It has always been a dream, a fantasy really…but now it is off my bucket list! Chris and I went to Chelsea this year. And it in no way disappointed! It was pouring rain, freezing cold and way more crowded than I could have imagined but it was worth every line stood in, every storm waded through, every wet boot and coat, every umbrella poking…..well you get it. It was also everything I imagined Chelsea would be - spectacular.
So many pictures were taken. And everything I thought was my new favorite thing was just pushed out of it's place by the next thing we saw. The images I will attach here are just a sprinkle of what we found incredible, sparked an idea or made and impression. There were large scale gardens that obviously had no budget what so ever, and small individual's gardens that had incredible design and detail, a whole "Great Pavilion" where growers showed off their products and artists that should be in galleries.
Even the food, coffee and teas were memorable.
But, the most remarkable thing is that any other time of the year this is just a parking lot for the grounds of the Royal Hospital.
Gardens large and Small
One of my favorite small scale garden. The ropes are weighted down with rocks to hold the roof on.
The most impressive large scale garden (and the gold prize winner) was the Australian garden sponsored by Trailfinders. All plants native to Australia. With it's own waterfall, tree ferns over 15 feet high (that miraculously seem to be growing out of the rocks) , a suspended studio, a pond with a boardwalk and lounge deck…..
Details everywhere!
Still, the small gardens were not overshadowed.
There was a whole area of greenhouse displays. Doesn't it look like the brick walk and stoop
to this greenhouse garden has been there for years? And the plantings so thick….How did
they do that?
Details even small added so much.
Lots of gardeners used slate on it's side for walks.
I liked the curved corten steel wall used as a back drop.
trimming the square boxwoods at different heights, gotta love the whimsy it adds….
the planks gave a nice vertical touch here….
backdrop to the foliage.
And this is just the trimmed grass along the walks of the artisan market!
More Gardens
My favorite artisan garden in the "Fresh" category (having to use new or overlooked materials in a fresh way) used ceramic pavers and tipped accents in bold orange. Especially the ceramic seats with orange tops! Even the run off and drain were ceramic. I plan to incorporate ideas from this in our tiny plot at Serenbe.
Another large scale "show garden". It was to be installed on the roof of a hospital
after the show. How therapeutic!
Maybe we could install something like this on a wall at a clients?
But would the watering make a mess?
Double sided border garden, so elaborate! Even the limestone path seems like it would be a challenge.
I still can't figure how they planted so thick and established for such a temporary time. Maybe they planted ahead of time in large sectional boxes that could
be installed like tiles???
This garden was a series of terraced ponds with a huge green wall. I could not decide how I felt about the pergola as sculpture. Each white brick is a porcelain tile with a proverb imprinted on it. Impressive all the same.
Another of my most memorable gardens below. I really liked the contrast of the wild flower plantings against the structured and controlled hedges of yew and box. The larger trees looked so lovely and helped soften the hardness too.
The best was the water that ran under the whole garden and opened into ponds areas where the wildflowers were not planted.
The Great Pavilion
inside the Great Pavilion, growers and purveyors from all over the world show off what they do best.
Lupines!!! Electric colors, strong spiked spires….they turned out to be my favorite for sure.
This grower grew over 150 varieties of tulips for the cut industry. I tried to count how many where in this display stopping at 165. That wasn't even half!
This entire tree had been uprooted and somehow suspended and propped up to show it's entire root system. So amazing to see all that life that is below ground. The root system spandex over 25 feet!
Oh olive trees! And pollarded to exaggerate their awesome and gnarly trunks. It took years and years for these to be this showy….I guess patience paid off!
(our friend Tim should try this at his new CA property)
Chris and I both loved the steel boxes they were planted in also.
The opposite of the subtle olives, this way over-the-top display from an orchid grower was unbelievable if not tacky. I kept trying to figure how much it would cost to try and replicate something like this on a retail level. We could not even begin to guess.
