If my blog did not already have a claim , ‘ The Diary of a Plant Addict ’ would be a warm candidate . I ’ve had the most horticulturally soft week one could reckon , starting with the Chelsea Flower Show and ending with a three day stretch getting my own garden in cast for summer . In the heart hail visit to three of England ’s finest garden . How lucky am I ? However , I ’ve purchased plant or bulb every single day for a ten Clarence Day stretch and it ’s starting to get expensive … . not to cite create a lot of additional work and space anxiousness .
Here ’s what I ’ve been up to and what I ’ve total to my collection at The Watch House over the last week or so .
Helen of Oz and I meet just after 7.30am under the magnolias outside Sloane Square underground station . A few minute subsequently we join the concourse at the gate to the Chelsea Flower Show and make a beeline for the obtusely shaded Artisan Gardens , where awards are already being present . In the distance a loud cheer and applause can be heard , a certain signboard thatKazuyuki Ishiharahas won another atomic number 79 medal , this time for his contemporary ‘ Green Switch ’ garden .
Someone surely had flipped the gullible switch at Chelsea this year . Several gardens were dominated by the greenness which is so prevalent in our rural area during May . Greens are refreshful , restful , infinitely varied and prosperous on the optic , create a impregnable feeling of calm air and restraint .
2019 felt like a mature , grown - up Chelsea , but not a vintage one in my impression . Lots of the show garden sought to foreground environmental challenges or mimic rude home ground . There was very little frivolity or engineering science this clock time around . This made for a stiff and pleasing set of show gardens , but provide less to fuel my imagination than I had hoped for . The show feel unusually busy and our overall experience was marred by an excessive amount of cinematography and transcription , which mean many gardens and exhibit could not be prize fully without a second or third pass . Increasingly I feel the best path to know Chelsea is by watching coverage on the telecasting . Perhaps next year I will do just that and forego the sizable incoming fee .
We start on the rosé at 10.30 and meet supporter at separation throughout the solar day , make up it find like a very societal affair . I am glad that I took a small gradation back from from my usual examination as this certainly raise my Chelsea experience . I rationalize to those of you who would have appreciate more detail from me – it might still come if I can find the time over the coming week .
My favourite gardens ? The Trailfinders Undiscovered Latin America Garden plan by Jonathan Snow and the Dubai Majlis Garden designed by Thomas Hoblyn . Both gardens seek to evoke regions of the human beings I am not intimate with and did so with conviction and panache . Andy Sturgeon and Chris Beardshaw pulled off incredibly intricate and beautiful gardens , reminding us all what quality looks like when it comes to garden blueprint .
N.B. I commend grease one’s palms lily bulbs at RHS shows and found them immediately so as to bask a taking over of blooms throughout the yr . Those purchased at Chelsea will flower in July or August , whilst those buy at Hampton Court will bloom in September or October .
We rise late , having had an arduous journey from London to Broadstairs with five suitcases and numerous smaller bags in tow . ( If anyone need textile for a comedy sketch , I will gladly help you of the details of our journey . It was more fun to watch over than to participate in . ) We take a leisurely stroll around town and I buy cushions . At least they are not plants , but they do have a floral aim featuring marigolds , roses and violas .
We are blessed with beautiful atmospheric condition all hebdomad ; not warm by Helen of Oz ’s standards , but ironic and sunny . Arriving at Sandwich by caravan we breathe in the town ’s quaint Englishness en route to The Salutation , where we revel a leisurely luncheon and yet more rosé . We are already give our bit for the calendar week . The garden at The Salutation , where Head Gardener Steve Edney works his magic , are brim with life . The borders are at that acantha - tingling tipping point , thinly splosh with color before they explode into summer exuberance .
Having piece up the hire car we bowl through the Weald of Kent towards Sissinghurst . We know to expect crowds as the conditions is salutary and the garden is forever popular . Somehow the cache seem lesser within the boundary of the garden , perhaps because of the wall and yew hedge that make Sissinghurst ’s famous ‘ room ’ . The result of projects to doctor the garden ’s ‘ gay abandon ’ and original planting are patent to see . There are roses and bearded flag everywhere one bet , whilst cow parsley foams through perennials that are slower to get going . It is all very pretty and very well done , as always .
What one - sentence visitors miss is just how much has changed in late yr , with the opening of the Cutting Garden and Little North Garden , the reference of the Nuttery , restoration of the Sunken Garden and replanting of the Moat Walk . Despite being a garden of enormous historical and cultural importance , Sissinghurst never stands stillandalways looks immaculate . That ’s a reference to the National Trust and Head Gardener Troy Scott - Smith who is soon to take up a new post at Iford Manor in Wiltshire . What an unbelievable bequest he leaves behind him .
The big change at Sissinghurst , and perhaps the most significant since Harold Nicholson reach it over to the National Trust in 1967 , is the reimagining of Delos , an area of the garden that Vita and Harold hoped would remind them of visit to Greece . Unusually for this expert pair , they never quite managed to pull the musical theme off . Under the direction of Landscape Architect Dan Pearson , the majority of what was establish here , which one might best describe as ‘ nice but nothingy ’ , has been removed to make way for a new layout and planting which might last transport visitors to the Cyclades . It ’s a hardy move but a praiseworthy one . I ’m incredibly excited to see the resolution on a future visit as I acknowledge it ’s operate to appeal to me and add a novel dimension to my experience . Projects like Delos do not issue forth along often in a garden such as Sissinghurst , insure the new Head Gardener will have an opportunity to make her or his sucker over the coming old age .
We could not decide whether Helen of Oz had been to Great Dixter before , or not . I thought she had , she thought she had n’t . turn out I was faulty . The route to Dixter from Broadstairs is alike to that taken to reach Sissinghurst , but we are diverted down a net of narrow-minded lanes owe to an chance event at Rolvenden . It is so tantalizing to marvel at the beauty of the countryside that I must concentrate on not driving us into a ditch . Car hire companies are not sympathetic about such thing .
Dixter is already busy when we arrive , shortly after opening . There are scores of omnibus throw up out foreign visitant on organised garden tours . I wonder what they make of our gardens , since few give much away in their facial expressions . I should credibly just ask . We are bowled over by everything at Dixter ; the nursery , the passel groupings , the involution and skill of the planting , the vegetable garden , the hayfield and , oh , the marvellous weather . No garden provides me with more inspiration than Great Dixter . I come out require to throw away everything up in the air and start again .
Helen of Oz departs from The Watch House at 4 am , in time to arrest a flight to Dubai . I am sad to say cheerio as I know it will be another two year before we get to do this again . It is already getting light and the dawn chorus line has begun . As the taxi departs I take a few moments to peruse the garden and I spot my first lily mallet . I thought I might have escaped this nuisance for a year , but obviously not . I have a mountain of lilies this year so I will call for to be wakeful .
All week Dave the Carpenter has been working on the renewal of the boundary fencing in the Gin & Tonic Garden . It ’s run swimmingly , unless you are one of the clematis that was growing up the fencing antecedently . These poor plants are now in various commonwealth of disarray and will probably need a belated ‘ Chelsea Chop ’ to avail them recover . All week I ’ve been moving pots around to keep them out of impairment ’s agency , but it ’s not a pretty sight .
The back of my raised bed needed some major tending , so that was Sunday ’s line . I feed and mulched the conflux genus Colocasia and gingers ( all overwintered successfully outside ) and set the hoard purchased from Great Dixter , along with one or two other acquisition . Feeling the urge to do something creative , I planted a roll with bromeliads , sage , sempervivums and black petunia to adorn the garden table for at least the first part of summer . The gardens at Miami ’s Vizcaya Museum inspired me to be much courageous and more experimental with my planting , so we ’ll see how this combination performs in an altogether cool climate . Afterwards I spent a well-chosen half - hour wiring my airplants into the Japanese olive tree diagram ( Phillyrea latifolia ) . They were not bet at all well-chosen indoors and will hopefully benefit from the shade and humidity they ’ll revel under the tree ’s canopy .
Today is for tying up loose ends and reflect on a calendar week mob with flowers , friendship and plant shopping opportunity . I ’m intoxicated by all the wonders I ’ve discover and explode with inspiration . At the same time I ’m ready to return to workplace for a ‘ residue ’ . Everyone should take a week off to call gardens and get their plant fix … . and if you’re able to do it with a friend , all the better . TFG .
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Categories : Chelsea flower show , Climbers , Container horticulture , Flower Shows , Flowers , Foliage , Garden Design , Kentish Gardens , Large Gardens , opened gardens , Perennials , Photography , Planting Design , Plants , Trees and Shrubs , Weather
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