Chelsea Flower Show

31st May: by admin

Tags: Chelsea Flower Show, gardening, Harrington Porter

Press Day tickets at Chelsea Flower.

What a luxury. No heaving queues, no standing on tip-toes to see over a mass of purple rinses and camera phones, no jostling for position to get a view of the show gardens. Simply a relaxing walk around (and through) all the gardens, stands and stalls of Chelsea Flower Show 2011.

At first glance the show seemed much the same as year’s gone before; the same suppliers, the same contractors, the same designers (they really are forming quite a clique……..one day!!) consistently impressive bulging, billowing planting schemes, and mind boggling feats of installation. However….to summarise this year’s show as “the same as last year” would not only show me up as someone who didn’t have much insight into our profession, it would also do a disservice to the amazing amount of hardwork and talent that is required to create these one off masterpieces.

The ability of all involved to create in a matter of days (not withstanding all the work off site and months of prep. however) what we at Harrington Porter attempt to construct over several weeks, is what continues to impress me each year. Planting that looks as if it’s been there for years, huge trees up to 6 or 7 metres carted in for dramatic effect, water-wheels, tree stumps, horrendously expensive hand cut stone, swimming pools, and other installations that for one week look, in their own orchestrated environment, that they have been there for years.

So what of this year’s flower show in particular? Our signature style at Harrington Porter is that of the contemporary urban garden. And evidence of this, blinkered or not, is what I look for each year and what impresses me most. And for this reason my choice for best in show was Trailfinders Australian Garden presented by Fleming’s Nurseries designed by Ian Barker. Read more about the Australian Garden here. I loved the futuristic feature seating, the combination of stone and paving, and the stunning white/silver/evergreen planting scheme. The huge water feature pond isn’t really conducive to your typical London garden, but everything else really worked for me. The balance of entertaining space vs planting vs features made it a garden that could genuinely be used – a garden that could realistically be built for someone.

That leads me on to my choice for worst in show. Dirmaund Gavin’s sky garden. Totally indulgent, totally unrealistic, and distinctly average unless you were allowed to go up in the floating garden. Which I wasn’t. I’d guess this creation cost twice as much as most other show gardens, it was certainly twice the size, and whilst it highlighted everything flamboyant and extravagant about Chelsea, personally I thought it was a bit of a dud.

The other garden that really stood out for me was Luciano Giubbilei’s Laurent Perrier garden. This is a designer who’s style I love, and copy! and it was the garden that I had done some background research in to. His style is one of symmetry, clean lines and order, off-set with beautiful features, block planting, and sculpture. And this year’s garden for which he won another gold medal was stunning. I think I’d expected something more formal and architectural with regards to the planting, but he did this with the hard landscaping and softened things with the most beautiful flowing low lying planting. Classic signature features were on show – under-cut feature shrubs, in this case Parrotia persica, beech hedging, and linear Cedec pathway revealing his typically Italianate style.  See more of Luciano’s designs here.

Trends that our keen eyes at Harrington Porter noticed this year were:

Green / Living Walls
Water – all manner of shapes, sizes and features
Curves with planting and hard landscaping
Cornus kousa
Vegetable and herb gardening
Green roofs
Blue and yellow planting

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