Monday 25 May 2015

Highlights from Chelsea Flower Show - that you won't see on the telly!


Welcome to the Royal Horticultural Society Chelsea Flower Show 2015.

Entrance to the Flower Show

I’m glad this Chelsea Pensioner elephant found it’s rightful home, I blogged about the Elephant Parade back in 2010.

Chelsea Pensioner Elephant at the entrance to Chelsea Hospital Grounds

Chelsea Flower Show isn’t all flowers and plants there are stalls selling everything from treehouses to greeting cards. The Chelsea way, it would seem, is to offset your wares with planting, especially for the larger products.  

Harrod Horticutural sign offset with lovely planting of purple Heuchera, Sweet Woodruff and white Umbellifers.

Chelsea planter

Garden sculptures in front of The Pavillion.

Air head?

How about a garden sculpture painstakingly made from shells? The main attractions were the larger than life Stag made from tiny cowries with conch and a towering Medusa fountain. Yes really.

Cowrie shell stag 
Staggering shell work
Medusa made from shells
Shell swan
Shell body of swan with thyme
Or perhaps driftwood sculpture is more your thing?

Driftwood Goat sculpture by James Doran
Driftwood dragon - James Doran
These amazing sculpture are made from pieces of driftwood by James Doran and towered over passers-by. I could see that dragon right at home on the Belle Mere’s pergola. 

Driftwood horse by James Doran
Cantering horses in the Bull Ring at Chelsea Hospital.

Amazing driftwood horse by James Doran at RHS Chelsea 2015
Another horse, this giant bronze Anadalusia Stallion sculpture is by Hamish Mackie and was commissioned by Berkley Homes to gallop through their new development at Goodman’s Fields.

Hamish Mackie
Alice in Wonderland was a familiar theme this year. Robert James featured an impressive collection of brass garden statues and water features.

Brass Caterpillar sculpture by Robert James RHS Chelsea 2015
A fox and a tiger.

RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2015

RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2015
I rather liked this ceramic conker by Penkridge Ceramics who produce all sorts of amazing plant forms in clay, from pears to cherries to acorns. Lovely!  

Penkridge Ceramics Still Life Studies in Clay
 Yellow gardening gloves are the way forward.

Yellow gardening gloves

Every garden needs a champagne and glass holder.

RHS Chelsea 2015

Emma Bridgewater has made a delightful Chelsea Flower Show mug for the RHS which you can buy along with other merchandise here.

Emma Bridgewater Chelsea Flower Show Mug 2015

Many men wear lightly creased linen jackets.

RHS Chelsea 2015
Or paisley trousers...

RHS Chelsea 2015

A rotating treehouse...

RHS Chelsea 2015
A Pimms stall a little too early in the day for Pimms o’clock.

RHS Chelsea 2015
A novel way to keep things cool on a Summer’s day?

RHS Chelsea 2015
There were lots of stalls for eating and drinking and even some full blown restaurants set up for the occasion including the The Laurent Perrier Orangery.

RHS Chelsea 2015
Chelsea empties.

RHS Chelsea 2015
RHS Chelsea 2015

RHS Chelsea 2015
An Avenue lined with stalls.

RHS Chelsea 2015
And so to the flowers... There were lots of lupins and iris in the planting, along with cultivated varieties of lacy white cow parlsey. Purple and white was a popular colour-way, one of my faves at the moment.

Lupins and Iris
Purple and white again in the many named: Aquilegia, Columbine or Granny’s Bonnets.

Aquilegia

And foliage can be just as eye-catching.

RHS Chelsea 2015

RHS Chelsea 2015
A carpet of wild campion.

RHS Chelsea 2015
RHS Chelsea 2015

Artichokes and geum
Kolrahbi and fennel

Iris and lambs ears

Iris

Vegetable planter

Arid plants

I did catch site of Monty Don in the flesh.

The BBC stand
These pictures were all taken outside at Chelsea, a Pavillion post will follow. I’m off swimming with Erbie now as it’s the bank holiday.

NB: All photos by ©SaraHodgkinson. All opinions are my own. No products mentioned in this post are sponsored.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Hi, love this blog post!
My name is Aurelija. Im writing on James Doran-Webb behalf,driftwood sculptor that attended Chelsea Flower Show'15.
I would like to ask if you could provide us good quality pictures of his work. James would love to add images in his new book.
We will keep the credits of photographer too.
Thank you!

Rose Maria said...

This is really tremendous that the way you desceibeI'll really appreciated your work.
hope i'll come back to get some more information .Thanks
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