Never mind Christmas; for Nigel Slater, the most wonderful time of the year is the third week of May, which means only one thing: the RHS Chelsea Flower Show
ILLUSTRATION PAUL WEARING PORTRAIT JENNY ZARINS
It’s always the first entry in my new diary, even before the birthdays of friends, anniversaries or holidays: the words ‘RHS Chelsea’. I’m unsure what event might be so important that I would miss my annual trip to the ‘Greatest Flower Show on Earth’. I think of Chelsea as the gardener’s answer to Glastonbury, though usually with less mud and better loos. Chelsea is very much a ‘show’, in that there is some expectation for the experience to be extraordinary and entertaining, and indeed it is. Where else I am going to see garden designers given licence to let their imaginations run riot, and see the latest varieties of hellebore, delphinium or greenhouse? The excitement starts the moment I get a message that tickets are due to be released. Yes, there is the buzz of the show, but it is more than that. The event heralds that summer is here once again. Our wisteria and roses will bloom again, our sweet peas will climb their sticks, and our pea pods will plump up. We know this, but it somehow becomes official after Chelsea.
The morning of the first day finds me as excitable as a kid at Christmas. Each area fills me with joy, be it the Great Pavilion (or the Marquee as I still call it) or the avenue of spectacular show gardens. It is not too far-fetched to liken the latter to the catwalks of Paris Fashion Week, where somewhat impractical but nevertheless fabulous clothes are paraded. Both are there to dazzle us, and places where a designer can push the boundaries of their creativity, taking their chance to astound and intrigue eager onlookers like me.
I occasionally hear mutterings about the impracticality of the gardens. Thank goodness, I think to myself, that someone has been given the chance to think outside the box, to have fun with plants and planting. This is what I really appreciate about the week-long event: no matter whether I like a garden or not, there will always be something to take away from it – an idea, a notion or fancy of something I want to do to my own urban patch. Spotting plants I would never have otherwise come across is a good enough reason for going. Whereas other shows are brilliant for buying plants and meeting growers, Chelsea stimulates the imagination. It makes me rethink the possibilities of my own space.
To get the best from your day, you need to look closely, by whic
