Top Events To Attend In The UK -Chelsea Flower Show

We are fortunate at home to have a fairly large garden, about 120 feet long which currently is mainly laid to lawn. Now I’m retired, however, I’ve become more interested in growing flowers, plants and vegetables and creating something a little more modern but easy to manage.
With my garden project in mind last year during our three month exploration of Europe we attended Keukenhof which is the famous flower gardens in Holland. They only open for a short period of time during Spring each year and I was absolutely blown away -see previous post “Keukenhof -Beauty, Imagination and Inspiration”. From this grew the idea of attending Chelsea Flower Show here in the UK to maybe glean some more ideas.

Held in London every year it is organised and staged by the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS). It first opened in 1912 and has always been attended by the royal family every year on the opening day. The Queen attended fifty times during her seventy year reign and this year King Charles III and Queen Camilla attended.
Hosted by the Royal Hospital Chelsea this prestigious event has continued to captivate audiences and is one of the most eagerly anticipated horticultural events on the gardening calendar. Despite its presence in Central London every May it isn’t actually the largest flower show in Britain that honour goes to the RHS Hampton Court Palace Garden Festival being held this year in July. This horticultural festival, which opened in 1993, has actually grown into the largest flower show in the world, stretching over 31 acres and attracting around 120,000 visitors.

Chelsea Flower Show attracts about 170,000 visitors each year all keen to experience the latest and very best in horticulture across the 11 acres of the site. Tickets are all sold in advance.
The first two days of the show are normally restricted to RHS members only who receive reductions on ticket prices. Thus having explored the cost of membership and looked into the benefits of joining the RHS we decided to join. With my individual membership, hubby and I have free access to all five of the RHS Gardens in the UK plus I normally get in free at any of the 200+ associated gardens in the UK and we just have to pay admission for him. Each associated garden has its own restrictions and sometimes this includes the days they allow reductions with an RHS membership so you do have to check before going. Additionally you also get an informative regular magazine, free gardening advice, access to their app and much more.

Utilising my RHS membership I bought two tickets for the Chelsea Flower Show for the third day. I had wanted the half day tickets which run from 1 p.m. until 8 p.m. but they were sold out so I had to buy the all day tickets giving access from 8 a.m. until 8 p.m. I also ordered a brochure which is mailed in advance and is roughly the size of an A5 fairly thick book! That in itself introduced me to the magnitude of this show. It is worth buying this if you wish to read a bit in advance and plan out the sections you really want to see.
The booklet also suggests that it is worth planning your attire!
The weather has been very changeable of late, Spring has never fully sprung and if the run up is anything to go by rain may well come to play.
While there is no specific dress code, researching photos of previous Chelsea Shows will show there is a tendency to dress at least smart casual. While there’s no actual ban on jeans for example, it’s felt that something like linen trousers would make a more sophisticated alternative to jeans. Plus, linen trousers, I’m led to believe from the narrative, can be paired with just about anything; matching blazers, broderie blouses, cotton shirts or fitted tees, to name a few. Are you starting to get the vibe?
I probably should have thought about this more in advance instead of pulling out two or three outfits the actual morning of the event. Not possessing linen trousers it was a choice of a summer dress with three quarter sleeves and trainers or a fitted t-shirt and very colourful cotton trousers. I can’t quite get to grips with wearing trainers with a dress so I opted for the latter.

The intention was to go with my hubby but with his pending operation he waved me off instead at 8.15 to pick up my friend Debbie who lives about thirty minutes away. I chose to drive to the outskirts of London (remaining outside the Ulez zone) which took about two hours, planning to then park up and jump on the fairly new Queen Elizabeth tube line (known in our house as the Lizzy line) into Paddington.
Unfortunately where I normally park has been segmented off into an area of “Permit Owners only”. No doubt the advent of this line and increased Ulez charges have brought more London commuters into the area to park for free on side streets, like we were intending to do. Having driven around to fully understand the restricted area we had to pull over and book a “Just Park” spot on someone’s drive.
Trains run every thirty minutes so we arrived into Paddington at about 12.15. From here we could have taken the tube and then walked the last fifteen minutes from the tube station to the nearest entrance to the show, the whole process taking us about another hour. However to save time we jumped into an Uber.

The first impression on arrival was mixed. There was no real queue despite there being a ticket and bag check area. However once you enter the show proper it felt like being swallowed up by an army of ants.
The Chelsea Flower Show is known to be busy during the day, especially in the morning but this was slightly insane! There is no rushing, you spend a lot of time walking at a snail’s pace. Everyone is either walking towards you or away from you and you have to join this mass movement to navigate your way around.

We had decided to make our way to the show gardens first. I had prepared myself for these and fortunately they had arranged them in the same order as the brochure so reading about them as we went around was made easy.
That being said I arrived, maybe very naively, thinking they would each be about the size of my own garden at home when in reality they were smaller than this and more importantly I thought you could walk around them. No you only get to admire them from behind a post and rope barrier around the outside.
Each garden costs about £180 -£200,000 to stage, has to be built in a three week time frame before the gates open on the first day and has to be dismantled within five days once the gates close on the final day.

I took plenty of pictures but was slightly disappointed not to be able to see them closer up. Additionally you are competing with everyone else there to get your photo so there is a fair amount of standing around, chivying to the front etc involved. Debbie was in her element, being a much more knowledgable and experienced gardener than me spotting plants and shrubs she liked and/or was familiar with.
There were eight gardens to admire and another eight sanctuary gardens on display. This year’s best in show winner was the Muscular Dystrophy UK – Forest Bathing Garden. I’m a complete novice and didn’t really get this display at all. I guess I still have a lot to learn.

However I was pleased to find out afterwards that the People’s Choice Award, voted by attendees, was The Octavia Hill Garden by Blue Diamond with the National Trust. This I could relate to. It is described as “a beautiful plant filled wildlife garden designed to stimulate physical, mental and social wellbeing set within an urban setting.”
There’s no prize money at Chelsea Flower Show – only the prestige of the medals.

Time had crept on and having finished admiring the gardens we headed off to find sustenance. Food outlets are clearly marked on the detachable map within the pre-bought guide. Chelsea offers something for every price point from expensive pre-bookable lunches right down to “street food style” stalls and this is where we decide to head off to. Contained within the Courtyard and Potting Shed areas we are immediately met with another onslaughter of human beings. Every step, garden wall, chair and table are taken and you can barely navigate your way around the food displays for the amount of congested mankind.
The Potting Shed is where the tables and chairs are sited and we both agree to park ourselves in the midst of it all ready to jump on the next available table in our vicinity.
I guess we probably wait about twenty minutes before our stalking pays off. Debbie offers to go off and buy lunch while I sit myself down next to an unsuspecting couple, who very kindly begin to chat to me and even offer me some of their strawberries!
Both from Eniskillen in Northern Ireland they have travelled to London to visit the great city and partake in the show. They had bought a picnic in advance at Marks and Spencer but the picnic area is apparently flooded and thus closed, which might explain the amount of people crushed into this eating zone. It seems we have been very fortunate as despite the rain deluging the event from about 2 p.m. on the first day (Tuesday) right through to teatime on the Wednesday, our day has turned out mainly sunny.
You are allowed to bring food into the show although alcohol is not encouraged. I have quite the chat with this couple before Debbie returns bearing lunch and they offer their good wishes and depart.
Lunch is a wonderful bowl of jerk chicken with various Caribbean style side dishes and I must admit I’m majorly impressed. Dessert comes in the form of a cake bought with a coffee. We later discover that the cake selection is uniform throughout the site at any coffee dispensary. I’m assuming one company covers all the outlets which is a shame because one thing the British are very good at is cake! I tend to feel this limited choice is not only disappointing but also not showing us, as a nation of cake makers, in the best light.

It’s nearly three o’clock by the time we head out and into the Grand Pavilion. Now this is more my style. Avenue after avenue of plants, flowers, floral displays etc. My brochure explains that “It holds over 500 exhibitors from around the world. It houses the All About Plants gardens and the Monument installation, the Discovery Zone as well as all the floral exhibitors and sits at the centre of the show with numerous entrances/exitways.”
The displays are truly beautiful and I’m entranced by the colours, the quantity of different types of flowers on display and even the amount of different species of one flower. There’s a display of delphiniums, for example, in every colour imaginable.

Flower Arrangements have also been created for this section of the competition.

Tropical plants cover another exhibit, a multitude of lillies are displayed, roses, climbing roses, clematis to die for. It is a real attack on the senses.
I’m really impressed with how friendly and helpful all the exhibitors are when you approach them with questions or queries. Debbie is keen to inspect both of the hosta stations and walks away happy with a new drench she can use to ensure the slugs don’t munch their way through this year’s plants.

From the Pavilion we head out to the Balcony and Container Gardens passing several shops and displays en route. I didn’t think this area would necessarily be of interest to me but there are some wonderful ideas that you could easily translate into your own garden.

From here we make our way to the stage area. Yes there is live music throughout the day. En route we pass some great willow huts covered with flowers and plants with some clever ideas for growing vegetables etc. Lettuces in wicker baskets for example which we have both decided to give a go. Debbie managed to pick up a couple of baskets from a local charity shop the. following weekend and when I was out walking a few days ago someone had three wicker baskets on the end of their drive to give away. It seemed like an omen so I will be shopping for lettuce plants this weekend.

Talking about shops, the map clearly shows endless amounts of places to shop at Chelsea Flower shop if this is your vibe. Being new to the show we have focused solely on gardens, plants, flowers etc today and finding a seat by the stage we have a last coffee taking time to chat about our experience. It has been obvious that as the day wore on the crowds dispersed so both of us feel that next time it would be worth ensuring tickets are purchased immediately they go on sale to ensure we can buy half day tickets. The sun is starting to drift away and we finally take our leave at 7.30 p.m.

NB:
This is my second post on key events to attend in the UK. I have plans to visit additional famous events over the next 12 months so look out for additional posts in the future. Please like and/or comment at will.
Maybe there is somewhere you’ve always fancied going and would like a preview, just let me know