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by Graham Rice
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| Hive of activity as exhibitors finish displays
The Chelsea showground was a hive of activity as exhibitors prepared their displays for the first day of the show.
The new marquee was choc-a-bloc with armies of exhibitors putting the finishing touches to their colourful exhibits, ready for judging on Monday afternoon.
Mike Clare at Potash Nursery at Stowmarket, Suffolk, said he was feeling relaxed and said his display of fuchsias would be ready on time. "We’ve still got a few hours of work left to do, like cleaning-up plants and spacing them out. I won’t be panicking," he said.
Garden designer Geoff Whiten was similarly relaxed at his "A Waterside Retreat" Show garden, which has been sponsored by hard landscaping supplier Stonemarket. Armed with a broom he was sweeping up dust and debris in front of his garden. |
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David Hitchcock of Three Counties Nurseries arranges a huge display of Aquilegias in the new Floral Marquee East. Photo by Graham Rice/GardenPhotos.com
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| "I really finished the bulk of my work on the garden on Friday, which has given me a couple of days to titivate about," he said. "Good job too because the weather has been awful today, with lots of rain" he added.
Geoff has been exhibiting at Chelsea since 1962 and said he tried not to think about whether his garden would bag a Gold Medal. "I’ve learnt to do the best job to your ability, enjoy the experience and forget about winning medals," he said.
Phil Evans, chairwoman of the Mercia and North Wales group of the National Association of Flower Arranging Societies was leading a team of fellow flower enthusiasts in the floral marquee, who were busily adding plants to their floral arrangement, "Global Warming: our World of Change". The woodland display consists of a dilapidated wooden greenhouse as its centrepiece, with loads of plants growing through the wooden slats. "We’ve got to moss the display, put little plants in and then we’ll be just about ready," she said.
"We’re not starting to feel frantic yet, but it’s all a bit loony at this time of day. I think we’ll be finished at around 10pm," said Phil. |
| London-based contemporary garden ornament company, Avant Garden, has an outside stand on Southern Road. Joan Clifton, owner of the business, was using her artistic skills to train a passionflower around a metal candle holder; this would be used as the centrepiece of the display. "We’re almost there, but we do need to mop away all the mud on the stand which has been deposited by the rain," she said.
Most of the Show gardens were mainly completed on the Sunday, but there was still plenty of work to do on the Homes & Gardens Magazine "The Garden of Reflections". The plot uses modern materials to highlight the way light changes, and featured mirrored obelisks and a glass sphere with water spilling out of it.
The garden design team was completing the front of the garden, laying soil down for some turf and putting in box hedging. |
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Washing off the mud in the "The Garden of Reflections", designed by Allison Armour Associates & Peter Rogers Associates. Photo copyright by Graham Rice/GardenPhotos.com
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