Chelsea Flower Show: the popular plume thistle

Every year at the Show there's a plant (or more than one) that's seen in lots of the show gardens. This year, for me, the main two were lupins and peonies, as I wrote about in my guest blog for That's Not My Age.

Last year, for example, was the bronze iris.

This year, as well as lupins and peonies, there was a smaller specimen on show in many, many gardens. Small-flowered, with a tufty, thistle-like flowerhead, it's the plume thistle, or Cirsium rivulare 'Atropurpureum'. I took a close-up shot of it on the Hardy's stand in the marquee:

And here it is in some of the gardens:

Morgan Stanley (with lupins and peonies)

The Anneka Rice Colour Cutting Garden

The Mind Trap garden

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RHS Chelsea Flower Show: plans and photos

I've just come home from press day of the RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2017 (Monday May 22).

In a previous post I promised to compare the plans of a few of the gardens with the reality by posting the plans and my photos of the finished gardens

Here is the RHS's own Greening Grey Britain show garden:

It's designed for an urban apartment block, with ideas for planting in restricted spaces, integrating everyday elements such as storage for bins and bikes. 

I had difficulty getting a photo of this as every time I went past it was either being filmed in, or full of celebs.

Adam Frost and Joe Swift

Bees, bins and bikes

The M&G Garden is inspired by a disused Maltese quarry. 

Large limestone blocks are softened with grasses, evergreens and ground cover with the emphasis on protecting the fragile environment (both of Malta and Earth as a whole).

This looked very like its drawing:

The Mind Trap garden features metal walls, which represent both security and imprisonment.

It's a representation of living with depression, and the planting varies to reflect mood swings: shade-loving plants for low mood, and sun-lovers for more upbeat moments.

Chelsea Flower Show: how plans become planting

So excited to be going to press day of the RHS Chelsea Flower Show on Monday. It's my tenth year of covering the Show for various publications; this year I'm guest-blogging on Chelsea gardening trends for fashion and lifestyle blog That's Not My Age.

One of the elements I love best about the Show is the chance to see how the designs have been realised. So here are a few of the garden designs as they appear on paper (or screen). And I'll come back and add photos of how these same gardens actually look next week.

Here is the RHS's own Greening Grey Britain show garden:

It's designed for an urban apartment block, with ideas for planting in restricted spaces, integrating everyday elements such as storage for bins and bikes. 

The M&G Garden is inspired by a disused Maltese quarry. (I'm particularly keen to see this one realised, as I'm off to Malta next month.)

Large limestone blocks are softened with grasses, evergreens and ground cover with the emphasis on protecting the fragile environment (both of Malta and Earth as a whole).

The Mind Trap garden features metal walls, which represent both security and imprisonment.

It's a representation of living with depression, and the planting varies to reflect mood swings: shade-loving plants for low mood, and sun-lovers for more upbeat moments.

My choice from Chelsea 2016

My choice from Chelsea

This year I wrote two image-led features on the Chelsea Flower Show within 24 hours of returning to my desk after press day (Monday, same as the royals, although the press are chucked out before the royal visit). Having got up before 6am for two days on the trot, I was tired. Hence the delay in this post – just a few of my favourite shots from the Chelsea Flower Show.
5,000 poppies

The Telegraph Garden, inspired by dinosaurs

Beautiful bronze irises, from the Vestra Wealth Mindful Living garden. Shades of bronze, orange and copper were everywhere at 2016's Chelsea.