I reached the Chelsea gates at 7.35 to find a bit of a queue waiting for the gates to open. A small group were let through to the entrance, and a little while later I moved forward but still had to wait 15 minutes for the official opening. When we were let in, almost everyone headed for the main gardens, so I did the usual thing and headed for the artisan gardens-which I had to myself for the first twenty minutes. Perfect, as it they are really hard to view later in the day when th crowds build up. The one drawback is that most of the gardens were still setting up for the day and most didn't have any literature to pick up.
The key feature for all of the gardens, which has been developing over the last few years is a more naturalistic wildlife friendly planting style, while still incorporating interesting (and sometimes unusual) design features.
Mr Ishihara was here as usual with his Japanese garden full of maples, moss, rocks and pines, plus a small studio and a shower-well why not. I felt it wasn't up to some of his previous efforts, but it got gold, and was worth studying closely with lots of nice, interesting planting details.
The High Maintenance garden was very nice, a workshop/garage with an old Morgan had been left largely neglected for some time and had run somewhat wild.
Leaving the Artisan gardens I arrived at Main Avenue and hit some barriers. Apparently, because Kate Middleton had been involved in one of the gardens, everyone wanted to see it, and walk through it so there was a queueing system-and even at 8.30 am it was a big one. Needless to say I avoided that one. Unfortunately, with the BBC filming some of the other gardens at the south end were inaccessible so I started with the Chilean garden as this was one I really wanted to see, having an interest in the flora of South America (unfortunately some are rather challenging to grow for me). Fortunately the bromeliad Fasicularia bicolour below is one I can, and I now have many rosettes, though they haven't flowered for a couple of years.
The rest of the gardens in Main Avenue were a mixed bag, lots of umbellifers, foxgloves and irises, and lots of green foliage.
I did like Sarah Eberle's grain silo and xerophytic planting, in the Resilience garden, and Andy Sturgeon's M&G garden with it's backdrop of burnt sculpted oak. Both repaid close study as the planting in both, while very different was very interesting. In particular, the M&G garden was criticised for being 'green' but there were lots of colour spots from orchids, primulas, irises and aquilegias, while the greenery was very varied in structure and tone.
Up on the northern section, the smaller gardens had a lot of good features but it was the sculpture in the Royal Hospital that really attracted attention. Featuring a D-Day veteran in Portland Stone looking back at his younger self, semi-transparent, made from what appeared to be washers and with a background of Thrift and beach defences.
Two hours was spent in the marquee looking at the various nursery and horticultural stands. Unfortunately I had a camera problem as the batteries died in quick succession. I suspect (hope) that one of them had been sitting in my pocket for some time and had lost a considerable charge, and I had presumably just been using two in rotation. So few photos for the rest of the day, though I took a few with the phone.
It didn't seem so crowded this year, so it was possible to spend a lot of time on individual stands, maybe have a quick chat with some of them and just generally admire the very high quality of the plants. Kelnan's rests and South African plants was attractive, as were the bromeliads and air plants on one of the stands. Orchids and bonsai featured on several stands, and there were the usual stands from Kirstenbosch and Grenada. Alpines were in short supply this year with only a small display of planters from one nursery. The usual Hosta people were there, though I didn't find any that I wanted-last year there were several red stemmed varieties that looked quite nice, but non were available. The same with some of the others, Heuceheras, Astrantias, Irises and Bulbs, lots of nice plants but non were standouts.
I was, therefor, for once rather restrained in my purchases, despite taking more money than ever before, and returned with just three plants. Another orchid, Cypridium regina, a new perennial foxglove, Digitalis Firebird, and a small succulent, a very spiky euphorbia.
After leaving the marquee, I had a bit of lunch and then spent a couple of hours just wandering around. Some of the gardens do change their appearance somewhat as the day progresses, and the lighting changes, but of course there are a lot more people around so it can be very hard at times.
Eventually I had to leave, having walked some 6.5 miles in the process. I left via the now crowded Artisan Gardens and found Mr Ishihara sitting behind the crowd so I took a quick snap with the phone. I wasn't the only one.
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