A trip to the Chelsea Flower Show

This week I was fortunate enough to pay my annual pilgrimage to the Chelsea Flower Show. The sun shone and the flowers inspired and it was a welcome respite form the stresses of life. Our house build is now reaching new levels of frustration and every time I see my builder I need to dig deep within myself not to have the most humongous row with him.

The gardens at Chelsea as ever were an incredible combination of skill to get the flowers on point, and design. My absolute favourite was the Nurtured Landscapes Garden By Sarah Price, with it’s soft sand and terracotta colour palette (slightly reminiscent of my Serendipity clay bed linen I thought). The garden is inspired by Benton End, the former home of the renowned artist Sir Cedric Morris, read more about it here.

Iris’s are my new favourite flower for colour inspiration, and they were everywhere at Chelsea. I also adored the deconstructed herringbone bricks laid as paving in this garden, made out of reclaimed materials, an idea I would have loved to have pinched for our own courtyard but I know would cause my builder to have an actual nervous breakdown.

Sarah Price’s ‘The Nurture Landscapes’ Garden

I was thrilled to see Horatio’s Garden won best in show for their thoughtful Garden designed by Charlotte Harris and Hugo Bugg. For those who do not know about this charity, they are gardens in hospitals with spinal units for the use of patients who can be inside for many months with little access to gardens or nature. 

After the show the garden will go on to form the heart of the eighth Horatio’s Garden, opening in Sheffield next year. Read more about the charity here.

Being awarded best in show was a sweet win as a fantastic customer of mine works as the Garden administrator for the South East and teaches a weekly sewing class to the patients who are mainly young and have life changing injuries. I have been donating fabrics to them, and occasionally she send me photos of them holding cushions they have made beaming with pride.

I couldn’t resist a photo in the vibrant pink & orange palette of the Eastern Eye Garden of Unity – inspired by Indian heritage and the boldness of clashing sari colours. Eastern Eye believe that unity is fundamental for a strong and happy community. I adored the hand painted pots and garlands of flowers, symbolising purity, beauty, peace, love and passion.

The Fauna & Flora garden designed by Jilayne Rickards was an entirely cement and concrete free garden nestled in a bamboo forest. The garden portrays the typical journey of an ecotourist on a Gorilla trek in central Africa, weaving through the diverse landscape to reach a gorilla nest. With the sun shining I actually felt transported to Uganda. With sustainability a guiding theme throughout the garden, it will be relocated to the Eden project in Cornwall which also supplied many of the plants.