Chelsea Flower Show 2004
I couldn't go in person to the Chelsea Flower Show 2004 - a small matter of twelve thousand miles and almost as many dollars (I promised my old lady gardening knees that we'd only fly business class, now we are semi-retired).
The First New Zealand Garden at Chelsea
I knew I'd be well represented by the Moosey team resident in London. Even if one comes dubiously from the Suffolk-Essex border, the other is a good Kiwi bloke. He'd understand the difference between a real garden and a commercial display. He even likes flowers.
So I decided to stay home (in New Zealand that is) and use my extra energy worrying about the All Black rugby trials (who should be the vice captain?) and battling with the Pond Paddock gardens (invasive ground-covers). While I struggled on, clearing, trimming, chopping and burning, the Moosey Team would be having strawberries, cream and champagne - enjoying the Chelsea members only day.
All news in New Zealand comes with a time delay. I eventually heard that the New Zealand Garden of Well Being won a gold medal for its thermal bubblings and native bush. Then I read that a 'sex in wellies' young English gardening guru won a prize for a rather silly garden with coloured plastic balls. There was a photograph of the Queen staring at the balls in our weekend newspaper. 'Wellies' - honestly, what an odd name for gumboots!
I started wondering if the Moosey team enjoyed Chelsea. Did the sun shine? Were the crowds oppressive or fun? Did they see the Queen staring at the coloured plastic balls? Did they like the thermal bubblings? Were there any flaxes?
Back in the winter Moosey garden, with the days getting even shorter, the sun barely rising above the trees in the Hump, and all my flaxes looking ridiculously large for their garden spaces - am I just a little envious?
Hmm... Finally the Moosey Team have reported back to me, with enough gushings and bubblings to fill a hundred New Zealand Gardens of Well-being. Read on...
-
Introducing the Chelsea Flower Show...
- The Chelsea Flower Show is a gardening festival steeped in tradition, rich in history and well supported by the royal family and celebrities. (Photo by Michael Walter/Troika courtesy of RHS)
-
On With the Show...
- The Moosey's Country Garden UK team queued outside the 2004 Chelsea Flower Show while coaches, buses and cabs unloaded thousands of old lady English gardeners. An obligatory bag and ticket-check later, we were inside our first flower show.
-
New Zealand Ora - Garden of Well Being...
- The first New Zealand garden Chelsea ever arrived on a wave of hype, the garden much anticipated by UK gardeners - and lived up to all expectations, winning a gold medal and attracting relentless crowds.
-
The Salvation Army Garden...
- This was an unheralded and unannounced garden, sandwiched in between Terence Conran's Garden Kitchen and Bunny Guinness' boat racing garden. We hadn't seen any coverage of it in the UK press leading up to the show.
-
From a Dark Garden......
- The plant list Julian and his team have assembled reads like a whos who of the Black and White plant world. A plant that will be appearing throughout Englands gardens in 2005 is the black grass Ophiopogon planiscapus 'Nigrescens'.
-
...into a Light Garden...
- And so from the darkness, into the light. Some of the 'Into Light' plants used have evangelical and triumphant names that resonate with the garden's religious themes - Salvation, Sundance, and Golden Sword.
-
A Green Thumbs Up to Chelsea 2004...
- Every year at Chelsea the garden writers and more recently the TV gardening celebrities begin a week of 'This Years Chelsea Colour is' - defining and redefining, stating, restating and overstating.
-
Japanese Gardens...
- I was looking forward to the Japanese gardens at Chelsea - the unique simplicity of Japanese garden design is so stylish, serene and absorbing. The three Chelsea Japanese gardens lived up to expectations -all of the first-time exhibitors received high medals.
-
Chelsea Garden Bench Marks...
- Our visit to Chelsea lasted only five hours and in that time we did not sit down once. Five hours simply isn't enough time to do the show justice. Five hours is an especially long time to be photographing beautiful garden seats and benches without being allowed to sit on them...
-
Chelsea Flowers on Show...
- We took the new digital gardening camera, a Laptop and a bumbag full of batteries to our very first english flower show. Thousands of photo were taken, here are some of them...
-
Chelsea Flowers on Show 2...
- More from our Chelsea Flower Show photo collection. A lot of garden design curves. Gardens Gardens everywhere but all fenced off in rope.
-
Chelsea Flowers on Show 3...
- The Chelsea Gallery continues with the best in show Chelsea Flower Show Gold Medal, too many closeups of Begonia leaves and Irises and some stylish plantings and garden accessories, to name a few.
-
Chelsea Flowers on Show 4...
- A mixed bag of chelsea images - Dermuid Gavin's Balls are spotted for the first time amidst wild colours, flowers and a splash of water.
-
Chelsea Flowers on Show 5...
- The understated calm of the Japanese gardens, grandiose rose displays and some curious white and green formal garden balls.
-
Chelsea Flowers on Show 6...
- Striking pinks and greens. Wet your appetite for water gardens before Hampton with the penultimate part of our Chelsea Flower Show tour
-
Chelsea Flowers on Show 7...
- Purple and orange flowers abound in this final chelsea flower show roundup. Strong stone features also figure while we promise this is the last you'll see of Dermuid Gavin's Balls