Blackbirds trilled, water trickled through many show gardens and, in the Great Pavilion, the scent of roses mingled with bark mulch in what, despite the wet spring, turned out to be a most enjoyable show, says Tiffany Daneff
The WaterAid Garden Gold Architect Je Ahn’s funnel-shaped pavilion had to be delivered in eight parts, but its elegant fluid shape was so beautiful it almost didn’t matter that it doubled as an ingenious water-filtration system. With Tom Massey’s intricate planting—some of which could be seen waving from the top of the rusted-steel funnels—this was a classic show garden.
WHAT is the mark of a good Chelsea? That just when you think you have viewed everything, someone sends you off to see something really special, such as the Size of Wales Garden in the Great Pavilion (of which more overleaf). There were many such moments this year: a Chelsea pensioner was captivated by the show of Cape Flora (which won both Best Exhibit and New Design in the Great Pavilion); someone pointed out the Green JJam Nurseries display of white plants, which included the 2024 Plant of the Year Prunus ‘Starlight’; and from everyone came an injunction to visit Derry Watkins’s stand full of her renowned special plants. The show gardens had a lot to offer, but, with some plots on Main Avenue unfilled and thus visitors clustered around fewer exhibits, people struggled for a decent view.
Moroto no Ie Silver-Gilt This was one of Kazuyuki Ishihara’s finest Chelsea gardens—and his designs never fail to astonish with their detailed moss plantings, green walls, colourful acers and consummately finished water features edged with irises and dwarf Egyptian paper reeds. This year’s garden had a greater feeling of space and serenity, perhaps because of the generous plantings of delicate acers, which included Acer palmatum ‘Harusame’, ‘Orange Dream’ and ‘Japanese Sunrise’ with A. shirasawanum ‘Jordan’, as well as a beautiful Japanese black pine, Pinus thunbergii, at the front of the garden. The National Garden Scheme Garden Gold Shaded by hazels in a dappled woodland, sublimely planted in mainly whites and greens by Tom Stuart-Smith, stood this ‘Über-hut’, which those lucky enough to get inside discove
