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Dedicated growers are the heroes of the day at Chelsea

Rosa The Mill on the Floss - Howard Rice
Rosa The Mill on the Floss - Howard Rice

The Chelsea Flower show usually marks the start of summer, but this year unseasonably cold weather stretched into April, making things nigh on impossible for nurseries. Those growing rose and clematis have found it particularly trying, because forcing these into flower under light and heat produces a floppy horror show, and that won’t win gold.

There have been sleepless nights and anxious days at Thorncroft Clematis (GPD164), a family-run Norfolk nursery in search of its 11th gold, but its new red-purple tulip-flowered ‘Prince William’, one of 12 royal-themed clematis, is in full flight. However, I prefer its new viticella ‘Valour’, because the widely spaced Maltese cross of petals hovers midway between purple and pink. ‘Sarah Elizabeth’ is a new pink-flowered patio clematis with a boss of deep-purple stamens being shown by Raymond Evison (GPE201).

Growers have to supply 100 plants at the point of perfection, in huge pots – that takes real skill

This year there are only two or three major designer names, as the old guard (the likes of Andy Sturgeon, Cleve West and Dan Pearson) are no longer regular fixtures on Main Avenue. I’m expecting some new gladiators to appear, but it’s getting harder for any designer to stand out from the crowd because most of the show garden plants are supplied by three growers: Crocus, Kelways and Hortus Loci. I refer to them as the Holy Trinity, but by late spring they all turn into elusive Scarlet Pimpernels – so far I’ve spoken to Mark Straver (of Hortus Loci) in three different European countries; Dave Root of Kelways recently returned from Germany having discovered some unusual paperbark maples (Acer griseum); and Peter Clay of Crocus is still out there somewhere.

 Helianthus annuus Sunbelievable Brown Eyed Girl
Helianthus annuus Sunbelievable Brown Eyed Girl

There can be a feeling of déjà vu at Chelsea, because the same plants pop up rather regularly. Thankfully the brilliant Marina Christopher of Phoenix Perennial Plants, a wizard at raising unusual umbellifers and indigenous plants from seed, has grown up to 7,000 plants for this year’s show. Catherine MacDonald’s second Seedlip Garden (RHW291), which uses only members of the pea family, contains a Californian annual wildflower, the tomcat clover, Trifolium willdenovii, which Marina admires for its “narrow, reddish young foliage and the topknot of tiny purple and white flowers” and thinks it could make a great insect-friendly garden plant.

Chris Marchant of Orchard Dene has grown 500 plants – mostly wildflowers and annuals for Sarah Price. She says: “Chelsea is restricting because it’s the same show at the same time of the year. If you want new botanical input, the show has to be moved to the end of the summer. A lot of things can’t be forced, so the same plants crop up again and again. It’s how designers combine them that makes the difference.”

She adds, “Many growers don’t want to grow for Chelsea. You have to supply 100 plants at the point of perfection, in huge pots – that takes real skill. The show needs less budget and more imagination – the Radio 2 gardens last year were put together on a modest budget, but the public loved them.”

Clamatis Meghan Flower
Clamatis Meghan Flower

Sourcing plants is also getting trickier because the RHS has imposed restrictions on imports due to concerns about the bacterial disease Xylella fastidiosa. Spread by sap-sucking insects, it has already wiped out groves of ancient olives in Italy and has also been found in France and Spain. From now on, certain plants (hebe, rosemary, lavender, oleander, olive, polygala, coffee, Spanish broom and prunus) must be raised in Britain if they’re to be used at RHS shows – and rightly so.

Where the wild things are

Four show garden designers are recreating wild landscapes this year and, as James Basson’s Maltese quarry proved last year, these are not universally popular. After all, if you’re using Maltese natives that thrive only on a sun-beaten rockcliff face in the Mediterranean, there’s no “take-home” message. It can work, though, as Charlotte Harris’s Canadian arboreal forest proved last year.

Origanum syriacum evokes Middle Eastern cuisine - Credit: Alamy
Origanum syriacum evokes Middle Eastern cuisine Credit: Alamy

Sarah Price, one of this year’s major names, will almost certainly succeed with her Mediterranean haven The M&G Garden (MA320). Some of her plants were grown for James Basson last year but failed to make it in time. Not everything is strictly Mediterranean, though – Senecio mandraliscae, commonly called the blue chalk stick, is a South African native. Look out for the vivid pink flowers of the crepe myrtle (Lagerstroemia indica), an Asian multistemmed tropical tree with peeling bark, which is making its Chelsea debut, although it usually flowers in August at RHS Wisley.

Tom Massey’s Lemon Tree Trust Garden (MA336), inspired by a visit to a Syrian refugee camp in Domiz, northern Iraq, contains edibles. The ballota-like woolly leaves of Origanum syriacum, a Middle Eastern herb with a peppery flavour, will creep over gravel, and there are some unusual alliums native to Syria. The tall, mauve-headed A. carmeli (literally from Mount Carmel) and the compact, white-flowered A. zebdanense are both new to Chelsea, as is Tom.

Cayeux Iris Iris As de Pique
Cayeux Iris Iris As de Pique

Another newbie, Jonathan Snow, has designed the Trailfinders South African Wine Estate (MA324), featuring indigenous South African flora and a typical winegrower’s homestead. The biggest challenge is recreating a section of blackened burnout, because miniature orchids, irises and bulbs, such as Disa and Moraea species, emerge from the ashes. I once spent several hours on my knees going from treasure to treasure on the Kogelberg Nature Reserve. More South African flora can be found in the Great Pavilion, shown by The South African National Biodiversity Institute, Kirstenbosch (GPC146). Designs were mocked up in late April, in the shadow of Table Mountain, with the Chelsea material arriving in cut-flower form on the Saturday before the show, for phytosanitary reasons. The institute has won 18 gold medals so far, and this year there’s a new designer, Leon Kluge.

Domestic harmonies

For more garden-friendly plants, these are the designers I predict will provide Chelsea’s “take-home” lessons.

Neoregelia Pimiento
Neoregelia Pimiento

VTB Capital – Spirit of Cornwall (MA326), commissioned by the Hepworth Estate and Tate St Ives, celebrates 40 years of the sculptor’s Cornish garden. The designer, Stuart Charles Towner, was inspired by a visit to Trebah: “It was a horribly wet day and suddenly the rain stopped, the weather brightened up and the subtropical plants came alive in the mist.” He describes Pseudopanax ‘Moa’s Toes’, an evergreen with red-veined purple foliage, as having “leaves like a dinosaur’s foot”. Saw-leaved Agave xylonacantha “is the colour of the Cornish sea,” he says, “and the blue-green foliage matches the patina of Barbara Hepworth’s sculptures.” Stuart, winner of Best in Show at Hampton Court 2015, is this year’s dark horse, and his all-green garden of strong, architectural shapes may do well.

The antidote to all that green, Sarah Eberle’s Indian-themed Artisan Garden A Billion Dreams (AR564) has the cobalt-blue Himalayan poppy Meconopsis ‘Lingholm’, expertly grown by Scottish nursery Kevock Garden Plants (GPB127), mingling with her “politically incorrect” vivid orange and henna-red marigolds.

Polemonium yezoense Kaleidoscope
Polemonium yezoense Kaleidoscope

Gardeners will love Matt Keightley’s walk-through RHS Feel Good Garden (MA328) because he has a magical way of combining plants. A series of mounds shaded by honey locust trees (Gleditsia triacanthos) move through the colour palette from restful to lively. Get a plant list before you walk through; although this is not a judged garden, Matt will almost certainly be the unofficial people’s choice.

Robert Barker’s Skin Deep (RHW285) for Harley Street Skin Care, in the Space to Grow section, is themed around skin conditions, and Robert, also new to Chelsea, has had to wrestle with 200 concrete blocks representing different faces and skin complaints, so there are spotty-leaved pulmonarias and Podophyllum versipelle ‘Spotty Dotty’. The false nettle (Boehmeria platanifolia) provides the wrinkles, and this Japanese red-stemmed plant towers above the garden along with the impressive Aralia cordata, another Japanese medicinal plant. This garden will be memorable whatever happens, because Robert’s not playing safe. Let’s hope the judges like it!

Stars of the Great Pavilion
Stars of the Great Pavilion

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Reader gardens
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