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New trends | History | What to expect | Shopping | Show gardens | Info

Gardening's hot new trends
The Chelsea Flower Show is the horticultural community’s London Fashion Week – the place to discover what’s hot and what’s got the rot. Tamer versions of the excesses unveiled at Chelsea will shortly be popping up in a garden near you. This year’s biggest trend seems to be the garden-as-art-gallery vogue.

A sculpture by Simon Thomas features in Robert Myers’s ‘Cancer Research UK Garden’, the work’s themes picked up in the planting and paving. Nigel Hall’s large-scale sculpture in pre-rusted steel will hang on the rear wall of the contemporary Italianate garden created by Luciano Guibbilei for Laurent Perrier. Swedish designer Ulf Nordfjell will go one better in ‘The Daily Telegraph Garden’, erecting a minimalist structure of glass and timber to showcase the work of Swedish artists.

History of the Flower Show
The origins of the Chelsea Flower Show go back to 1862 when the first Royal Horticultural Society Great Spring Show was held in Kensington. The event has been through a variety of homes and incarnations, eventually settling in the grounds of the Royal Hospital in Chelsea in 1913.

In recent years it’s gone from strength to strength, moving from four days to five in 2005, after complaints that overcrowding was turning the highlight of the gardening year rather sour. Now tickets are sold for three timed slots each day and the number of visitors is limited. Feature continues

What to expect
You’ll never walk alone at Chelsea, but these days the crowds are much better. The show is a part of the London summer social season, but its fans come from all walks of life, and people-watching is part of the fun.

Over the 11 acres of grounds at the Royal Hospital, visitors can see show gardens that range from small and sweet to huge and spectacular. There are gloriously over-the-top floral displays in the Great Pavilion, where you’ll also find new varieties and rarities from specialist nurseries. Outside, the walkways are lined with stands selling garden-related products of every kind, from wellies and gardening gloves to irrigation systems and wrought-iron garden gates.

Eating and drinking are very much part of the experience, and here too the show caters for all sorts. Hot sausage sandwiches? Check. A glass of Champagne at an unfeasibly early hour? Check. The first two days are reserved for RHS members. Credit-crunch gardeners should book the final slot on the Saturday, when weary exhibitors start to dismantle their pitches and sell off their plants.

Shopping for garden gear
For some people the garden isn’t about plants at all. It’s an extra living space, a home extension where (weather permitting) you can cook, eat, doze, read, entertain. More than 250 trade stands will offer everything you need to make the most of the outdoor life, from dining furniture to solar lights. And if you’re on a mission to find something to counter the fact that the weather’s often less than obliging, you’ll find conservatories, pergolas, sheds and shelters to suit all pockets.

If you happen to have a budget of around £7,000, check out the Rotating Sphere Lounger which will be showcased on the Ornate Gardens stand. It can be a sitting area, a study, even a temporary spare bedroom, and, as its name suggests, it swivels to allow the entrance to catch the sun or shade or move out of the wind.

Show-garden highlights
Even for those who’ve nothing bigger than a window box to cultivate, the show gardens are what make a trip to Chelsea such fun, for the visitors, at least. It’s extremely stressful – albeit exhilaratingly rewarding for those who win the coveted Chelsea Flower Show medals – creating those elaborate gardens from scratch with specimens nurtured, often for a whole year, to be at their immaculate best for for the start of the show. It’s also an enormously costly business. Which is why the sponsors are so crucial and why the verdant, tranquil designs often have rather incongruous names.

Gardens likely to generate attention this year include the ‘Quilted Velvet Garden’, by Tony Smith. One half raised, the other sunken, it promises to be a dramatic space that contrasts an unlikely pairing of spiky, sculptural yukkas and mauve busy lizzies with a minimalist area reminiscent of a public memorial.

‘The Key’ garden, designed by Paul Stone, is being created by the Eden Project in Cornwall, working with homeless people and those who have been in prison. Planted to represent a symbolic journey from darkness into light, it will have paths mulched with thousands of old keys.

The ‘Perfume Garden’ by Laurie Chetwood and Patrick Collins is inspired by a perfume created 400 years ago for Elizabeth I. It began with a visit to Grasse to recreate the queen’s perfume with the help of French perfume house Jean Patou, and each plant in the garden has a role to play in the creation of scent. The final design will include an area where visitors can try the contemporary version of Elizabeth I’s perfume for themselves.

Essential info
Where Royal Hospital Chelsea, Royal Hospital Rd, SW3 4SR.
When May 19-23, open 8am-8pm Tue-Fri, 8am-5.30pm Sat.
Tickets £18.50-£43. The first two days are reserved for RHS members. The booking slots are 8am-8pm, 3.30-8pm, 5.30-8pm. On the final day the show closes at 5.30pm, and from 4pm there are good bargains to be had when exhibitors sell off their plants. As we went to press all the slots for May 19 were sold out but there were still tickets available on all the other days.
How to get there Sloane Square tube then a ten-minute walk, or Victoria rail then shuttle bus from Hudson’s Place or 11, 137, 211, 239, 360 or 452 bus.
Bookings and information 0870 906 3781/www.rhs.org.uk/flowershows

Don’t forget… It’s strictly advance booking only, with no admission on the gate. Also, there’s no readmission, something that’s worth bearing in mind if you’re thinking of going to the last session on Saturday with a view to taking advantage of the big sell-off from 4pm. Work out your strategy for getting booty out of the grounds in advance. Plan to eat outside the obvious meal times: the queues for food can be very long. There’s no admittance at all for children under five or babes in arms, pushchairs or prams.

A family-friendly alternative
The RHS Hampton Court Flower Show, held in the grounds of Hampton Court Palace, is less of an institution than Chelsea (it’s celebrating its twentieth anniversary this year) but it features the same ingredients – inspirational show gardens, floral displays and endless opportunities for retail therapy. It also boasts a fabulous and much more spacious setting and you can buy tickets on the day (although there’s a £10 discount if you book a pair of public day tickets in advance). It’s the more child-friendly of the two shows, with a crèche for children aged two to nine and a variety of features and fun activities for families at the weekend (unlike Chelsea, it’s open on Sunday). There’s a Tudor-themed scarecrow competition for pre-schools and primary schools, and up to two children aged 16 and under get in free with an accompanying adult.
The RHS Hampton Court Flower Show, Hampton Court Palace, East Molesey, Surrey (0844 209 1810/ www.rhs.org.uk/whatson/shows/hamptoncourt2009). July 7-12. 10am-7.30pm Tue-Sat, 10am-5.30pm Sun. £14-£32.