2019 RHS Chelsea Flower Show Saturday

now your claw grabs and you're in good company Bill Bailey Phill Jupitus Claudia Winkleman and Alan Davis join Sandi Toksvig 4qi at 9 after some sights to remember it's been a glorious week of Chelsea and as the show draws to a close we've got more from the best flash of the world it's been a week of color creativity and imagination in both the gardens and the pavilion so stick with us for the best that Chelsea had to offer [Music] [Music] hello and welcome to the RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2019 and it has been some week as a joke yeah it's been a fabulous Chelsea I think I think it's been an exceptional runner and there are various reasons but the simplest effects of that is everybody have I've spoken to from visitors to do people exhibiting designers and us said it's just been enjoyable yeah lovely flow to it yes sort of I know a lot of controversy the weather's been fantastic and there's some beautiful plants I think it's been a good season for gardening and I think everybody is is understanding how important plants and nature and wildlife is so they come here and it's a celebration of all those things really even though you know in a sort of stylized form yeah and also we have to all be honest that the world feels like it's in a bit of a muddle at the moment generally speaking so this is a retreat from that it's a pleasant relief and the and the other thing which I've really noted is the way that gardens and the holes I guess the place is focusing on health mental health physical health where the gardens are so bound up in those and that's a joy to see a really valuing it you know and if they see any which is what we need to do also is just some great quality gardens out there and handy surgeons you know it sums it up because there's a lot of green here and there's that soothing nature of green just lots of green plants but the tapestry of plants he's put together is beautiful I think things so good standard good exhibits people wanting to enjoy themselves feelgood factor is going what's not to like exactly well coming up from the RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2019 and events supported by M&G invest we'll be bringing you the best Shogun's and all three countries we look back at all the color in the pavilion both homegrown and from far-flung places and answering more of your questions in our sponsor but first these Gardens don't just pop up here only a few weeks ago this 11 acre site in the Royal Hospital Grounds was all grass then the Chelsea Flower Show came to town Sophie followed all the action so this is Main Avenue they're making good progress on these show gardens they're halfway through the building what another ten days to go building a garden here at Chelsea is always a huge challenge and look they're all battling at the moment is the weather [Applause] [Music] this is my first Chelsea and everybody's around this is getting a little bit frantic we knocked a wall yesterday you know sometimes like Chelsea you go you go forward then you go back a little bit it's just nuts there's just the nature of the game so this morning I got up at half of three it feels like bedtime to me at the moment I have no idea what time it is but I feel like I should be 30 was a quite difficulty I think has been me the planting because we're planting as you can see behind me on a race to explode this morning was all mud [Music] tell me I cannot believe how much this garden has changed it's just it's okay [Music] and all that hard work led to 26 stunning gardens across three different categories art is an space to grow and of course the large Shogun which is where the designer and Easter gene made his Chelsea return after a two-year break with the M&G [Music] but more than that he won the prize that all the designers dream [Music] [Music] [Laughter] [Music] and for the first time Joe and I both predicted best show garden correct yeah you got the arrival one Sidney Monty well to give you an insight into what it takes to come up with a winning show gone we went to visit Andy in the run-up to this year's Chelsea Flower Show I've always been obsessed with plants I'm absolutely passionate about them I can see design in everything really whether it be form and texture and just the way that the light falls upon something the last time I was at Chelsea is 2016 and I wasn't planning on going back so soon but actually it's an opportunity I couldn't resist being able to express yourself in this way with design it's something really quite unique I'm Andy sturgeon my style tends to be quite contemporary but I always use natural materials like stone and timber I'm not actually a trained designer I'm a frustrated sculptor and a frustrated architect I tend to get inspiration from anything around me whether it be art or architecture or nature itself I've exhibited at garden shows all around the world but Chelsea Flower Show for me is still the pinnacle I first exhibited at Chelsea in 2001 and I think this will be my ninth time at the show and I've been lucky enough to win two best in shows including the last time I was in 2016 what that means is that the pressure that I feel on myself is absolutely enormous the starting point for this year's garden was actually a rock formation which I saw on a beach in Australia what I loved about it was that behind the beach you could see the way the plants were colonizing the stone and the rocks and I was really absorbed by the power of plants the way that they can immediately colonize and regenerate something that's potentially barren I work in my studio right in the heart of Brighton and this is really where the creative process begins making model is a really important part of the design process for me this is really the starting point because it helps me to look in and see all the different angles all different vistas and to see how all the spaces are arranged the timber formations that run down through there create these really strong vistas so that you can imagine the views that the public will get when they look down through it and then from the long side of the garden they act really as a backdrop to all the planting it's kind of layered up and so I can really begin to understand how the plants will look in front of the timber and how the trees will create the different shapes I first met Johnny Woodford only 20 years ago so when the idea of this garden came up he was the obvious choice to collaborate with he tends to work in woods and he's really taken the idea and turns it into something quite spectacular so that's good where you've cut right into it like that it's really dramatic really more depth yeah so how old do you think this hope will last then laughing that's forever I mean there's no SAP word there and the burning process will do it more longevity each time I see it it's turned into you know it's taking another leap forwards it was tricky to start off with but the the oak was kind of in control and it took seems like weeks before I started to boss the wood yeah I remember there was a kind of a moment where suddenly it all made sense and it was one I think when I started putting vertical cuts in yeah when you start getting angry there the basic concept for the garden is about ecological succession every way you look in a woodland you can see the way the plants colonize things and the moss and the furs are actually very primitive plants they're amongst the first plants that you get with primary successional plants colonize a new barren landscape and as it happens I love ferns they're amongst my favorite plants and I've got literally hundreds of them in the tell cigar when a tree actually falls down that's known as secondary succession because it's an opportunity the light floods in through the canopy and then the seed bank can come to life in this case it's all the bluebells have been sat dormant in the ground but in the Chelsea Garden I'm using willow herb as the show approaches I think it's fair to say that the anxiety nervousness just Biddle's in the last year well I've been working on this you're very much focused on the design and now the dawn of realization comes that you're putting your head above the parapet and being scrutinized by your peers which isn't a great feeling I have to say and and at this point in in the game I've got my fingers crossed but I don't know how I'm gonna do I find it fascinating that designers as experienced and garlanded as and east urgent still feel anxious about Chelsea and it seems especially being scrutinized by his peers which perhaps gives you an insight into his reaction to winning restaurant when I caught up with him immediately after to find out how he was feeling Andi congratulations thank you Diggity man he made me look good because I got my prediction how you feeling what number is that this is number three yeah number three which I'm pretty pleased about well I can retire now is such a massive thing is huge isn't it every gold medal but we know you're gonna get a gold medal but you really often yeah do you know why it's funny because I never used to really sort of strive for Best in Show I was always unhappy with the gold medal having won it once I really thought I had four days and important for the whole team and so everyone who stood out there who worked from this car and you know grew the plants and planted the plants so many people involved in it you know that's not just for me that's for everyone that is did you have an inkling you were in with a shout I think there's a thing that happens a couple of days when the gut before the end when the girls just coming together and you sort of get to say it properly for first time you're kind of a well I think remember the show yeah but then then you go you don't really know what's going on in the rest of the show so you take a one down Main Avenue you think I'm down yeah well that's because I mean they can hand out as many gold wheels silver girls ever gonna be one of those so that is really you are really competing against every other gold medal yeah yeah yeah and it's true so that's great has been such good company as well with that with those other gold medal ceremony all I can say is enjoy the way you can really enjoy the way I won't be having a glass of champagne I reckon will disappoint the team thank you the artisan gardens that often the visitors favorite not least because they're enveloped by trees which gives them a cool and tranquil field and there's a welcome respite from the huge bars or minimal design with traditional materials and crafts are their heart the gardens are small and often more relatable to most gardeners there was some strong competition for best artists an and we were there when soubise gave the award and Toby Buckland met the winner Alison we've got a surprise for you I've denied say that family wants monsters is one the best art design well so many many Alistair Beauford what a wig for you gold medal and best artists incredible golfers was good enough but when Subic walked down with the best Alison its an incredible experience I found I can't wait all visitors yes we have the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge on the garden on Monday evening yeah a fantastic result for fastened and the charity tell me what they said or you swore to secrecy okay I can tell you that they love the garden yeah they certainly duck the theme it's very close to the work they do outside of things that you have to see so they're very happy to see a garden like this at Chelsea vision I guess for you you've had your trials and tribulations so you know a thing or two about family monsters yeah yeah diagnosis of epilepsy two years ago I have no qualms about sharing that and when you embed yourself in a garden I think the results are like this you know yeah there's a bit of you minute yeah I suppose the thing is capturing the elephant in the room it no one talks about in their family yeah and it demonstrates that you know we're sat here if you share things lovely guy and a lovely award what you get to put in the box I think I'll put a keepsake in there remember my time television what about hopes dreams and ambitions oh yeah absolutely oh yeah because I mean we've been talking at the BBC compound once the most of designers about well who's a runner and rider potentially four main avenues it's something you'd consider I've done yes absolutely aspirations to be on Main Avenue here but over there you know we come to Chelsea to exhibit we come to Chelsea to strive to achieve a gold medal and to be on Main Avenue it would be fantastic so maybe next year well I think it's your attention to detail but it's also something I got passion in your work and it really shows I feel you go a long way yeah thank you yeah it was so good to speak to you and congratulations Thanks I thought that was a fabulous little garden and what stood out for me was that the garden was naturalistic and looser in his planting style which isn't necessarily a simple technique to achieve Rachel detain went out into the gardens to explain the building blocks behind this trend one of the key design inspirations here at the show this year is undoubtedly a more naturalistic way of planting and on this garden we've got a little slice of Finland and it's really beautiful very subtle - we've got things like the trees the bench and the pendulum which is the national tree of Finland and then a very unassuming little tree here little willow Salix cap Priya but is vitally important because in Finland after but really long cold winters this flowers really early in spring and so it provides nourishment for bees for other pollinating insects for butterflies and loss it's all very relaxed and that might mean a very relaxed gardener - I think this garden has so many planting ideas that we can borrow if we're looking for a sense of naturalness without wanting the whole garden to descend into wildness and I think it's all about how you put the plants together and we're used to being told to group them in threes and fives and sevens and then you get these lovely mounds of different plants that complement each other but here they've taken the same quantity of plants and dotted them around in a much freer fashion but you've got this lovely really green understory with the ferns and coming up through that like the valeriano the iris sibirica and they just sort of don't live through like arrows pointing skyward and the other thing is that this garden reminds us that you can have a natural feel but still have color things like the Commerce's and that wonderful loop and I love the fact that that's a solitary loop in as if in nature things just sell see they grow where they want to grow well that one's just popped itself over there and why not it really is a very beautiful garden I love the irony behind the naming of this garden it's called the high-maintenance garden for the motor neurone disease Association and it shows what might happen to a previously very cultivated space if the owner isn't able to maintain the garden to that standard anymore and actually I think it's wonderfully encouraging very refreshing you've got plants really that seemed to have grown where they've landed and then we just walk through trodden path down through what friendlier well most people consider weeds but there are cultivated areas still you can see their strategies and the hostas but I think it just shows that perhaps we all need to just be a little bit more easygoing about our gardens let nature in let all of those important insects and wildlife into our spaces as well I'll tell you what it makes me feel an awful lot better about the fact that I don't have time to go home tonight and do the weeding the space to grow gardens are all about transforming a compact urban or unusual space in an innovative way to appeal to those of us who live in towns and cities Joe Perkins designed his garden to encourage people to think creatively about small plots and one best place to grow a ward eret Anderson went to find out about the influences behind his design [Music] in kind of guess where I am but tell me specifically where you design this gardens be if it is inspired by a landscape and the landscape is the Basque Country in northern Spain the way I've tried to bring that inspiration into the gardener's through the uses and it's quite dramatic rock formations I do like the way that you kind of utilized plants of one theme they come from all over the world but they share that ability to survive in a coastal environment but the other thing about this garden is the angle okay so I wanted to show how you can increase your sense of space and 30 degree angle that we've designed the garden on lengthens the vistas that you can get through the garden and increases the perspective you know a water feature in a garden is great but you've given it this real urban flows if you literally ask that by the edge of the beach for me the sound of waves is the sound of the coast and I think for all of us there's an instantly recognizable sound of that particular landscape have you managed to sort of tease out the sort of personal inspiration that you had I think the thing that if you can take an idea that really matters to you then you can apply that idea through every element of the design do that with whatever it is that inspires you you can make a small space really it's really full of meaning you know well I think it's really lovely that you have taken that personal detail and then displayed it into a garden and a show garden which is well so well done thank you very much Aaron that means a lot to me what's interesting is that Joe also won best construction in the category and it was really clear wide to me every element of the landscaping was perfectly thought through and most importantly executed Sarah ablest resilience Gunn won best construction in the main Shogun's and all week Adam Frost has been dissecting and analyzing these landscaping honors of the gardens and revealing design tricks to help you at home on Wednesday he explained why a path can potentially be so much more than just getting from A to B [Music] you know pacifier massive part in how we experience our Gardens they really do to imagine you're walking through a woodland and it's got no path your head straightaway drops to the ground but that same woodland to cut a path for your head comes up and you start to engage in that garden what's interesting here as well as the path that is not that wide so it controls the speed that you move through the space it slows you so you really enjoy this party it's what path to important [Music] before you act at path to any garden there are a few things to think about first of all only where it's going but how often are you gonna use it is it going to be every day just for occasional use because that starts to drive the selection of materials it's a path you're going to use every single day it wants to be a good solid material but if it's occasionally through a woodland at the end of the garden it could be bark really quite simple but then after that what conditions is it going to move through is it going to go through hot sunny areas or is it going to be somewhere that shady it can get slippery through the winter so using a really smooth surface could be dangerous so you would go for a more textured surface whereas actually if it's a hotter sunnier area you wouldn't go for two lighter colors because that might bounce the lighter down so that would tone down the color of that material so before you add your path just really sort of think about what you want it for [Music] yeah this is a cracking path it really easy softly works its way through the planting but the interesting thing is that actually there are big paving slabs and nothing's being cut so there's six hundred mil by six hundred nil but because they've been laid in a staggered bond and you can softly climb the edges just move through that plan team looks I love the way the slates been used it breaks up the path which adds interest but also it drifts off into the planting as a mulch and then makes the whole thing feel cohesive simple this pathway really caught my eye as a designer I'm so difficult to deal with and they become problematic slippery dangerous to use especially for wheelchairs but here it's just a simple still great let's put on a series of pillars it's really safe to move on but even when it was wet in order to drop through and move off into the gravel also I could see my kids got something down there on their bikes I could say it looks a little industrial but I might plant a few things in the gravel underneath but it's cracking now we've got your questions asked Monte and Joe so far away we got a bumper additionally ok Joe from Rettendon please can you tell me why the Duchess of Cambridge's garden was not ended into the middle category in your honors opinion what middle would you say it would have one it looks amazing it's a wonderful garden but it is not a Shogun because every year the rhs have exhibitions and they've got Tom Stewart Smith has done one in the in the Edgewater exactly and really it's a question of the RHS displaying their wares and they're paying for it they can't judge it as well and award themselves a medal now that would be seen as a bit of a big terms of it if it wasn't Shogun yeah it's hard because it's been designed not as a Shogun Yoann from the outside there's lots of trees sort of packed in which creates a sense of mystery which makes you want to walk into it and there's lots of elements within so sort of the spatial differences and there's a tree houses a lot crammed in in a you know in a large show guard and it would be designed differently yeah so it's very hard to say it's a different brief Alison Oliver asked do the exhibitors have a deadline to clear and vacate yes I know this one Thursday they've got to be all of those Gardens three weeks in the bill one week here and they've got to be out of here by Thursday it's incredible is mind boggling it is it's a lot of work and it's also really sad taking you and go up and down Arnie Gillingham what's the Chelsea design trend from years past that you're glad to see gone certainly I can tell you crushed glass pubs they're crushed CDs as well all those sort of plasticky materials always look weird I think I think any of those sort of artificial materials to try and jazz up yeah landscaping certain natural materials has a Chelsea cough return this year because because yeah I made from the plane trees up there is little seed balls get I never get hay fever but it gets me every time every Chelsea now still to come from the RHS Chelsea Flower Show an event supported by energy investment Carolyn looks at some of the exotic plants on display and a look at one of the most powerful gardens that stopped everyone in their tracks but first the pavilion has been packed full of scent and color all week with over 90 exhibitors the new varieties are often what made the headlines but the old favorites are the ones that visitors just can't get enough of year off the year and Frances has been reveling in the plants that are true garden classics here in the great pavilion you're never short of some classic garden flowers [Music] when it comes to garden classics nothing is more classic than the rose whole gardens have been built around them and I think no garden is complete without one and here on the pizza Beal stand the scent is absolutely incredible and one of their best-selling roses it's called Comte de Chambord it's a Portland rose from 1860 so it's a really old variety and it has an incredible Damascus scent lovely pink flowers and it's a really compact form so perfect if you have a smaller garden [Music] Chelsea is always a showcase for some amazing spring flowers but for me a quintessentially classic spring flower has to be irises they're so varied but here at Todd's botanics you can see the flag iris is at their best from the lovely deep purple of disabled through to the palest yellow of Benton's Primrose and everything in between it really is a varied flower but remember if you want the best flowers from it make sure you plant it in a sunny spot if you're looking for a real showstopper the classic plans and it needs to be a Lupin with these huge incredible spikes of flowers they really make such a statement and the nice thing about them is you don't actually have to stake them at all they're quite robust plants that they hold up their flower spike when you get close up to them you can see these individually are pea flowers it's a member of the pea family so it's really good for bringing in pollinators you can see that they can see those colors from miles around and there's a huge array of colors to choose from but if you really want something classic and stick to the pinks and the purples and you can't go wrong [Music] a perennial favorite of mine and looking its best in spring and therefore here at the Chelsea Flower Show is the peony the Binney plant stand is absolutely brimming with incredible specimens red charm is a classic it shows all the classic signs and things that we love in a peony from the big and lovely round red buds to the beautiful open flowers people often worry that peonies can be a bit challenging but there are three golden rules to having lovely big flowers firstly keep them well watered between April and September even when they finish flowering they're forming next year's bud so that's really important the second rule is never put them too deeply they like a little bit of Sun to bake them so they'll flower well and thirdly never plant them in the shade if you stick to those three things I think you can agree that they're worth the extra bit of work and you'll have big happy healthy peonies at the other end of the spectrum of the exotics with some exhibitors traveling across the globe to bring us a taste of warmer climes who better to give us a tropical tour and our very own exotic Caroline [Music] think of the tropical and loads your mind goes straight away to the Caribbean with its glorious colors and this stun from Barbados is a perfect example of that you can almost feel weight you can feel the palm trees swaying one manner of gorgeous plants here Heliconius red gingers and thorium's all completely different from any of the things that you used to see in your own girl but immediately you're transported [Music] Conner's have to be the go-to plants if you want to create a tropical effect in you garden first artists these huge and tire leaves often in dark shades burgundy of wine and then as if that wasn't enough you got these porous flowers oranges corals pinks reds this out straightforward to go real easy just make sure that you protect them from frost during the winter dig them up bring them in in the spring get them going again and feed like that all the way through the summer you don't necessarily have to have brightly colored clothes to achieve a tropical in fact sometimes you can just do it with foliage it can add shape texture structure to you God and really make you feel that you're somewhere much longer than you really are I think these beautiful palms illustrate that exactly if you want something really small and chunky this one's called cover-ups humilis volcano and they're Hardy down to minus ten with a straightforward simple plant like this your garden can change from a cottage garden to a perfect tropical paradise [Music] you don't necessarily have to use tropical plants to create a tropical of birds here on Cerro Poulos resilience garden she's shown how you can actually use plants that are in everyday parlance and add a splash of something with a yucca here a beautiful side cut their combined with the plants were all used to see and yet you look at either of these places and you're transformed taken away to a different reality one or two orchids growing in pots and transform your living room into an exotic Ava I really love the way that these displays show off these extraordinary plants like pieces of art but of course it's not all about the razzmatazz one of the space to grow gardens this year goes back to the fundamentals of gardening which is growing something to eat [Music] geranium garden is looking absolutely superb and I understand you've got a very well deserved gold thank you yes I'm thrilled to bits about the gold I wasn't sure how the judges are going to react to this one I must admit I'm very glad that they understood the scheme and they really understood what I was trying to do here this garden really is all about food and what would be grown in Zimbabwe some food so yeah I'm thrilled absolutely thrilled it's worked brilliantly in conveying a great message now I notice a certain key plants around the garden here of course have grown widely in southern Africa yes can be grown in Britain as well particular interest to me is the hibiscus you're growing back there the calyx there is bright red and they use it to make tea with and also they can use it to make dye with so it's got a double interest there and it noted as well color case here as you enter for example colocasia they use the roots of it as a staple food as well now I know one of the problems with growing crops in Africa is that people have relied long-term on things like sweet corn maize or me opposites no and that twenty years ago had really quite low nutrient levels but you're growing a much more evolved form on youth yes the maize here is one of them this has been vitamin A enriched we also have vitamin A enriched sweet potatoes and zinc enriched beans which I saw growing in Zimbabwe so it's a real real experience yes I spent several years living and working in southern Africa and I have to say what you've created here feels incredibly accurate to me but I think we need to ask an authentic Zimbabwe and Clara just here you've been involved with the project does this feel like a little piece of your your home oh I'm very happy because I d'Alene has managed to bring our Zimbabwe we know he and this the true reflection of what we help in determining of course Africa's greatest resource is the sunshine and a notice you've got a solar panel going on back there what's that what's their forward you do with it we use the solar-powered pump to draw water from the underground be it from the river from the wells from the swamps from the Springs because we don't have much rainfall throughout da so this is one of the techniques or we use to get water so it's a great way of ensuring that you've got a sustainable source of water now I notice over here a different technique being employed this of course is crop rotation you tell me a bit about how you do that we do our competition as a way of envisioning the soil is a way of getting rid of pests also fertilizers they are very expensive so a competition is a very efficient technique to apply and use now I must say this whole garden feels absolutely fantastic to me it's pulling off a brilliant message about these sustainable practices you've got a gold for it absolutely well deserves and congratulations [Music] I love thy God it had such vitality filled with vibrant color reminded me of Gardens I've seen in South Africa I've seen in Asia and very very skillfully put together yeah it felt like it's all functioning working garden it was practicality was also a theme in one of the other space to grow gardens but this one had a very different use in mind as Juliet Sargent found out this is the Montessori children's garden which has a really clear message the love of the outdoors and a love of learning the children are just able to run freely and play as they want to and this wall is completely edible so they're allowed to just look at the textures smell the leaves that's a lovely time everything in this Montessori garden is about child led learning even this little door here is designed specifically for little people to go through to the greenhouse celebrities have been turning up here a week and one of them was the RHS ambassador Baroness floella Benjamin who has actually been coming to toss a few years her passions just you anxiously I mean she shared with us some of her fond memories of her many visits [Music] I've been coming to Chelsea for over 30 years and I often used to bring my mom with me with the highlight of a year she adored Chelsea and I remember those days so fondly happy memories my mum was a natural gardener she could grow anything she could put a twig in the ground and it would grow and back in Trinidad she used to grow these kind of plants bird-of-paradise and thorium lilies these exotic flowers it used to be in our garden and I remember them so clearly and whenever she came to Chelsea with me she would reminisce about growing these flowers they're so beautiful aren't they Flo she'd say [Music] I adore orchids in fact both my mom and I are wedding bouquets were made up of orchids it's so beautiful delicate I just simply adore them and my house it's full of all kids because they're so easy to look after my mom introduced me to herbs and spices and there's a wonderful array of herbs here beautiful herb garden there's some coriander over there which is perfect for fish ooh on this one I love lemon balm I brought this from my garden which is gorgeous time without I'm any good Caribbean dish would be seasoned with thyme chicken leave it to marinate for about an hour or so that's perfect that's what my mom used to do so she taught me and over here mint fresh mint you know it's not what we had a tummy ache my mom would pick a couple of leaves of mint and give it to us to chew just to settle us down [Music] my mum garden is full of rose bushes she said love grow roses and when my children were born I planted a rosebush dedicated to each of them ones now 38 of the 131 and my daughter when she was little she still of picking roses and put it in her hand I adore come into Chelsea each year I'm surrounded by happy memories plant memories thinking of my mom my children there's too many more wonderful porches years coming to Jersey [Music] we've had lots of questions this week with our ask montien Joe and an awful lot have been plant related so let's just look at some fun some of them we've actually been able to answer as well Sarah asks Angelica plants are featured in this year's Chelsea Flower Show there's loads of them here on their what growing conditions does this plant need to be successful well I have a problem with oh my god I'm just too dry well there are are an awful lot of Angelica around this year which is great because I love them and we grow a lot at Longmeadow because the soil there is perfect heavy clay holds the moisture which they certainly need but don't go and buy jelica in flower I know people walk up oh I bought this for it there now waste of time it's a biannual so once it flowers it dies so buy a plant do any time between now and October young plant plant it it may not look very big now but it will grow very fast next year and flower and keep it nice and moist Yomi or just love the foliage care enough love the peonies that Chelsea can I grow them in pots and if so what's the best compost to use they're better they're best in the ground they are best in the ground that people do grow the reports I've seen are peonies in Beijing growing in parts perfectly successfully but you did showing off now there is another one just showing off I had to get ready but they do need the reason why they don't work so well in ports is they mustn't dry out yeah so you need a compost that will retain water bark based if you can add leaf mold or something like that ideally rainwater and don't want too deep well if you're planting herbaceous pin that's the one I'm talking about don't pop them too deeply if it's a tree peony you need to sink the graph down below slowly Chris McKee asked what planting the great pavilion would you like to take home on plants in your own garden I saw on the plant of the year came second The Herald covered it beautiful new digitalis digitalis Firebird it's what tall dark stems and I've just gotta get my hands on the rose and I would love to add that to the duel god I had cheat I'm not going so directly but I go for color because I've been looking for yellow plant particular pounders as a lovely selection of pale lemon plants around this yeah I know there are lupins and luckily Gia's an associate but it's particular yeah they are one plant and you've done it again Monte the whole thing more question quickly okay quickly Celia wants to know about the little orange flower this is it yeah Jim my time gorgeous isn't it beautiful for ya I'm James again slightly damp soil and do that well one of the big garden trends this year has been trees and woodland planting which has meant there's been lots of inspiration for planting underneath them mark Lane went out to discover some new ideas showing off your star plants is key to a great garden but often the plants around them are quite literally overshadowed looking around Chelsea is a great way for inspiration for your under planting [Music] he is a great example of understory plant in four different soil conditions such as dam shade dry shade as well as dappled shade here we've got a really lovely ensemble huelva Jersey a pot of filum for Fujian giant with those really shiny leaves and the wonderful filigree leaves of our Uncas Horatio three plants different leaf shape but really really beautiful for dry shade why not try this County assess per Tosa which is a wonderful grass which is really airy and Smyrna imperf Olli otter with real acid green flowers so if you've got a tricky situation at home where you've got damp or dry shade then use these plants and they will work a treat [Music] here's a really great example of dappled shade as well as deep shade under planting you've got a spruce or a really deep canopy tree then why not try TR Ella springs symphony or galium odoratum and also you know don't always think about plants use a really lovely feature rock it will set the greenery off and where the light just comes through a little bit more with the dappled shade then why not go for digitalis here we have digital is snow thimble and then we get the lovely pinheads of a strontium Buckland [Music] when it comes to ground cover plants al Camilla Molly's really is a good doer here is a really lovely variety al Camilla Sarah Carter Gold Strike the leaves are more serrated and the flowers are bright yellow plant al Camilla underneath roses and they'll actually hide their bare knees and ankles and also when you think about those beautiful purple round allium heads the leaves are always quite tatty so by planting al Camilla all the way around them you actually disguise them therefore al Camilla Molly's a perfect plant but undercover planting [Music] if you want to add some color to those shady corners then why not chose an effing medium rosy on this is a great dual purpose plant it has these beautiful rose pink flowers but come out in the springtime and in the autumn the leaves turn the most magnificent reds and purples to go on cheer up those dark gloomy corners and add some color and texture to your under planting [Music] we spend most of our time here at Chelsea looking at individual gardens or even individual plants but over the week you inevitably get a sense of a broader theme emerging sometimes it's just a feeling and I went out and tried to gather together what I thought were the most important trends in this year's Chelsea [Music] there are two distinct color trends I think rather than themes that I'm noticing this year and I think they're very significant the first is beautifully illustrated here on the green fingers guard which is the palest of pale pastels but it's quite a limited range there's very little pink this year for example but there's a lot of the palest of the yellows of lemon this seems to me that they are part of this this search for purity some kind of peace that lies in an untouched unthreatening world and on the other we're seeing very rich dark colors dark burgundy deep purple and they seem to reflect the colors that pick up the resonance of life in what is quite frankly an uncertain world all around us and the curacy is very little in between I think that the number of woodland animals in this year's Chelsea is telling us something more detailed about us as people than just water cultural fashion because like this gun the RHS back to nature it has two functions the first is obvious it's fun is protected children can play here cocoon from outside dangerous but also woods have another function because they hide things and those things might be bad and the closed horizon you can't see what's coming and what's beyond is also potentially a threat as well as safety and that seems to me to represent a lot of the thoughts about the world we live in which is troubled and confusing and uncertain as well as the aching desire to make the very best of life [Music] I remember clearly that 20 years ago Chelsea there was a garden that was very naturalistic in the way it was planted and everybody was talking about it because it was exceptional now you won't find a single formal garden in this year's Chester but you will see lots and lots a very loose naturalistic planting like this one here the high maintenance got really absolutely superb and looks as though nobody has touched it for years but it has a purpose and it tells us something because this style of planting is geared towards including as much wildlife as possible and we now all know what we should but our gardens are not just for us they are to be shared with as many other creatures as possible I think Chelsea is doing an awful lot to make people aware of the natural solid organs and thankfully it's happening Morrible only oh is this a bumper hashtag last one seen Joe you know putting us through the mill here Chris asked if you could only grow one plant on a virtual desert island which plant would each of you take I would take listen you've made a romantic gesture towards your wife I named an iris after my wife Kathy Swift I would have to take that with me well there was a pelargonium called Sir Tom but actually I think as long as this desert island was was in the northern hemisphere but if it's an e I take an oak tree because no because that we can get that over there a little one and it will grow because you would have masses of wildlife attached to it and when I died I could be buried underneath it and I could become an oak tree it's a good thing okay anas can you give us one top tip this weekend love Chelsea bit can't see without jobs for the weekend the minute I get home I've got a water my garden it's been so drying on then I've got a water bucket full of water I'm going to go out and I probably have a beer in one hand and a watering can in the other well I will see the dogs I'm good for a with the dogs and I'm trying on wine but the want a job for this weekend plant out your tender plants whether they be annuals like some flowers and Tonio's or Kanner's or dahlias Chelsea's over risk of frost has passed get them down very good advice you should present garden as well by my side so you should yeah you might be up for that job now a couple of Zins have been asked why they've been out and about what's your behind-the-scenes highlights of 2019 for me but the emotion this year has been incredible to see Michelle Brown right who was in floods of tears before she got her silver kill and just burst into more tears if that was possible after she got it and I just I just connected with that moment it was such a joy to be well I can't I can't match that but actually all week I've had the opportunity to interview really interesting people and when the interview is over most of the time have had lunch with them and talked with them a little bit more and that has been such a privilege I'd love that well we spend much of the week focusing on the show gardens but there's also another garden here at Chelsea right in front of the impressive facade of the Royal Hospital it wasn't judged it didn't get any awards but it had great impact John you've created something I mean so atmospheric this space here and I mean there's layers of symbolism running through but just just just run us through some of those ideas that was good the first thing we talked to veterans about was what they wanted in their garden and really it was water it was to see it was the fear of drowning it was the struggle off the beach and I want to create drama with the waves and then have these dynamic sculptures yes with the struggle of these young kids trying to get off and so powerful I mean that is so powerful on this side and then over here we have all this lovely thrift on his beautiful thrift but what does that represent well ct-50 is a link between the two countries between France and England where they departed from Portsmouth they were the same seats rift and they would have seen sea thristy Normandy as I drove inland so it's a link between the nations which I thought was lovely a link between the two countries as they fought their way through France it's been a huge team effort and they're absolutely massive we've had army personnel army medics Royal Engineers we've had relatives and veterans who saira many people wanted to be here and wanted to thank the veterans and it's going to go and live on after this is garden is gonna go and go go and be a permanent installation these were straight onto the ferry after the show with the garden in three Arctic's down to era Monch Gold Beach main landing ground for the British and it's gonna be on the cliff top fantastic fantastic and here we have I mean to over to very person and self that are very relevant bill pendel who he spoke to a lot didn't you yeah bill I spoke to you back in September and he really sadly passed away in December where we felt was important that we still are in his memory we've got bill as an old veteran looking a younger self having a discussion maybe even having a joke with his 22 year old self yeah a Joe you knew bill yeah well I'm a bill on the 70th anniversary of d-day and we got to be quite pally we used to share the same room together when whenever we went to different functions like Normandy Goodwood Revival and and Eindhoven well in Holland and this sculpture look like him does it remind you it's a very good image of him it's indeed to see it there I think I was looking at bill yeah I'm talking to him yeah it's very good and the idea that there's bill they're looking at a young younger man of himself from the other side it's very clever than me and it's very poignant very poison indeed yeah but he was a real character bill but he enjoyed life well thank you Joe for telling us the stories and Thank You Jonas well you've done an amazing job it's just fantastic the reaction he's going to be incredible on Monday there was a tribute to all the veterans of World War two [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] well like you I went and talked to some of the veterans and there was not a dry eye in the house it was very moving and Shawn never is well he's got the articulated lorries lined up here you know the minute these Gardens dismantle is going over to Normandy and it's going to be a permanent installation over there I won't come in at the end of this week but I think one thing we do need to acknowledge Joe is that it's your birthday today it's your birthday and so many happy returns thank you very much a year older he's always at Chelsea you are approaching maturity yeah I think the most it's always weird you know because for the last 19 years I've been presenting the program is I'm always having my birthday tell and what better place there is to have I have I don't have a really good evening thank you we are well what an amazing week and stitch me up as usual our people back with Sophie tomorrow and BBC one at 6 p.m. with more the best that Chelsea had sort of vaguely the medal winners in the show gardens and the Flower Show coverage continues with Chatsworth on the 7th of June on BBC two now whenever I've walked around this year some people say hello Monty but most people say where's Nigel well I hope that he is with many in the gun that Longmeadow and that's where I will be next Friday joining them on God as well so I will see you then but from John I here at Chelsea [Music] [Applause] [Music] the

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Length: 59min 16sec (3556 seconds)

Published: Sat May 25 2019