Sun shines on Chelsea Flower Show

Chelsea Flower Show – press day. I was out early this morning to meet up with the British Olympic sailing team who inspired the Hillier garden at this year’s flower show.

There was still a lot of preparation going on which was surprising since this was the day they bring the Queen along. It’s always one of the year’s big Royal turnouts, almost as big as when they have the three-line whip for weddings and jubilees on the Buckingham Place balcony.

Two Wombles

Chelsea today is a huge media event. BBC camera crews were everywhere and almost every big sponsor seemed to have hired a celebrity for the day. There was Felicity Kendal, Anne Robinson and Patricia Routledge but they didn’t attract anything like the camera scrum that gathered to see Melinda Messenger with two Wombles.

Ms Messenger, who made her name as a Page Three girl in The Sun, was wearing a pretty floral dress. But I don’t suppose that will stop the tabloid headline writers having fun with “Melinda shows us her Wombles.”

I don’t know what to make of the decision by a Pink grower to name one of its new blooms “Rebekah” after Rebekah Wade, editor of The Sun. Wade, who is no shrinking violet, was accompanied by a model who had The Sun’s logo emblazoned on the rear of her bright red shorts.


Body Painting

The photographers seemed to be taking much more interest in the models than in the flowers. An Australian “garden” with far more planks than plants was proving popular with the newspapers. Did it have anything to do with the two young bikini clad women draped over the seats?

Body painting was another hit but shouldn’t the flowers be the real stars? That’s the problem with Chelsea. There are some great exhibits – I loved the little shed made from clumps of moss – but they tend to be eclipsed in the big sell. Your eyes may be feasting on a sea of lavender but your nose is assaulted by the wafting fragrance of barbecued sausages – just like real gardens then.



Chelsea has its knockers - quite enough to keep Ms Wade's readers amused - but it is still the event that London needs to kick start its season. More Llewelyn-Bowen than Monty Don, perhaps, but a little bit of flamboyance doesn't do much harm. For an event that stages more scrums than Twickenham it will never reflect the contemplative side of gardening. But darlings, you just have to go.