Episode 15 RHS Chelsea Flower Show

Hello and welcome. It's been a wonderful week at the RHS Chelsea

Flower Show. There have been lots of incredible designs, plants and

flowers brought to you by the people who make up the elite of the

horticultural world. Chelsea, supported by M Investments, is

over for another year. We want to look at the highlights of what has

been a flower-filled week. It started last Monday as the gates

opened to a deluge of celebrities, the Royal Family and, of course, Her

Majesty the Queen. Amongst the razzmatazz, there were stunts

popping up all over the show trying to grab the headlines.

From gimmicks to a man famous for his quirky garden designs. This

year, Diarmuid Gavin returned to Chelsea with what must be his most

bonkers idea yet. Welcome. Thank you. Lovely to be here. Is it lovely

to be back? I think so. On a day like this, you are exhausted, you

are thinking of all the last little bits and pieces that have to be

done. On the other hand, the sun is shining. You're here. You are very

kind. Sit nice to be home. -- It is nice to be home. This is very

traditional British planting but it is not all that meets the eye? It is

not. It is an arts and crafts style garden. It has a folly. It is quite

playful. Everything is miniaturised. My client, Harrods, were definite

about what they wanted. They wanted to celebrate their heritage. How can

I do that, and embrace some elements of British culture and bring a bit

of me into it? You turned to... The illustrator, the cartoonist Heath

Robinson. He was the illustrator who was famous for coming up with really

complex designs for machines that did simple things? I took

inspiration from his madcap way of thinking and imagined the type of

garden that he may design. Explain. Once I had the idea for Heath

Robinson, I knew what this garden could be. I knew how it could

perform in a way and I knew how it could thrill me and hopefully

entertain people who came to see it. Perform... There is a box - there

are lots of them. My goodness! I have not seen this in action yet. We

have box balls that bob up-and-down to the tune of An English Country

Garden. That is quite complicated mechanics? There are small grounds

underneath the ground(!) Over here, do you see the clippers? Oh... There

are eight different synchronised movements that last 20 or 30 seconds

at a time. Just to delight, to entertain, to inspire, to get kids

interested. It is a bit bonkers. What are you going to say to the

people who come here and say, "Great fun, but it's a bit gimmicky." Is it

for the serious horticulturalist? It is to make people smile. I will go

away from here smiling. Can we keep it going for a bit longer? This is

fantastic! Well done! The wealth of talent and creativity

on display on Main Avenue won the admiration of both visitors and

judges alike. When it comes to the wow factor, these are some of the

gardens that really made a mark. The garden designed by Cleve West was

inspired by a child spent on Exmoor. You enter it via a cobbled path,

flanked by dogrose and quaking grass. It gives a nod to nature, but

the heart of the garden is quite contemporary. There is a pool fed by

a babbling mountain stream. If you have ever been to Exmoor, you will

know it is a rocky place and there are quite a few bolders here. There

is also scree, outcrops and walling made of stacked stone. This then for

Cleve is a trip down memory lane, packaged up for Chelsea in a

palisade of weathered timber. The Telegraph Garden is inspired by the

designer's travels. You notice the hard landscaping. There is a lot of

limestone in the garden, sometimes very rough and fractured, boulders

and smaller stones tumbling down into the walk. On this walkway,

geometric, sharp edges. These fins have a bronze finish, and they are a

backdrop to some of the planting. Coming forward, lower-growing

Mediterranean-style plants. And the pink poppies there. It is a very

powerful design that encourages you to reflect on the ever-changing

aspects of our landscape. Support for the Husqvarna Garden is

created by Charlie Arbone. It's a design Charlie says he would like

for himself, a counter-balance to a hectic professional lifestyle and

this green oasis of lawn at the centre is so calming and grounded.

At the same time, the design has levity, thanks to these hornbeam

hedges. Of course, the cottage garden

planting. There's an exotic in there that we can't grow in our borders,

lupins, too. In summary, this is a global garden, created by a classy

global gardener. The Chelsea Barracks Garden is quite unusual for

a Chelsea design. It is centred by a huge lawn. If you are a gardener

that likes to be busy pruning and weeding, you will know grass is a

good surface to pile your horizons because it is easy to clear up. That

makes this garden very practical. Its primary purpose is to provide a

space for people to come together and spend time and there are three

bespoke benches that tie and lock the whole garden together and a huge

wall of water that turns into a Serpentine reel that runs through

the garden. The planting is a rich cottage garden mix, with ferns,

roses, and there are evergreens to provide interest in winter. No

matter what time of year you spent in this garden, there would be

something to look at. Much of the attention was lavished

on the gardens, but let's not forget the real stars out there on Main

Avenue, the plants and their flowers.

Carol went to select her pick of the bunch.

Plants are a hugely important element in every garden design.

Every garden designer has their own way and their own ideas about using

plants. In Hugo Bugg's garden there are spots of brilliant colour here

and there, none more brilliant than this bright-red poppy. It's

brilliant. On the Garden of Mindful Living you

are lulled into this restful state by this close-textured,

close-coloured planting. This has purple flowers but Paul's taken the

flowers off here because he wants this colour combination to be

unsullied by anything else. Here in the background, this beautiful Dutch

Chocolate picks up those colours and the crowning glory is this iris,

Kent Pride. It is very, very subtle and it sets

the scene for the whole, beautiful planting.

Sometimes it pays to be bold with colours. In Rosy Hardy's garden she

has chosen three primary colours. Rather than mixing and mingling them

together, she's made the most of them being completely separate. They

are all planted in blocks, surrounded by this grey and green.

They work very effectively. They draw your attention and they are

easy to accept. In A Modern Apothecary Garden there

is a mixture of plants. One plant that stands out ones own is

Angellica. It makes the most superb one-off plant. It is such a

straightforward plant to grow, you can grow it from seed and it won't

flower until its third year. After it's flowered, it will set seed and

then it will die, but by then, you will have all those seeds to start

all over again. The RHS Chelsea Flower Show was the

hottest ticket in town with a host of famous faces eager to see and be

seen. I love the Englishness of Chelsea, I

love the fact that you can come here and sort of revel in all the

eccentricity of being English. The fact that you can sort of start

talking about the flowers to a complete stranger, I love that. The

pavilion is fantastic. I take lots of photographs, great inspiration

for printed textiles for me, lovely colours. Just lots of energy. Dame

Judi Dench, lovely to see you here. Are you a regular? I'm not at all.

This is probably the second... The second or third time I have ever

been. What has inspired you today? You have been walking around here

for hours. It is just people's imagination and you see something,

you think, oh that is wonderful, that is what I must do. Or you see

something, you know, you get... Your mind gets bombarded. I just love a

wild flower meadow, that is what I am trying to create at home. So I

want some tips on that. Although it sounds easy, it is not an easy thing

to do. There are some amazing vegetable displays that are in the

main pavilion that blow my mind. I didn't realise I could get that

excited about potatoes, but I can. It is great. I'm aspasmodic

gardener. I get full of enthusiasm and then I forget and I go out there

four months later and it is all dead! I had a rabbit in the garden,

bless him, and he didn't help with the foliage situation. He's gone now

to the great warren in the sky. I'm determined this year I'm going to

have some colour that isn't just busy lizzies. We love our gardens.

There is something heartfelt about turning up here.

I came with my wife, and we changed our minds about seven times about

what the ideal garden would be. The imagination is extraordinary. I love

all its forms. It is a great place for innovation and for people to let

their imaginations run away. It is my first time here. My screen

husband is here every year, so this year I have got one up on him.

Marlene, for once, get one over on him. I have no ability, but I enjoy

more and more each year sitting in the garden and visiting other

people's Gardens. I am turning into that person who will drive a long

way to look at The National Trust garden. Her Majesty The Queen

arriving here at the Chelsea Flower Show. This is her 51st visit. She

has been coming here since before she was clean. First captured on

film in 1947, and she is about to pass through the arch here on the

Chelsea embankment, the first time in the history of the flower show

that it has been bedecked with flowers. It has been done in honour

of her 90th birthday. The Queen is about to be presented with the

bouquet. It was made by this six-year-old, a keen gardener who

grows roses and flowers in her grandmother's garden. The Queen is

now talking to David Austen, the famous grower of roses. He is also

90 years old. Like the Queen, he is still working. What did she say

about your beautiful roses? She seemed to like them, I thought. Very

much so. How did it go to have her here at your exhibit? It was a great

honour. Jo Thompson, showing the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge around

her garden, along with Prince Harry, who is of course, something of a

veteran here at Chelsea. He was here last year with his own garden. This

is the first time that the Duke and Duchess have visited the Chelsea

flower show. There is also a flower that has been named after their

daughter, Charlotte. Here they are in your garden, admiring your lawn.

It is a moment that is priceless, a wonderful moment that I will

remember forever. This, I'm sure, will be a very memorable part of the

Queen's visit to the Chelsea Flower Show today. She is about to see this

field of poppies, more than 300,000 that have been knitted by people all

over the world to one of those who have died in conflict over the past

century. Look at you both, you have tears in your eyes. It is a huge

moment. She was a bit surprised at what it was and how it came about,

and that 50,000 people were involved in putting it together. It is an

amazing feeling, and she appreciated our work. With Her Majesty's visit

the talk of the show, Carol Klein picked out the plants in the Great

Pavilion that really worth it for a queen. -- really were fit for a

queen. Everyone is dressed to the nines,

trying to stand out from the crowd, and I'm not talking about people.

I'm talking about the plants. I want to find those subjects who are truly

worthy of regal attention. On parade today, the two ladies in

waiting to a noble family. The family name simply trips off the

tongue. The first is this one, on the Hoyland plant stand. They are

renowned for these beautiful plants. These are flowers that were beloved

by the Queen Mother. I suppose, although we have become familiar

with them in our gardens, they still retain this exalted status, a very

special plant. No wonder. Waiting in the wings are these debutants,

wearing their best party frocks. Their iridescent petals sparkle and

they hold their elegant head height. It is their first time here, and you

not expecting to see them, because essentially they are autumn

flowering bulbs but somehow, Hoyland plants have managed to conjure them

into bloom for their very first royal performance.

Talk about Regiment, pomp and circumstance - take a look at these

vegetables. This really is Trooping the Colour. Is this a pyramid, a

pillar or a pinnacle of purple pondered peas?

-- podded. Long before you see the beautiful colours of these

hyacinths, you can detect their fragrance wafting around the Great

Pavilion. They truly are the princesses of perfume. For me, this

is the ultimate Royal gala performance, the like of which we've

never seen before. It's composed of the Crown jewels of the floral

world. It makes me feel like a queen.

With nearly 13 hours of BBC coverage, here is a round-up of our

other highlights. Gardening is rock 'n' roll, and it's

good for the soul. Yes! From exhibits on a small scale to

eight garden designer with huge ambition, this year Matthew Wilson

returned to Chelsea, and look what he brought with him - a part of York

Minster. This year, I am doing a garden for

the whole of the county, and the attraction for me is that it's a

landscape that I absolutely adore. I never get bored with it, and I think

you can't because it is so diverse, from big scale epic stuff right the

way down to really intimate and cosseting landscapes. It has

everything, really. You can't stick this landscape into a 22 metre by 12

metre plot in Chelsea, but you can be inspired by the elements, the

water, the Stones the plants, the trees, and try to get something

ruggedness into a garden. -- something of that ruggedness. It is

not just about the landscape gardens of Yorkshire that have inspired the

Chelsea garden, it's this - the great East window at York Minster,

the largest expanse of medieval glass in Britain. What I find

incredible and inspiring about it is the way that the glass and the light

interact, the way it changes through the course of the day. In the same

way, actually, that like changes a garden through the course of a day.

-- that light changes a garden. The light is the arch of the window laid

on its side. I have exploded the elements and reconfigured them in a

different way. The planting has been the biggest challenge, and I have

tried to think, how can I get the landscape of the gardens of

Yorkshire across in the planting? I have taken the size and shape of the

windows, laid them on to the ground with a stone edge and then into

those I have planted plants that represent the colours of the stained

glass in planting. That's the plan, anyway. I have gone for plants that

hopefully have quite a lot of character in them. So rather than

things that are pristine, they are a bit more gnarly and craggy and a bit

more Yorkshire. Capturing something on this scale is

obviously a massive challenge for a Chelsea garden, where you are

scaling everything down. At the same time, you have to give it that sense

of something big and impressive that people will look at and go wow. We

are making a more done evocation of the great East window in the form of

a glass panel that the York Lasers' Trust are making. It will be

something quite unlike what people have seen before at Chelsea. -- York

Glazers' Trust. I have spent a lot of time -- people have spent a lot

of time and energy and effort helping me to make this happen, so I

am definitely nervous about it. It is a big thing, isn't it? It is a

big thing. Well, Matthew's incredible hard work really paid off

later in the week. The show gardens have certainly been one of the big

highlights at Chelsea this week, and you have been voting in your

thousands for the garden that you want to win this, the BBC RHS

People's Choice award. We are about to reveal the winner. They are

talking to Jenny about trees right now. Let's go and surprise them. It

was a bit rude, but it has some foliage... Matthew Wilson, could I

interrupt? You might. Because you have been chosen as the People's

Choice. CHEERING

Well done, man. Well done. Congratulations. I wasn't expecting

that. I was just about to talk about the oak tree as well. That's

fantastic, absolutely fantastic and I mean, it's been a real labour of

love, this garden, and there have been a lot of people involved in

creating it. And I had a great sponsor, Welcome To Yorkshire, we

have had help from all around the County, and it's been brilliant. You

had Silver Gilt last year, what does it mean to have gold? It means a

huge amount, because it reinforces the fantastic feedback we've had.

People have been responding to the garden, the concept, and finding

beauty in the stained glass and in the planting. You know, one of the

high points yesterday was when someone came up to me and said, I'm

going to vote for your garden, and I'm from Lancashire! The people of

Yorkshire and Lancashire have been behind you. Congratulations. Thank

you very much. Sadly, that brings us to the end of what has once again

been a truly magical week here at the Chelsea Flower Show. We have had

an amazing time bringing you the very best the horticultural world

has to offer. The incredible people and plants have once again proved

why this event remains the most famous flower show of all. We will

be back with coverage of the RHS Hampton Court flower show. From all

of us, it's goodbye. See you next year when the Chelsea bandwagon

rolls back into town. Goodbye. Goodbye.