon, I thought I’d instead revisit this post, as I’ve just returned from judging once more at the RHS Malvern Flower Show.
It requires a different level of madness to design and build a garden at RHS Chelsea. Over a year in the planning, sometimes longer, designers and builders commit to building these gardens in less than three weeks. Today, I’m taking you behind the scenes: by the time you get to the end, you might wonder why on earth anybody would put themselves through it.
I am still asking myself that question.
Before that:
Our Book Club launched on the Chat; have a look at Thursday’s second instalment. Remember: you can join in with that at any time.
Lots of you have messaged to let me know you’re coming to our Real-Life Meet-Up next month at the wonderful walled gardens at Water Lane in Kent. Water Lane is around a 20 minutes’ drive from the wonderful gardens of Great Dixter and Sissinghurst, for anyone thinking of making a weekend of it.
The first iris is out in my garden - the absolute joy of the scent and the architectural delicacy of these plants is a total uplift.
The jewel violet-blue beauty of Iris ‘Jane Phillips’ Every year I think I’m going to plant more irises, and this year I have actually chosen a selection which I’ll be sharing with you soon. Whilst in my own garden, plants are pretty much allowed to go wherever they want1, I need to be more careful with irises, making sure that their knobbly rhizomes get to bask in the sun.
I’ll no doubt be sharing more images of this in this week’s Show Us Your Plots on the Chat- and I can’t wait to see what’s going on in your garden where it’s all probably going on in this merry month of May. So, start planning your photos - look out for the post which starts:
It’s Sunday 12th May and it’s time to SHOW US YOUR PLOTS! This is our weekly get-together on this Chat thread (topic) where we show each other unfiltered, unedited photos of our real gardens or gardening space, wherever we are in the world. Tell us where you are in the world and what’s going on in your garden. If you haven’t used the Chat before, think of it as our very own WhatsApp group - have a play-about with making comments and uploading photos - it’s honestly fun.
Here’s an idea: why not come up with a design for a garden, for something you’ve never tried out before and therefore you don’t know if it is even completely possible, using plants that may not even flower?
Then commit to building it in 19 days, and at the end of all of this, showing it to the public?
Oh, and not forgetting to put yourself and your design skills at the mercy of judges who will decide, in their wisdom, whether your garden merits a medal of any colour?
Does any of the above sound like a good idea to you?
I was reminded of this no-brainer of a question as I walked round the Malvern Flower Show early one morning last week, as designers with queasy expressions fled from us, the judges, as we approached each garden.
What you don’t want is rain, and cold. Our rucksacks in past years have been stuffed with thermals, shorts, waterproofs, suncream and London-plane-pollen-combatting antihistamines, because you never quite know what you’re going to get. Not only does a torrential downpour halt all building, and thus throw out your carefully-programmed schedule, but it also makes you very, very wet and very, very cold, as there isn’t usually anywhere to get changed/store your belongings.
Possibly one of the worst parts of making one of these show gardens is the realisation that you’ve now handed over for public scrutiny that precise thing which has a.consumed your thoughts for a whole year and b.consumed your energies totally for the last month.
Surviving on adrenaline with only a few hours’ sleep each night, your mission is to bring to life that one great idea that you truly hope is still original, exciting and capable of transporting the garden visitor - whether they’re seeing it in real life, or via the television or though a photo - into your mind, into your vision.
Let me take you to the showground of The RHS Chelsea Flower Show, where I was building a show garden for Wedgwood:
Me on 8th May 2019:
This blurriest of photos, taken on a cold and rainy two-coat day, sums up the reality. For these three weeks in May, if you’re going to be on the flower show site every day in order to be present at the construction of your show garden on what starts off as a bare patch of land in the grounds of the Royal Hospital Chelsea, you need to pack clothes for four seasons.