Episode 5 Countdown to Chelsea

In just a matter of days a cavalcade of limousines will arrive here at

the gates of the RHS Chelsea Flower Show, bringing the Royal party led

by Her Majesty the Queen. Every monarch has visited what's said to

be the most prestigious garden and flower show across the globe since

it launched here 101 years ago. Our cameras have been positioned to give

you a grandstand seat of proceedings. But will the gardens

and exhibits be ready? I can't wait to find out. Ahead in this final

edition of Countdown to Chelsea, I will be opening my own personal

almanac of my earlier days at the show and yes, that was amazing hair!

We look back on 100 years of Royal patronage.

And meet the orchid ladies who want to win gold.

Chelsea needs to be perfection. It really is the gold standard of

flower shows. We are going to win a gold this year. Give it our best

shot. Definitely, yes. If you had asked me what I would be

wearing for Chelsea 2014 I wouldn't have predicted the outfit of a

school crossing lady for my debut appearance. But we are on a building

site as the last minute preparations for this year's show continue around

us. It's quite an atmosphere. Not that I haven't experienced the

frenzy of these last precious hours of preparation myself. I first came

to Chelsea as an exhibitor in the floral pavilion 24 years ago. It was

quite a trip. I remember loading our lorry for our first Chelsea by

candlelight. As if that wasn't enough, just as we set off it

promptly broke down. We ended up being towed away where a new clich

awaited. -- clutch awaited. Hours later we arrived at the floral

pavilion, exhausted but jubilant. Despite all of that, we still

managed a silver medal. Here it is. A proud and memorable first

encounter at Chelsea. Just the beginning of a magical association.

15 visits from Glebe Cottage has yielded a proud haul of awards.

Including six gold medals. I even met the Royal Family, that's me with

Princess Michael of Kent. And in 1999 I designed a garden

myself. My friend Val, a wonderful woman, gave me a gold medal

inscribed on a banana. Happy days. What Chelsea means to me is friends.

I have been lucky enough to make loads of them here over the years.

There's nothing I love more than -- than catching up with a few in the

pavilion. Look at the shirt. Glad you like it. It's lovely.

Let's hope 2014 will prove to be equally as memorable. First, those

Royal visitors on Monday are eagerly anticipated. Both designers and

exhibitors have to be ready and in their best suits by 3.00pm. The

first of the party arrive then. Chelsea's been an important event

for generations of Kings and Queens. Such is their love of the English

garden and open air... The Royal Family's relationship with Chelsea

is as old as the flower show itself. In 1913 Queen Alexandra declared the

show open for the very first time. Successive monarchs have been

patrons to Chelsea and some have shown a closer interest than others.

In 1934 green-fingered future King Edward VIII took such a shine to one

particular rock garden that he bought it lock, stock and barrel and

even helped to dismantle it before having it rebuilt in his grounds at

Fort Belvedere. The King and Queen make it a Royal

event... His brother, George VI and Queen Elizabeth were keen gardeners

and fervent supporters of the show. The present Queen has been a regular

visitor since her first appearance at Chelsea in 1947. Since then,

she's rarely missed the show. Her Majesty has even had a rose

named in her honour. This is a modern classic rose. It's one of a

brand-new series which combines all the qualities of the old roses, that

sense of romance and softness, with the robustness and solidity that you

come to expect from modern roses. The rose itself is called the

Queen's Jubilee Rose. The Queen's passion for the show has rubbed off

on her closest family members in a very personal way. In 2002, Prince

Charles commissioned Jinny Blom to design what was called a Healing

Garden in memory of the Queen Mother. It featured more than 100

varieties of medicine ml -- medicinal herbs and shrubs. His

approach, as ever, was organic. Working with nature to produce the

best results, it's harnessing the best of the old and the traditional

understanding that goes back hundreds of years. And the best of

the new, we have to be more selective about what is more

damaging than another thing. We are, I think, what we eat, as well. I

believe that if it's healthy, the plant tends to be healthier and it

feeds back down the chain into us. Following in his father's footsteps,

Prince Harry last year also commissioned Jinny Blom to design a

garden to remember his mother and to promote his charity for orphaned

children in Lesotho. This is a pavilion of the houses in Lesotho.

When you go to Lesotho, the contrast between raw rock and mountain and

then the grasslands is very extreme. I wanted to express that clearly

that it's a plateau country. The house is very important to me

because that's the symbol of what is lost if you lose your family.

On a lighter note, the Queen has also met and passed comment on the

gardens of some of our own team. She thought it was beautiful and elegant

which I think was a good description, I was happy. She wasn't

talking about you? You will have to ask her that. She said the onions

are rather small. Now preparations are under way for this year's Royal

visit next Monday. There's still a lot to do to make this site fit for

a Queen. Planning for a Royal visit takes a

lot of careful thought and minute management. Hayley Monckton is in

charge of media matters for the Royal Horticultural Society. As we

saw, the Royal Family have been strong supporters of the show for a

century. How important is that to the RHS? It's really important to

the RHS. Not just to us but all the exhibitors involved, it's a

highlight. The Queen is our patron. You can see when she goes around and

visits the showground how much it means to the exhibitors and

designers and growers. That's really lovely about it. She came to my

stand a few times and it was such an honour. During all these Royal

visits has anybody ever stepped out of line? Mostly people are

well-behaved. Everyone is so excited about the Royal visit and top see

the Queen and the Royal party. There may have been a couple of occasions

we have had photographers getting excited and close but nothing too

dramatic. Wasn't there a streaker one year dressed as a gnome? Yes,

there was but it didn't happen during the Royal visit, I think that

happened on a Friday, from memory, he went running up the main avenue.

Just as as well. -- just as well. Thank you for your time, I am sure

everything will go smoothly under your watchful eye. Fingers crossed.

One man who eagerly awaits the Royal party is young Matthew Childs. He is

one of the first time Chelsea designers here this year. All week

we have been following his story as he faces up to his biggest

challenge. Today, we are showing you how he made choices for the most

important part of his show garden, the planting, of course.

Today we have come to North Wales, travels hundreds of miles and I am

here to get lots of planting inspiration.

Here they've a great woodland garden and I am using similar plants with a

similar environment so I have come to look in great detail at how

plants are used and how they work together and gain inspiration for

how I will be putting plants together at Chelsea.

All these plants I have on my list, so it's great to see them working

well in this wooded area. One thing I am excited about is that

I have Japanese seeder on my planting list and here I can see

conifers. What's wonderful is this form is next to boulders and it

works well. It's almost like a boulder itself. That's something I

want to try to steal and use in the garden.

I have just stumbled across this fantastic spot here in the gardens.

It's shady but you have this swathe running through it, something I want

to replicate. I have dark surfaces and large features. This really kind

of makes the whole space sing. I am on my way to the nursery in

Hampshire now, they've been looking after my plants since October of

last year and having visited the gardens and got planting inspiration

what I want to do now is get hold of the plants on site and have a play

with them and experiment with different combinations.

Morning. Good to see you. How are the plants looking? Today I have

come to meet Robin at the nursery. Robin has been able to bring

together lots of plants from all over the place so that we have the

best to choose from. A lot of the plants Matthew needs we would be

growing here, but as with any designer they're always going to

throw you ones they've seen at a show or a garden. Matthew travels

and visits gardens and will pick up ideas and combinations he wants to

use. We get the list from the designers, usually late summer and

then we start putting together the varieties that are required. This is

looking amazing at the moment. It's really good. The weather has done

great things for that. Everything's looking great. Is it in

flower too soon? A lot depends on the weather in the run-up to

Chelsea. Last year we were panicking. It was the worst winter

for growing plants. This year you have so much more scope with more

plants because the weather has been so much warmer. We are four weeks

ahead compared to last year. Last year everything was in tunnels. This

year the plants came out of the tunnels weeks ago. We are trying to

slow them down. There's far more outside this year than last year.

What I am doing at the moment is looking at all the plants I have

growing here at the nursery and how they're going to work together.

At Bodmin there was that great drift of wood spurning underneath the

tree. -- spurge. When I have drifts of these at the front of the garden

they'll really zing with the drifts of euphorbia in the background. It's

about thinking about plants, rather than in isolation, about thinking

about how they'll mix throughout the garden.

These are in one of the tunnels here being protected, they're one of my

star plants. We saw a great specimen at Bodmin Gardens and it's lovely to

see this group. They're doing what I want them to do, which is to look

like they're a group of boulders almost in their form.

They're going to be a consistent structure that runs through the

space, especially at the front of the garden.

This is really important in being able to bring to life the garden at

Chelsea and it being a success. Having top quality plants is the

difference between, I suppose, medals!

I am with Matthew now. How is it working out then? Are these plants

coming together justs as you hoped? It's fantastic. I have only seen

them in the nursery in rows and now to be weaving them through, and see

them working together... Into place. That's the exciting bit. I love it.

Everything's been all about this and putting those plants together. It's

like colouring in. You have an amazing pallet to work with. I love

that bit. All these perfect plants, they're all in beautiful condition.

They're such good examples. They tell people, the people who come

along and look at your garden, just what they can grow where and how

they can put plants together. That's right and inspire them to think of

using different plants in different combination as well. So far I'm

really happy with how it's going. How about some of the plants that

you've seen, what about your bolder plants? I'm so happy. Can you see

them next to the bolders. They have a great form and that Shaggy

texture. Still this lovely sculpt churl some IDity. That's right. You

need that. With the acid yellow and purple it jumps out at you. Zingy.

Yeah I'm loving it. Really good. It's nice to see now that the hard

landscaping it is. It's working in conjunction with the plants. I know

what's most important to you though. Plants. Yeah. Your mum, earlier in

the week, made an ebleak -- oblique reference to meeting the Queen. I

know. That's my curtsy. I feel like the Queen. Are you going to tell her

all about your garden? I think for once, I'll probably be lost for

words. A bit tongue tied. I can't imagine that.

If you had to sum up your garden in a few words, what would you say? I

would say it has a sense of tranquility, but also a feeling of

anticipation as well. That's what I've tried to create. Exact ly. Your

Majesty. Every garden designer seeks inspiration for exciting ideas.

Sometimes the best triggers come from within. In our look back at

classic Chelsea gardens, we're about to see how one of the most respected

names found inspiration for her last to see how one of the most respected

Chelsea show garden. Arabella Lennox Boyd chose to go back to her roots

Chelsea show garden. Arabella Lennox for her 2008 design. I was born in

Rome. My mother decided to come and live here, when I was about seven.

It was after the war. She just wanted to get away from the city.

The village is called Oliveto which means olive grove. It's changed

enormously since I was a child. Gardening is a complete obsession

for me. It's both gardening and designing and plant growing. I'm mad

about plants. I'm mad about design. What really excites me about Italian

gardens is the architecture that goes with the everygreen planting.

The idea would be to be able to mix the Italian style and the English

style, which is what I try and do. I spent hours with my wonderful

gardener. He's very precise. Every time we can do something which is

going to take us forward, the garden is still in constant revolution, I

think I've probably finished The Last Leg of my planning, but the

roses are tiny and the irises are minute. In a few years, it will look

really good. I came to England when I was 24. It

was a wonderful experience for me because I started my gardening. My

home is in Lancashire. The garden was a real challenge because of the

landscape, which was so informal and didn't allow vistas and all the

thingedz that you have in an Italian garden. It's been a terrific place

for me to learn. I try out flowers. I've tried trees. It's been ape real

learning curve for me and I -- a real learning curve for me. I don't

know how I would have done my job properly if I hadn't had that

experience. Another of my Italian gardens is here. The house is called

La Bandiera. The garden in the front of the house is actually on a

garage, because the owner didn't want to see the cars in front of the

house. So I was only given about 50 centimetres of soil. The only thing

I could plant was box and lavender. So I designed this formal pattern

and at the centre, a fountain, which is very pleasant in the summer,

because there's the sound of the water.

Irises do incredibly well in this part of Italy. I planted them

everywhere, particularly in an area where I planted Judas trees. The

whole area is covered in iris of every colour. I went mad. It's such

fun to come back here and see them do so well. They look absolutely

fantastic. I am a little bit of a gypsy, having left my country of

birth to go to England, I think that once you've done that, you become

slightly detached. So really I feel at home wherever my favourite plants

are or my favourite design. That's what I'm really attached to. This

was the finished result, a bold and stunning design that earned Arabella

a gold in 2008. She was delighted with the results too. I'm very

happy. It's really wonderful. I've been assisted by a fantastic team

and we've had great fun and moments of absolute horror, but I'm so

happy. One garden that promises to be a strong talking point this year

is that built by Chelsea veteran designer Cleeve West. What's the

theme, isn't it supposed to be a paradise garden? Yes, it's based on

the ancient gardens of Persia. They've stood the test of time. We

still like to have trees for shade, water, for sound and reflection and

an abundance of planting to make us feel good. Those were sanctuaries,

enclosures like a taming of nature within a hostile desert. Our desert

is there in the gravel A taming garden. Of nature, but a recognition

of how nature is really in control. That's what you do with your

planting. What are your basic building Everything is materials?

Sourced from the UK. We have Bath limestone. Everything has been cut

from scratch, bolders into slabs. We have splint which we discovered. It

has a lovely rusty tinge which goes well with the limestone. It's a

marriage made in heaven for me. I'm just as excited about that as I am

with the planting. The only thing we had to go abroad for is the trees.

You don't see a lot of this type of tree at your local garden centre. We

needed a canopy. You are working here alongside all sorts of garden

designers, is it camaraderie or is it cut throat? I don't think it's

cut throat. Certainly for me it's not. I got the competition out of me

when I was younger. Obviously you want a Gold Medal. Everyone wants

that. There's no limit to how many gold medals. What I like is seeing

some of the younger faces coming in. I feel, I do feel like a veteran

now, seeing people like the Rich brothers and Hugo Bugg and Matt

Childs, and all that. It's great to see them. It's great for them.

They're all aspiring to be a Cleve West as well. We have Luciano as

well. I don't know how many of you can call yourselves veterans with me

around! It's absolutely throwing it down and

the people on the outside gardens are getting inundated. Inside here

work continues as usual. This is where my heart truly lies in the

Great Pavilion, not just because it's drier in here either. They say

there's room to plant 500 -- park 500 London buses in here. 100

exhibitors are starting to arrive. But don't be fooled into thinking

that everyone preparing their immaculate displays is a

professional grower or breeder. Passionate amateurs are also hung

Rhyl eyeing gold medals as we found out when we recently visited two

special ladies from the Orchid Society of Great Britain.

Orchid growing has not only changed my life, it's rather taken over it.

It's a hobby gone mad. They're all over my kitchen.

I don't have a greenhouse. I'm what people call a window sill grower.

I'm still a beginner. I'm learning. It's a good way to start.

Val, from the Orchid Society of Great Britain changed my life, for a

few months at least by inviting me to help design the display at

Chelsea 2013. Eight little words... I said to her, "Come on Sam, we can

do it together." Zblt rest was history for about eight months while

we planned and designed and built the display.

The qualities that I think Sam brought was her enthusiasm and

creativity. She is very enthusiastic. She's inspirational.

She's an expert orchid grower and I would follow her anywhere. I was

proposing that I would rather like to do Chelsea, but I needed somebody

younger and fitter to actually do what I could no longer do. To be

absolutely blunt! I only joined the Orchid Society five years ago, when

I joined I could never have imagined that within five years I would be

helping to design an exhibit at Chelsea. We wouldn't normally ask a

new member to ask us do Chelsea, being such a prestigious show. But

you recognise talent in somebody. If you see talent, then I'm afraid, you

have to grab it. Of course, you don't do it on your

own. There's a whole team of people who lend us plants and provide

support, driving vans, and help us build the display on site. Today I'm

going to Val's house to meet with her and see how our plans for

Chelsea 2014 are coming together. Good to see you. Got a few new

things coming out? Yes. Show me what's looking good. Last

year's Chelsea red tree. Wonderful. Reflowered this year. Beautiful. It

Fantastic. Looked good last year. That will be nice to have. How about

this? Beautiful and a particularly nice, big flower on it. It is a big

flower. That's good. Kit cat. What's -- chit chat. What's good at Chelsea

is large specimen plants. That will be great. Can you believe it's

nearly a year since we did Chelsea and you said to me, "Come on, Sam,

we can do it together." Changed my life for nearly a year. I couldn't

believe we had won a Gold Medal, certainly not for my first Chelsea.

With the right mentors and people behind you, it's all possible. The

wonderful thing about joining a society is you have all this

expertise on tap. When Val persuaded me to join her, as a designer, I was

a little apprehensive. I had the confidence that you and I could

actually do it together. Yes, we've decided, haven't we? We have indeed.

We will be entering Chelsea 2014 for the Orchid Society of Great Britain.

The title of the display is the cosmopolitan world of orchids, which

will show orchids in a natural setting and demonstrate the fact

that they grow on every continent of earth apart frommant arka. -- from

Antarctica. We ask for orchids from our members. # basically, we collect

them five days before the show starts and it's not until that day

that we know what we've got coming. Our quality control for displays has

to be high, but Chelsea needs to be perfection. It really is the gold

standard of flower shows. So we have to say quite strongly to our members

that unless plants are perfect, perfect flowers, perfect leaves, we

really can't use them on the display. We are going to win a Gold

Medal this year. Definitely. Give it our best shot. Most definitely, yes.

We are. Isn't it lovely to see daffodils

coming? I look forward to seeing Val and Sam in the Great Pavilion next

week, to see if they've pulled it off once again. Still to come: The

Indiana Jones of horticulture. We meet two extraordinary plant

hunters. It's a wonderful adventure, but there are risks involved too. We

have had very hairy moments. We've had run-ins with bandits. We've been

held up atma Shetty point. Sometimes -- up at machete point. Sometimes he

hangs over a cliff. I think no plant is worth What are that. Our team

looking forward to most from Chelsea 2014? I want to have a good sniff

around. I'm looking forward to see what the hot new talent have in

store for us. All week, our cameras have been

following the team of people who ensure this amazing and complex show

runs like clockwork. There are 800 who take 33 days to make it happen.

Today, our Chelsea champion is someone in charge of all that's

going on in the Great Pavilion, manager, Helen Boem. I am the floral

marquee manager this year. For Chelsea I am looking after the Great

Pavilion. How's it going? We're doing really well this time.

Typical day for me, I would arrive quite early in the morning, meet all

the new exhibitors coming in, find out if they have any needs. They

could have needs for power on their displays, access to water, make sure

they know where to get those facilities. I then just oversee

their builds, making sure there are no problems, deal with those. And

just generally be on call for all of them in the marquee. OK, yes. No

excavations allowed, sorry. Today is probably the biggest day. The

exhibitors come from all over the world. This is where the big builds

take shape. Hi, guys. How long do you think it's going to take before

you get all of these unloaded? Probably about another hour of this

lot. This is the hedging. OK, the guys on the exhibit the other side

need to start constructing. If they can give us an hour, we can get this

out and when the next one comes in we can push it there. We will sort

something out. All right, see you later. Hi, I have spoken to the

delivery guys. It's going to take an hour to finish unloading that.

They've another delivery due in soon after but what they'll do is they'll

move it further over and then unload from the other side. Thank you very

much. Lovely, thank you. Good, see you later. It's very compact in the

Grand Pavilion and the RHS liaisons are very good and if you have a

problem they'll sort it out, as you have just seen.

I am just now going around making sure that I haven't missed anyone

that's come in this morning and hopefully if anyone has questions

and see me walking around they can ask me any particular questions that

they might have. Did you find the water OK? Yes, thank you. Good. I

walk all day. I do a lot of walking. What are they? Part of the water

feature. They shoot water in. When will you be able to test it? Later

this morning. Good luck. Thank you very much, Helen. Luckily, we are

not affected in the same way as the guys working outside. However, the

impact of weather could affect some guys because they're travelling in

from all over the place but so far I have not really had any problems

with weather. There's been a burst downpipe so all

the rain water's coming off the roof and it's basically coming out on the

exhibit over here. The guys have got to redirect the water into the

nearest drain which is down here. They've had to make a channel to

direct the water away from all their landscaping they've been doing. It's

ending up on that exhibit over there, obviously that could have an

impact on their display. This is the sort of problem that I have to deal

with but it's quite an unusual problem. The guys here are trying to

sort this problem out so it doesn't happen again. In a way, thank

goodness it's happened today so it can be dealt with because if we had

it full of visitors then it could pose real problems for both the

visitors and the exhibitors. When you come to Chelsea it just

feels like there's nothing like it. It feels like it's the biggest show

on the planet. Just the standard of everything that's here is so high.

You don't get that anywhere else. It's just amazing that so many

people put their hearts and souls into what they're producing to show

people. I find that quite amazing. I absolutely love it.

It's easy to see the RHS Chelsea Flower Show as a very British

affair, but some exhibitors come from many miles to be at the event.

In fact, some of the floral exhibits come on quite incredible journeys to

get here. There's a couple who have been coming for some years who

fascinate me in their quest to uncover new and exotic plants for us

all to admire and grow. They are Sue and Bleddyn Wynn Jones. They've come

from Wales for this show but have collected plants from all over the

world. In our classic Chelsea choice, we are going back to the

very first year they brought their remarkable specimens to the show.

We go out looking for plants, well, because it's something that needs

doing, we feel strongly that it needs doing. There's so many plants

out there that aren't cultivated and also there's huge population

pressures on these plants. They're going to become extinct before

they've been tried in gardens. We have been collecting for the last 21

years and tend to go in the autumn. That's when the seed is ripe. A lot

of people think we are off on holiday when we go away. They've no

idea. It's a wonderful adventure but there are risks and dangers

involved, too. We have had hairy moments. We have had run-ins with

bandits, we have been held up at machete point and hanging over

cliffs and you think no plant is worth that. To date we have made

somewhere around 15,000 collections. Most are new, although they're

duplicates in amongst them. Countries are varied. This is from

China. We have India represented there. South America. Vietnam. It

goes across the board. This chap here we are hoping to take to

Chelsea will have red flowers by then, it's from Mexico. The rest of

these were on that same trip in Central America. The plan for

Chelsea is that I take hopefully a variety. Everything that we are

going to have on our stand is going to be a Wynn-Jones collection.

I think if we had these in flower that would be fabulous. Joe has a

great knowledge of plants and Edward is a professional flower arranger

and helped us do flowers for the Queen's Coronation. I have brought

Edward and Joe down here to help me select the plants for the front of

the display. They're going to be helping me through the week with the

build and everything and their experience is vital. This is my

first time at Chelsea, I need somebody who knows exactly what's

going on. That looks fantastic. Lovely colouring. Especially if -

this is going to be lifted on the stand. People can see that wonderful

colour. Look at that now. Exactly. That will give us a lift. This is

just fab. It's the leave shape. It's different to anything else. People

will not have seen anything like that before. We want to show them

things they haven't seen before. That's what it's about.

Everything that you are going to see on our stand is from our collections

and I don't think anybody's ever done that before, it's a first. It's

very exciting. I am always keen to introduce as many things as I can

into cultivation. It's a challenge. You do find new and interesting

things. He seems to have the eye. Sue and Bleddyn are supplying plants

this year for a remarkable display which is being put together by

Sophie Walker. It will feature lots of plants rarely seen before and we

will be able to get a close look at them next week. It looks like it's

going to be an exciting and much talked about display.

This look at last-minute preparations has certainly whetted

my appetite. I hope you will join us for our coverage right across the

week. Before we go there's just time for our whole team, including Monty

Don, who will be with us for the BBC2 coverage, to tell us what

they're most looking forward to next week. I am particularly interested

in what's going on in the Great Pavilion. It's been a fantastic

growing year and I think some of those plants will be at their

absolute peak. I want to get in there and have a good sniff around.

There are lots of first-time designers bricking their gardens to

-- bringing their gardens to Chelsea this year. I am looking forward to

seeing what the new talent has in store. I am looking forward to the

inspiration that comes from seeing fresh thoughts about familiar

situations. It could be on a show garden with design, it could be just

two plants on a nurseryman's stall that you never thought of putting

side by side. Then you bring that freshness back to your own garden.

The area to which I make a pilgrimage is the fresh gardens.

They're new, young, and really embryonic ideas executed with a real

purity. There's always something there that sets a trend for the

years that follow. What I am really looking forward to at Chelsea this

year is the planting in the show gardens because it's been such a

warm spring the plants are much more advanced than they were last year

and there should be a lot more things in flower and that should

lead some exciting plant combinations. What I am hoping for

is that Chelsea reflects the exuberance of this year. I have

never seen blossom and foliage like it. Next time you see me I promise I

will be in my best outfit. I will be bringing you the show on BBC1 at 5.

35pm on Sunday. Let's Bray for good weather and a -- pray for good

weather and a truly memorable show for that great British institution,

the Chelsea Flower Show. See you then.

A new era blooms at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show,

with a fresh crop of exciting young designers.

The very nature of the American personality was defined.