Monday, May 23, 2011

Climbing aboard the Chelsea bandwagon

It's Chelsea Flower Show this week - an opportunity to see horticultural perfection. The usual suspects are complaining that the show gardens don't represent what the average gardener is faced with. Well, thank goodness for that! Why would I want to see world-class designers designing for the average back garden? I want to see something new and exciting, to see new ideas, unusual plants. OK, perhaps Diarumid's bonkers flying pod is a bit too far, but at least it gets people talking.

I hope that everyone going has a great time. If, like me, you're not going and unlike me, you don't want to see new and exciting designs, here's something for you, from 1964 (from British Pathe)


CHELSEA FLOWER SHOW

7 comments:

Victoria Summerley said...

I love it! The music, the plants, the colours are just a complete nostalgia fest.
The show gardens look hilarious to our 21st century eyes, don't they? Mind you, it explains quite a lot about my mother's gardening tastes...

NewShoot said...

Oh those pink hydrangeas...!

Tom said...

That Pathe clip is retro heaven - thanks for posting. I'm heading to this years show tomorrow and I fear it will be a disappointment after that. Maybe I should grow more Begonias...

Gardener-Gary said...

Chelsea is what it is, & I love it! It brings so many people together, & although I rarely get there, the buzz still comes through all those who tweet or blog about it, and also the excellent TV coverage - we really are spoilt! Try #RHSChelsea on twitter to pick up what people really think too!

Garden Decking said...

Here here! Chelsea always has the most cutting edge garden designers and leaves me in awe.

It does an excellent job at getting more people interested in gardening - which can only be a good thing!

Janet said...

I remember when people aspired to gardens that looked like that. And the hats - they just don't make them like that anymore! i really enjoyed that piece of nostaligia...

Janet/Plantaliscious said...

I can get very grumpy about Chelsea, but you are right, its not about being able to transplant a show garden into your own small patch and it work, any more than I would want a lot of the art that delights and challenges me in an art gallery to hang on my own walls at home. Diarumid's bonkers flying pod made me smile, and his planting was wonderful, and in the end I got a lot our of this Chelsea, if only from my armchair. As to the video, the hydrangeas made me shudder, but that moustache...