Toady at Chelsea....sponsored by Marshalls

Despite being a Londoner and indeed spending my formative years about half a mile from the Chelsea Hospital I had never been and have been saying for years that now's the time to go.

The day was dry and warm but not too hot and having at last got there in the coach which seemed to take an interminable amount of time to get there due to there being no right turns all along the Embankment, we decided to go straight into the Grand Pavilion while it was still relatively quiet. The wall of perfume and colour just hits you and it's hard to know where to go first. I loved the overseas stands that had very exotic displays. Tropical flowers, fruits and beans all beautifully arranged. A whole wall of lupins from a local grower that gained a silver gilt, an avenue of lilies whose scent was almost too much, water features, grasses, bonsai, aliums and of course a wonderful display of David Austin roses in all colours and scents.

By the time we came out of the Pavilion the crowds had really started to build so we primed our elbows and just went for it. The site although relatively small is divided into avenues and although we had bought a programme with a plan we decided to just wander and see where we ended up. Oh so many shopping opportunities and so little cash! The one thing that did surprise me though was that there are no plants for sale. You could buy anything from garden furniture, conservatories, statues, tools, an antique chinese planter for £250,000.00 [oh I'll take two of those] but not one plant was to be had. We treated ourselves to a few nice bits and pieces though.
We sat on the [damp] grass to eat our picnic and listened to the band in the bandstand and then made our way along the row of courtyard gardens. These were my favourites, particularly the potters garden and the herbalists garden. These being on a smallish scale were very user friendly and you can get lots of ideas. Then on to the big show gardens. They are on a much bigger scale but not half as big as they look on TV. I liked the perfumiers garden that was a representation of a perfume distillery and they were promoting a scent that was suposed to have been used by QE1. The Japanese garden , the one that Alan Titchmarsh said had the pyrex in the water was charming and very restful, and then we get on to James May's plasticine garden which in my opinion was a travesty. I just could not understand why. I know some children did help with it but most of it was made by art students and the Ardman studio [Wallace and Grommitt]. A far better idea was a seed project for schools but that was hidden away in the corner of the Pavilion and didn't get half the coverage.

Other than the two dear Chelsea Pensioners who were having a lovely time being grabbed by ladies and posing for photos, I did stand shoulder to shoulder with Toby from Gardeners World. Sadly there was a a large screen between us as he was in the press area and we were in the queue for the floral display!

So all in all a very good day. If I were to do something similar again I think I would go to Hampton Court. Some diehards on the coach said it was a much more spread out site and of course you can buy plants.

Sorry finding it totally impossible to post a direct link to my sideshow. Try pasting this in
http://w176.photobucket.com/albums/w167/toadyrider/?action=view¤t=519720e5.pbw