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10 for Chelsea trendspotters to watch out for

This year’s show is serious, fun and frenetic by turns, says Francine Raymond
This year’s show is serious, fun and frenetic by turns, says Francine Raymond

Another year, another Chelsea: but this show is more generously sponsored (four more large gardens than last year); a more diverse field of designers (12 out of 26 are female) and more international contributors. There also seems to be less waste, more concern for the environment with fewer gardens destined for the skip.

Of course, we’ll have to wait until the great day to see the gardens, feel the atmosphere and judge the show.

Gardens that live on

The Urban Flow Garden by Tony Woods
The Urban Flow Garden by Tony Woods

With the King’s Fund report (commissioned by the National Garden Scheme) recognising significant reductions in a range of illnesses as the result of gardening, Matt Keightley’s Feel Good Garden for the RHS will be opened by British rapper Professor Green on Monday. In the past the Professor has opened up about his mental health struggles and the garden will be donated to Camden & Islington NHS for patients and staff.

Other gardens relocating include the Wedgwood Garden to its visitor HQ; the Spirit of Cornwall to Hadlow College; Embroidered Minds to the Epilepsy Society’s grounds; Kate Gould’s garden to Old Quebec Street for the Westminster community: the Myeloma Garden to St Francis Hospice and Urban Flow Garden to the Roots and Shoots charity based in Kennington, south London.

Handmade Products

Niwaki shears have been shortlisted for product of the year
Niwaki shears have been shortlisted for product of the year

In a world of plastic (thriving vigorously in the gardening world) there is a reassuring trend afoot that values handmade tools that last and improve with age. Jake Hobson, founder of Niwaki says: “Most of our range comes with sustainable wooden handles. We respect makers and the handmade, and so do our customers: our more expensive ranges easily outsell the cheaper products.” Niwaki, whose shears have been shortlisted for product of the year, has recently partnered with a Japanese family who hand produce some of their tools.

The workman’s jacket in burnt orange by The Carrier Company
The workman’s jacket in burnt orange by The Carrier Company

The Carrier Company has been selling gardening wear at Chelsea for 30 years. Tina Guillory tells me: “We specialise in handmade garments in natural fabrics like cords and cotton drills that improve with age. Although our comfy trousers and dungarees sell well, our workman’s jacket outsells everything and won’t date.” Their colour for this season is burnt orange – a shade I’m loving in the garden this year (see left).

Alpine plants

Alpine plant
Alpine plant

Are alpine plants losing their rockery/botanist image and blooming in small urban gardens? Grower D’Arcy & Everest is celebrating 25 years in the business, and Luke, the son of owner Angela Whiting, tells me there’s lots of renewed interest. Monty Don featured alpines a couple of weeks ago and I have a modest collection. The Hartley Botanic trade stand (SR32) features its new iron grey plant house with raised staging for close-up display of alpines, succulents, saxifrages and sedums, though most are hardy despite their fragile appearance.

Climate control

Kate Gould's West End Secret garden
Kate Gould's West End Secret garden

Tony Woods’s design for Thames Water, in the new Space to Grow category, simulates the average urban garden designed with water conservation in mind, deflecting and processing pollution, and features a range of planting that can cope with our unpredictable weather patterns. Kate Gould’s New West End garden uses hidden technology to create a more pleasant urban environment: when passers-by tread on the paving slabs, electricity is generated, powering a pump that circulates fresh air.

Elegant entertaining

Chesneys' barbecue heater
Chesneys' barbecue heater

The passion for eating outside continues. Shortlisted product of the year Chesneys’ barbecue heater looks like a wood burner with a grill on top – keep warm while you cook. This expensive bit of kit might take over from the Big Green Egg. Are you sitting comfortably? Then take a pew on the Skal handmade steam-bent chair (another shortlisted product). Incidentally, leftover food from the show will be redistributed.

Good causes

Tom Massey, creator of the Lemon Tree Trust garden, at Domiz refugee camp to meet gardeners supported by the Lemon Tree Trust - Credit: DIRK-JAN VISSER
Tom Massey, creator of the Lemon Tree Trust garden, at Domiz refugee camp to meet gardeners supported by the Lemon Tree Trust Credit: DIRK-JAN VISSER

Gardening helps refugees put down new roots. Syrian refugees inspired the design of the Lemon Tree Garden by Tom Massey, reusing reclaimed, repurposed and upcycled materials typically available in camps. Planted with drought tolerant plants from the Syrian region including figs, lemons and pomegranate trees (all now growable in parts of this country) with edibles and herbs. Channels and a central fountain use grey water, something we should be encouraged to emulate with our erratic rainfall.

Five new plants

Iris 'black tie affair' - Credit: Alamy
Iris 'black tie affair' Credit: Alamy

A hurried word with busy Mark Straver at Hortus Loci, which is providing the plants for a dozen show gardens, who points out the difficulties everyone has experienced this year: “The worst growing season in living memory: from the coldest to the hottest almost overnight.” Straver tells me there’s an international range of planting from Yorkshire to Syria, so trends are hard to spot; that most designers are spending less (no £500,000 flights of fancy, so less wastage); that Hortus (which also has a retail arm) grows 85 per cent of its plants and that that percentage will increase because of disease precautions. Straver points out five plants of interest:

  1. A rare multi-stemmed ginkgo in Tony Woods’s garden Urban Flow.

  2. Cornus ‘Stellar Pink’ at Tom Stuart-Smith’s Weston Garden, which should be covered with soft, pink flowers.

  3. Matt Keightley is showing a fabulous blue/black and navy iris ‘Black Tie Affair’ in the RHS Feel Good Garden.

  4. Peonies – all the rage because of royal wedding connections – are featured by Chris Beardshaw in his woodland garden, but it’s a rare ivory Paeonia obovata.

  5. The Wedgwood Garden’s Jo Thompson, always good with colour, is showing Salvia africana, another plant in this year’s burnt orange.

Recycling

The Weston Garden
The Weston Garden

Horticulture is a business notoriously bad at recycling (unrecyclable plastic pots and labels proliferate). But times are changing. In Tom Stuart-Smith’s garden for the Weston Foundation we are told: “This is a garden where everything to the smallest detail is recycled. Many of the plants have been to Chelsea before, borrowed from Crocus for the show and others will be reused afterwards.” Stuart-Smith says: “All too often we are obsessed by novelty. I wanted to create an honest, mature garden at the heart of Chelsea.” Of this year’s shortlisted products of the year, Dalefoot’s peat-free composts are made from Lake District bracken and the aluminium base of Bridgman’s Verona waterproof sofa is recyclable.

Let's go weddingtastic

Rambler rose 'Bobby James' - Credit: Alamy
Rambler rose 'Bobby James' Credit: Alamy

Inevitably, the royal wedding has been taken up as a theme, especially in the marquee where Sarah Eberle’s interactive installation for Hillier is called A Royal Celebration. A new clematis ‘Royal Wedding’ from New Leaf Plants (predictably white) has been launched, as has a dark red one called ‘Meghan’. Meghan Markle’s bridal bouquet, designed by florist Philippa Craddock, is rumoured to feature peonies and white roses, the latter a favourite of Diana, Princess of Wales. Chelsea’s London gate, the nearest for visitors arriving by tube, will feature an English oak and a beautiful Californian cedar decorated with woodland flowers, designed by florist Kitten Grayson. Peeping through the foliage, visitors may spot a Botswanan springbok, a reminder of the country dear to Harry and Meghan.

Chelsea Fringe

The Floating Meadow at Paddington Central
The Floating Meadow at Paddington Central, which will be moored throughout the Chelsea Fringe for visitors to climb aboard

Meanwhile, back in the real world, there is a range of garden-themed events running from May 19-27 all over the country (for further details, visit chelseafringe.com).

  • Download an app telling you how to find the Great Trees of London wherever you are in the capital.

  • Check out botanical paintings with a glass of prosecco at Plants That Heal at Glasshouse Café, Sydney Street, SW3.

  • Visit An Elixir of Letters – a letter-carving exhibition at nearby Chelsea Physic Garden.

Is your garden a prize winner? We'd like our readers to share photos of their own green spaces, and we will publish the best images online. Please send a photo of your garden to mypic@telegraph.co.uk 

Reader gardens
Reader gardens