Episode 1 RHS Chelsea Flower Show

Over the last month the grounds of the Royal Hospital here in London

have been turned upside down by the global gardening elite.

Diggers and riggers with spades and blades have spent hours building

elaborate towers and planting exquisite flowers to transform the

Chelsea pensioners' back garden into the most celebrated

horticultural catwalk on the planet. There are only a few hours to go

before an eager world gets a first glimpse of this year's floral feast.

But stay with us for the next hour because we've got an exclusive

preview of Chelsea 2012 just for you.

Get fresh - we'll be revealing the new garden category that's set to

cause controversy. Joe in for gold - Mr Swift unveils

his very first Chelsea show garden. What do you think honestly?

Honestly? I've got to be honest, really. I think it's absolutely

brilliant. I am ever so proud of you.

And south-west exotics - we meet Chelsea first timers Trewidden

Nursery to find out why Cornwall is the new South Africa.

Welcome to the Royal Horticultural Society's Chelsea Flower Show

supported by M&G Investments. For just six precious petal-filled days

central London is besieged by over 150,000 people, all of them

desperate to see the ambitious exhibits designed by the leading

lights in horticulture. But I guarantee you won't have to leave

your armchair for a front-row seat. Over the next seven days we'll be

bringing you 11 hours of coverage. I'll be here every night with all

your favourite faces keeping you right up to date. Rachel De Thame,

Christine Walkden, Nicki Chapman, Andy Sturgeon, Alys Fowler, Tom

Hart Dyke and Chris Beardshaw, to name but a few, will be bringing

you their unique insight into Chelsea 2012.

And we couldn't keep floral fanatics Carol Klein and James Wong

away either! Carol, what do you think of it so far? I think it's

wonderful! I think considering the sort of problems that people must

have experienced - I mean, the terrible weather - lots of rain

during the build-up, not to mention the cold - you know, right through

the spring, and plants have been held back so much. They have been,

you know, raring to get going, but somehow everybody seems to have

pulled it off. Because people think oh, I'm going to go there. It's all

going to be green. There will be no flowers. They'll have to make do

and mend. Not a bit it. There is lots of green, but it's just a

beautiful background for a lot of lovely, luscious colour. Now, James,

you're normally making gardens. You're off this year. You're going

around lightheaded I should think, no responsibility at all, but you

know how they all feel at this moment. Exactly. Just walking in

here I am feeling anxious because I know exactly what's going through

their heads. People think of Chelsea as being really beautiful

and glamorous. What they don't think about is all the pressure

that is on each one of the designers to pull all of that off.

It's hundreds of thousands of pounds, years worth of work, and

it's all on their shoulders. it's hundreds of thousands of

pounds, it's had to cost your sponsors hundreds of thousands of

pounds - only a gold will do. Exactly. Only gold will do. You

have to pull it off and make a miracle.

This year there are 16 large show gardens along Main Avenue. The big

ones are 15 metres x 10 metres and huge at 22 metres x 10 metres. We

three have been going around and having a sneaky peek.

Where better to start than with Mr Best in Show 2011 in Cleve West's

lovely garden? You can always rely on Cleve for something really

thoughtful, really innovative, something that makes you think and

gets you going, but this year he's reverted to a much more formal

theme. He's got these wonderful stone paths, lots of straight lines,

this great formal topiarys that almost populate the garden. They're

like people, but within that, there's Cleve West's signature.

These wonderful plantings rich in plants - it really is a plant

person's paradise. It's been a truly difficult year

for all garden designers - all exhibitors, in fact. And lots of

plants just haven't done what they're expected to do, but Cleve's

really made the most of that fact. He appreciates the stems and the

background to these scintillating spots of colour, vivid poppies and

the glowing heads of the euphorbia. I think it's inspiring and all

about anticipation too, and surely that is what gardening is all about.

Last year he built a pink sky garden. So impressive was it, it

even managed to win the People's Award. This year it's an 80-foot

pyramid. It's a garden designed of course by Diarmuid Gavin. What a

pyramid it is - seven floors. You can see it from Chelsea embankment.

It catchs the eyes of everybody that goes past - some installation

it is. To prepare it - he isn't finished yet - he has been using a

lift. I am on the fourth floor, which has a wonderful display of

fruit and vegetables and a beautiful pastel-painted greenhouse.

You'll find other features on other floors. There is a shower in here

somewhere, lots of pieces of scupture, a preponderance of

climbing plants climbing up the scaffolding. There are lots of

hints, tips and wrinkles because this is a practical garden as well

as one that looks as though it's a bit of a gimmick. What it's trying

to do is encourage people to garden in the city, to make the use of the

most contracted little spaces, to grow something to brighten their

lives. It is, says Diarmuid, a retreat. It's a magical garden, and

when you have made your way up here to many of these various seven

floors and looked at what's here, you can make your way down rather

more speedily because there is a large, galvanised steel sheet

rather like a fairground helterskelter. That'll get you

interest top to bottom rather more quickly even than the lift is

getting you up. Now, somewhere in here, he tells me, there is also a

gentleman's club - a bit sexist, I thought, but he's threatened to

meet me there on Wednesday when we'll have a chat about this

installation. I just hope he's got the brandy and cigars ready!

This year Chelsea welcomed Sarah Price to Main Avenue. It's her

first ever large show garden, and she's designed it on her own. What

I think is brilliant about it is a real clear juxtaposition between

very elegant, modernist, almost quite monumental hard landscaping

which is really contrasted with a very lush, naturalistic sort of

planting. There is a really fun, playful interaction between the two.

You end up with this gravel chipping path that is absolutely

straight and geometrical but with a break that's made a break for the

borders. There is a steppingstone path,

almost a child-like approach to it. There is a particularly clever bit

of transition going on here in between the woodland planting

behind me and this water feature with its hard landscaping. The

water actually bleeds between the enormous boulders and is softened

by this boggy planting, very swish, very beautiful. With all the

appalling growing weather we have had this year, you would never know

to it look at this garden. The designer and his team have managed

to pull off almost the impossible and create a garden that's fresh,

bright and glossy, easily one of my favourite gardens this year. This

is what Chelsea is all about. Now, you might be wondering where

my usual Chelsea sidekick Joe Swift is. Well, for years I've been

challenging him - nagging him - to take the plunge and use his design

skills to create a Chelsea show garden, and every year he's come up

with an excuse. But this year he's only gone and done it! He's swapped

the sofa for a sketchpad and finally dived in head first. He

searched for inspiration, and it turns out he didn't have to wander

far from his front door to find it. I have always gone to Chelsea and

always thought I really want to do a garden here, but by the time I

got around to thinking yeah, I want to do one, it's always too late.

But this year I thought, no, I'm going to do one. Alan has been

winding me up about it for many a year, as have others, so I sat down

and designed myself a dream garden and just got the process rolling.

The garden is big. It's pretty bold and contemporary. It's got some

main elements it just couldn't live without, so I've got these four

enormous wooden frames. They've got a slight curve, and then there is

an aperture in each one, and through the first one you see this

large boulder down - coming down one side which has been

horizontally sliced. With the natural forms of the timber and the

stone, we're looking to balance it out really with some planting, and

the first thing I'm doing structurally is getting some big

Treece into there. The idea is that the frames and the trees just keep

drawing your eye through the garden from the front right to the back,

so it gives it an element of depth. It's sort of subliminal in a way

where the inspiration has come from because I have designed this garden

that I think will be a good-looking Chelsea show garden that I am

pleased with, but a lot of the elements in it are so subliminal

that I see them all around me all the time.

# London calling # Through the far-away towns

# War is declared # This is one of the trees going in

my Chelsea garden, and believe it or not, this is my street. I live

just here, and I saw these wonderful trees. They're amazing. I

thought, I have the same tree outside my front door. It's amazing.

What's wonderful about them is you have this beautiful peeling bark.

What I am going to have to do is before Chelsea opens, go around

with my gloves and flake it away a little bit to reveal this orangey

bark. It's almost like I am monitering them from my window.

The really weird thing was not only the corner is on my street - this

tree as well - this is the Amber Beauty. It's got this wonderful

tact I'll -- tactile trunk. Again, it's peeling, but this has more of

a golden tone. You have these three trees I have at Chelsea within

about a hundred yards from my house. We're at Mabley Green. Basically,

it's grass, lots of football pitches. My son comes and plays

football here. But there is this huge boulder in the middle of it.

It's absolutely enormous. There is something magnetic about natural

forms in the city because we see so much steel, concrete and Tarmac and

that sort of thing that when you see something like this, you just

want to get up close and actually experience it. This is heavily

influenced -- this has heavily influenced my garden design, I

think. It's staggering. This is my local canal, and these

big bridges in effect frame a view all the way through, which my

timber frames are going to do in my garden, so they sort of keep the

eye level down, and also they play with light and dark, which I think

is quite interesting. So the lighter side through the other side

is where you can place a rock or some planting to really highlight

it, and I mean, these are pretty harsh. It's a harsh environment,

but in the Chelsea garden, I'm going to have lots of planting to

soften it. As you can see, there is a tree there breaking that harsh

line at the back. That's what I am trying to create. These bridges are

definitely a big unfluence, I would say.

-- influence, I would say. I hope Alan genuinely likes it. I hope he

just thinks it's a worthy Chelsea show garden. That's what I am

hoping. And I'm hoping he's not too rude about it.

Me? Rude? What do you think? What do you think, honestly? It's all

right, if you like that sort of thing!

LAUGHTER Do you know how much work goes

into... Yes, I jolly well do. You know, I can't believe - I will look

at these gardens in a whole new light. 21 days since May 1 building

this garden, but it has been amazing. That line "tired and

emotional" - you have become more tired and emotional than anything

else in the world apart from getting married. It feels like my

baby, having designed it a year ago, the process, then being here with

every stone and plant and tweaking it all around. Are you happy with

it? Oh, I am delighted with the whole thing. Well, my tree is

coming into leaf slower. The cold nights here have slowed it down a

little bit, but I am delighted with this garden. I want this garden. My

biggest worry is I was going to turn around at if end of this whole

process and think I don't actually like it very much, but I love it. I

am really pleased. The teamwork behind it - I've just got to go

into it - the landscapers - Anna Porter helped me do the planting -

she has an eye for detail. It's turning into an Oscar speech. We're

not quite there yet. No. Are you going to get a gold? You tell me. I

don't know. I can't see it objectively anymore. I love the

garden. But that people like it is much more important than anything.

It would be lovely to have a gold. Of course it would! What I love

about it is there is a lot of purple and pink and soft colours

like that. This is fiery. We've got wonderful irises down there and

this deep purpley brown. This flower has never been at Chelsea

before, but it is exactly the warm tones I was looking for. I have

seen a lot of purple and pinks at Chelsea before, but I wanted to

warm the garden up because even on a rainy, grey - it does happen -

day, it feels warm. And the arches... These are lovely

strucktures. They're designed to draw the eye but also divide the

garden up. You're pleased. It's just down to the judges. I am

pleased. What do you think, honestly? Honestly? I've got to be

honest, really. I think it's brilliant. I am ever so proud of

you. Joe might be busy for the next week,

but Nicki Chapman is going to be even busier bringing you an extra

Beardshaw and Toby Buckland. We'll have all the latest news, views and

insider tips and we'll be meeting a whole host of celebrities. There's

Sir Cliff Richard, Sir Bruce Forsyth, Stephanie Cole, Mary Berry,

to name drop just a future they'll be telling us of their passion for

gardening and Chelsea. And on Tuesday we'll be up at dawn to

bring awe rundown, who will be leaving the show with a prestigious

medal? And we'll be speaking to the gardener who wins the coveted Best

in Show award 2012. You can see even more of Toby by pressing your

Red Button. On the Red Button we like to think we go a bit deeper.

We look at the how and the why. We get the word-of-mouth from the

designers themselves and look at the Great Pavilion and the plants

in more detail. There is so much to see. Any particular themes we

should be looking out for? Every year the themes change. We look at

the plants and the design aspects that join the Great Pavilion to

those in the garden. Plants and gardens that display a high level

of artistry. Designs that break the rules, and plants that break the

rules as well. Is it true you're here when we've all gone home?

We've got an exclusive. We'll be looking at the gardens after dark,

and plants that come to life and bring a garden that little

something special after dark. all love the use our gardens in the

evenings after the sun has set. I bet hate a totally different

atmosphere here. You look at the gardens here and you think they are

a bit of a masquerade, but they are not one- dimensional show gardens.

Many of them are lit and have plants that are night-scented or

have an ethereal glow when the sun goes down. You can press your Red

Button after tomorrow's lunchtime show. It is not just the gardens

that capture the imagination here at Chelsea. Right at the heart of

the showground stands the Great Pavilion. It is a horticultural big

top bursting with the finest specimens of plants and flowers

from all over the planet. Competition to win best exhibit

here is just as fear as out in the gardens. Attracting the judge's eye

needs a mix of attention to detail and attention seeking. Are viing to

be this year's most extraordinary and extravagant exhibit. One of the

biggest show stoppers comes all the way from Thailand. Welcome to the

dramatic but delicate world of Nong Nooch, a public garden on the

eastern seaboard of Thailand. This is their third year of exhibiting

at Chelsea. So far they've always left with a gold. If you ask me,

but what I know, they are likely to have another this year. 40,000

orchids brought together to form an exhibit which would encourage you

to travel to Thailand at the drop of a palm hat. There are water

buffalos here made of palm fronds to exemplify the reliance Thailand

placed on the water buffalo in terms of labour all those years ago.

They are still used today. And there's a royal barge a nice

resonance with our river pageants in a few weeks time. This one is

gilded to within an inch of its life. And then the royal chariot.

Playing here in a sea of orchids happy Thai children. The sne

centrepiece of the exhirt is a traditional Thai house with its

little minarets on the top. All of it submerged in a sea of 08,000

orchid flowers. This is a supremely exotic exhibit. What they want here

is for us to realise how beautiful Thailand is and to look at it in

the flesh. For those of us who can't get there can come here and

marvel not just at the glory and colour but the skill of cultivation.

Chelsea is above all about gardening, about growing. And all

over the world people are doing that and bringing their skills

right here to SW3. This is one of the best.

You can always rely on this clematis stand to produce a

spectacle. Not only is the kiss play incredibly innovative,

beautifully designed, but it is packed to the gunnels with the most

magnificent plants -- packed to the gunwales with the most magnificent

plants. This year there are three now introductions.

Hell ina, Zara and the Countess of Wessex. All three of the plants

have the same quality. The flowers face upwards so you can really

enjoy the magnificence of them. And they were all easy to grow. And

they are prolific. They start early and they will go on blooming right

the way through into the autumn. They are incredibly easy to look

after too. People are always pondering about just how you prune

your clematis, but in this case, and that goes for most of the

plants here, they just take the shears and they cut them down to

the ground. So whether it's large- flowered hybrids or these

marvellous plants the treatment is the same. Quite honestly you are

spoilt for choice. You almost want to build a wall just so you can

grow them. If you don't have a wall, how about these new plants in

containers right the way through the garden?

As well as exotic locations and British nurseries, local

authorities are also represented here. You may remember a few years

ago Leeds City Council had a water wheel exhibit outside, and another

with canals. This year it is the turn of Birmingham City Council in

the pavilion with on this corner a Mini, covered in carpet bedding.

Sedums on the roof and on the won't. I bought a Mini in 1974. My first

car, brand-new it was. Cost me �740 and a very large bank loan. Happy

memories. I think that's what Birmingham City are doing here,

bringing together all of the facets of the city. This Mini was made in

long bridge. On the other side of the exhibit is a canal. There's a

great canal network in Birmingham. Here is Birmingham Town Hall with

an enormous portico. And a lot of metalwork. There is the jewellery

quarter understand is where Matthew Bolton came from with his wonderful

pieces, crafted around blue John. This is wonderful to see a local

authority proud in what it can achieve and showing off the

delights of a British city. Nurserymen and women come from far

and wide to show their specimens of horticultural perfection. This year

Claire Batten and Jeff Rowe have travelled from Trewidden. They were

armed with a selection of exotics that originate from across the

globe but thrive in the Cornish climate. As Chelsea first-timers

they are hoping to cause a stir. For us this is the perfect location

for growing our type of plants. It's got the light levels, the

climate is good and it's perfect for the South African plants that

we grow. We was just doing a few car boots, me and Clare. Clare got

a job at the nursery before we took it on, doing propagating. And then

we had the opportunity to take the nursery on ourselves. This year

we're doing every RHS show. A bit of leap from 18 months of not doing

any to doing them all now. This is the propagation house. We are old

school. We produce 5 % -- we grow 95% of our plants here. It is what

we did horticulture for. We didn't do it to see what was in the next

catalogue. We wanted to do everything from the beginning. Some

of these plants are seven or eight years old, so it is a passion to

get them to Chelsea really. The passion for these plants came from

when I was working on Tresco as a student. We did our work experience

on the Abbey Gardens on the Isles of Scilly. One of the things we got

to do was plant the protea bank. Once you've seen these flowering

nothing else compares to them. It was just such an honour to be able

to plant that. It's always going to be there to go back and look at.

Here in the South West we've got similar conditions to the Cape,

where we've got decomposing granite mass. The cliff is brilliant,

because it has good drainage. We are similar but slightly different.

We are slightly colder and wetter, so it does make it a little more

difficult than out in South Africa. The soil is key to trying to get a

gold medal at Chelsea when you are growing the likes of a protestia.

We've trialled different mixes over the years and found there is no

replacement for putting Pete in the substraight. This is my own secret

recipe and we've found this is best for us. As you can see, we use a

fine peat, it is a clean, airy and open mix. Proteas do like a lot of

air in the roots. They don't like root disturbance. They don't like

feed in the mix, because the phosphates burn the feeder roots.

If you look on there you can just see what looks like mould but they

are the fine feeder roots. We take the next size pot up. Get it nice

and even. Never use your thumbs, as you will compress the compost far

too much. You want to leave a lip so that when you give it a good

soak the water doesn't run off the top. All being well that will make

a gold medal-winning plant in a few years' time.

Most of the plants in this tunnel are the show plants and the best of

which are going to be going to Chelsea. I'm deadheading here. With

these daisies the more you dead- head the more they flower. We are

taking all of the flowering ones out now. Most of the time we work

quite well together don't stpwhe Generally. We have our odd blip.

You tend to get a bit tired and emotional. I will be over the Moon

with a gold but we'll be happy with whatever medal we get really. If

from that film that you are married, but you are not? No, he is my

brother-in-law. So it's in the family. Have we had the odd blip?

One little blip earlier on. I couldn't quite reach and do

something and I had to walk away. Down in Cornwall, the furthest

south-west garden and nursery exhibiting here at Chelsea, how

tough has it been for you? It's been cold this year. Had that

lovely early sun and it stopped. Not enough light for us down there.

You were talking about using peat. That's controversial. Presumably

you've found that if you didn't use peat for your Proteas, and there is

an example here, you wouldn't be able to produce that? We've

experimented with lots of different substitutes, coir and peat-free but

there is nothing to beat the peat. Good luck. One plant blows we away.

Tell us what it is Clare. It is from South Africa. It is on the

endangered list. It is very rare? Yes. We grow pretty seed and now we

can produce our own seeds. How old is that plant? Between six and

seven years old. It was worth coming, certainly worth any

plantsman to watch and drifpblt good luck. We'll catch up with you

on Tuesday. We wish you all -- watch and dribble. Good luck. We'll

catch up with you on Tuesday. More to come. Queen of green Beth Chatto

offers inspiration to Nicholas Dexter. It came into my head, I

didn't want a heather garden and not a rose garden. I would like a

dried up the riverbed. Andy sturgeon explains his show garden

to us in new English. I sit for months waiting for a you

Rica moment to come and then it does! And making a mint. We meet

the folk who produce Chelsea's gold guardens with their generous

budgets and big-name designers get the most attention here at Chelsea,

but make no mistake the small gardens still hold their own. James

has been taking a closer look. There are 17 small gardens this

year, and the challenge for the designers is to create clever

solutions for small, restricted outdoor spaces. There are two key

categories, the first, artisan - using sustainable materials in an

artistic way. This is the plant explorer's garden designed and

built by the students of the Scottish Agricultural College.

Their theme for the garden is that of a young plant explorer who

spends most of his time travelling, collecting and researching plants

around the world. The design incorporates an outdoor office for

planning and cataloguing adventures and a greenhouse for growing and

propagating plants. One of the more unusual features of the garden are

these resin blocks which are effectively parts of the planting

around the garden that have been frozen in time to create something

like a herbarian specimen they would use. Interesting, it's a bit

like a cross-over between the planting and the artwork.

The overall style is naturalistic and includes the fantastic wallemia

pien, thought instinct until rediscovered in one chasm in the

'90s. Being a real exotic plant geek, I

am really spoilt for choice in this garden, but this has got to be

without a doubt my absolute favourite. There isn't a single bed

of plant for giving a subof- tropical feel to your garden than

the Japanese banana. Although the college has been here

before, it's the first time at Chelsea for these students, and

they certainly get top marks from me. Of course, we'll be look at the

other artisan gardens over the course of the week.

The remaining small gardens have been recategorised. Last year they

were called urban gardens. This year it's all change as commelsy

borders on controversy. Alex, you're the RHS show manager here.

Tell us more about this exciting category. We decided to rip up the

rule books, Nicki, and we have literally changed this entire area

of the show ground. We needed something fresh and different. This

was very tired, and this is what we have done. Certainly, standing here

I never thought I was going to see blue string at Chelsea. Isn't it

stunning? I think it's going to relate to a younger audience. We're

going to get young people involved in gardening through these types of

materials. We have the blue string through Alan's design and these

steel towers by Joe Chapman, then behind us we have this QR code.

How fantastic. When you come up with a new category, do you have

any idea what is going to be submitted? Because here it seems to

be so cutting edge. I have seen things in these gardens I am

standing around looking at I have never seen before. I think it's

really radical. I think it's going to shock our visitors at what we

have actually achieved. So I am thrilled with how we have

progressed with it. Chelsea always wants to be fresh and new, don't

you? I think that's what you have achieved. I hope the public love it.

I am sure they will. I have to ask you about the weather. We're

British. We're obsessed, aren't we We are. Parts of the country,

including the south-east, still have hosepipe ban. Sure. It must

have been the worst drought ever here. It. Has been horrific, but in

that true Chelsea spirit, everyone has gotten on with it, no moaning,

heads down and created the most spectacular gardens we have seen in

years. We actually have a borehole here in Chelsea, so since the last

drought we put that in place because, of course, we can't manage

without having that supply. What has it been like for the builders

and the designers. They have come in. It has been extremely dry.

Everyone has been suffering, then suddenly, it's like the heavens

opened and a monsoon. It's the cold as well. It's two things combined -

the cold has really shocked plants, and what they really needed was

this lovely heat to bring them out. That's what designers have been

struggling with and having to change plants at the last minute.

am sure in the Great Pavilion they have their work cut out for them.

How have they coped? Really well. A couple of people have had to reduce

their stands, but they're still putting on the most fantastic

displace. We have only had one cancellation, and that's been

instantly replaced by somebody on our waiting list, so we're thrilled

to bits. Thank you very much. We absolutely love this new category -

fresh gardens - that's where it's The Fresh Garden category is

definitely going to put the cat among the pigeons. This is one of

them. It's simply called Green With - by Tony Smith. It uses artificial

grass and silk orchids set in plastic cylinders to signify them

being objects of desire and slightly out of reach. We have

tulips in here for tulip-a-mania in here - that 17th century craze and

down at the bottom, the Victorian fern craze. Clergymen went

everywhere for a fern. They're all behind bars. That's what you get

when you're Green With Envy. Despite the downpours we have been

having of late, H20 remains ever precious and continuing to think

preciously about water is vital. We caught up with Mr Dexter as he

toured Beth Chatto's garden for inspiration. It's a garden that's

only ever been watered by rainfall Chatto's books, I have been a long-

time admirer. She's such an inspiration for the garden anyway,

so I wanted to come here specifically to look at what sorts

of plants are growing here, and knowing that these plants don't get

any water - look at them. They're thriving, looking fantastic. It's

exactly what you want to achieve at Chelsea.

When the plants were planted, they were planted into a well-cultivated

soil, and once they become established, they're happy. I mean,

they grow natively in the wild in these situations, so they look

after themselves, and it doesn't require any artificial work to keep

them at their best. Beth Chatto's ethos is just everything live. It's

all about using the right plants and creating a sense of oecology

and what plants go well together. That's exactly what you've got here

and just the way in which the forms and textures combine - it just all

works. What was your inspiration for your garden here? To start with

it was - I knew that I had to grow drought-loving plants because our

average rainfall is the lowest in the country, about 20 inches. Last

year it was 15. We still have five- and-a-half inches short, but part

of the inspiration is I was in Australia with Christopher Lloyd,

and we stood look down on a dried- up riverbed, sinewously with lots

of exposed rock, grarvel, stone and things, and I don't know. Suddenly

it came into my head, no, I don't want a heather garden, certainly

not a rose garden. I want a dried- up riverbed. Of course, it's not as

dried up looking as it might be because I chose plants that survive

without irrigation. Gardening is like painting. Every artist is

different. It would be boring if we garden is the way that there is no

actual boundaries. The gravel just permeates the whole planted area.

We have lovely low-growing lepetus here. We have here stackus creating

a continuous ground cover through which agapanthus are growing and

creating a contrast. It's a bit like a fireworks display, so some

plants are getting ready to flower, others are performing supporting

roles. There is nothing showy about it. It's more about the fact that

the plants belong in gravel. They're low growing and knit

together well to form nice plant communities.

I really like this part of the garden because it combines

different textures together, and it's a really soft and natural look.

It's the sort of thing I want to do in the garden at Chelsea. I just

love the way the grass is blowing around in the wind and not really

competing for attention at all. It's just intermingling with the

low of growing silvery shrubs. It's not relying on flower colour, but

more textures and the way they're in the Fresh Garden category. It's

a nine metre by six metre garden. Hopefully people can look at this

space and know it's doable in their own gardens. We're using Salvias,

nakivias - plants you'll be familiar with but plants that are

grow in drought conditions. It's Chelsea. You can explore new

landscaping techniques or hard landscaping techniques. It's

exciting to be part of. You got to meet the great lady

herself. Yeah, it was amazing. I sign up totally to what she

believes in, that sort of natural planting. She was so warm and

friendly. It was just - sitting in her garden, just having a chat

about gardens - two gardeners just having a chat about natural

planting. I totally sign up to her way of thinking. That signing up is

evident in the garden you have made. It's also about water conservation

as well as growing plants that can cope with less of it. You have this

astonishing water bottle on the wall. What's that all about? We're

working for the Southern Counties water companies. One of the key

messages they want to promote is using less water in the garden. One

way of doing that is to collect water. You can channel it into

storage ponds to irrigate the garden. We should be doing more of

that. Rainwater from the roofs is the biggest waste we have because

it always runs away. You always have a full watering can? Always.

Any excess goes into the pond behind us. You have this rail going

on down here. There are dramatic shapes in this garden as well as

the soft grasses and planting. a hard sell to go for angular

shapes but the reason it's angular is I was struggling to come up with

an idea of how to represent Druitt. Show gardens are quite forward

thinking. I started to draw jagged lines to represent dry, parched

earth. It just turned into irrigation channels and the idea of

them cutting through paving and things like that. You're moving

water around - moving the water to where you need it? Yes. I think the

idea of capturing rainwater is great, but the ability to transport

it to different parts of the garden is what is missing. It was an old

idea in the Islamic and Persian gardens. They have always done it

on grid lay-outs. We have done it with a contemporary twist I suppose.

Let's hope the water boards take your hint - nudge, nudge. One of

the highly it's of last year's show was the emotive action from

designer GI Hwuang when she found out she'd won an award for

Trewidden Nursery, Korean for toilet.

This year she's hoping to supersize her success with Quiet Time,

Demilitarised Zone Forbidden Garden. James is taking a look. Inspired by

the border between north and South Korea, you might imagine a garden

with a brief like this would be quite stark and oppressive, but

what the designers have done with this is quite beautiful, probably

one of the most original gardens I have seen at Chelsea in years.

This garden is so evocative in its detail. There are discarded bullet

cases, uniform buttons and even the barbed wire is mirrored by trailing

and there to add interest and depth. What this garden does so incredibly

well is its almost forensic level of detail with the planting. If you

look down here, it is so naturalistic, you feel like you

have been cut and pasted and dropped into the Korean countryside.

What I love about it is things like that flowering cherry there - any

other garden on Main Avenue, if they were to have that cherry, it

would be blousey, full of flowers. Here, it's natural and fits

create a genuine sense of atmosphere. This garden has it in

budget loads. Equally tranquil and poignant. A gold medal has eluded

Tom Hoblyn since 2008 but he's here to try again. Making a garden based

on an Italian renaissance theme. Lots of formality and beautiful

expect from box and yew topiary has been replaced by myrtle and it is

sparked here and there, nature begins to take over. With plants

like rose marry nefolias, with silver spires and intrusion you to

these glorious plants with spires of blue flower.

-- introducing you. And here at the back of the garden behind these

towering plants the plants really have escaped. There are tumbling

thymes and silvery artemesi actions. I really hope that -- artemisias. I

hope that Tom has cracked it this time. The RHS judges will be making

their rounds tomorrow night and the results be delivered at the crack

of dawn on Tuesday morning. All the designers, no matter what they say,

Joe Swift, are after one of these - a card bearing a gold medal. But if

you are an exhibitor who wins a gold for the first time you get

something heavier, a weighty medal meticulously minted in Surrey.

We have a contract, which we've had since 2003, to strike the RHS gold

medals. The whole process from design to the finished product

takes about four weeks, and it is very labour intensive. Once we have

had the design approved, we have a plaster made and then convert this

plaster into a resin. Once the rez enhas been produced, we can then

put that on to the dye cutting machine.

At the moment this year we are making a lot of coins for

particular anniversarys, like the Diamond Jubilee, and the

anniversary of the Titanic. This needle is feeling what's on the

resin. It is going through the machine and cutting it with a

diamond cutter. How long has this been cutting for? Night takes

roughly a week. So the RHS medal will take two to three days,

because it is a lot smaller. That will then be our master die. This

is the main process now, where we are actually going to strike the

RHS medal. David is inspecting the blank. To me this is one of the

most important processes, to make sure a blank has no mark whatsoever

on. He's cleaning it, making sure there is not even a little dust

mark particle on it. You have the two dies, the top and bottom, which

is going to squeeze the blank and put the impression on it. The blank

is struck once, twice. And here we have a finished medal. With Royal

Horticultural Society on one side and the wreath, which can be

engraved in the centre, on the other. We appreciate all the time

and effort that is put into winning an RHS gold medal, so I hope the

end user who is worthy of this product appreciates us.

And here it is. This finely crafted golden disk is what Chelsea is all

about. The sweat, the tears, the sleepless nights. This is what

every single exhibitor at Chelsea dreams of, including Patricia Fox.

She's a Chelsea first-timer and this is her garden. Rooftop

workplace for tomorrow. I have to tell you I quite like this rooftop

workplace today. A chic modern area in which you can hold meetings,

have PowerPoint presentations - I can't stand them myself but I

wouldn't mind them if that screen back there was part of my

PowerPoint presentation. Outside is an incredibly modern rooftop. It is

using space that wouldn't otherwise be utilised. A sleek deck edged in

aluminium work and smart box planting, grasses are planted. Grey

and Silverleaf foliage plants. Thyme over there, all of which can

cope with exposure to full sunlight, quite a bit of breeze, and the

atmosphere here, there is even a green well. You can tell I'm

enthusiastic about. This I like this. Whether or not it will get

one of these, who knows? It can be make or break for first-timers,

with a line-up of gardens designed by the business, competition to

capture the imagination of the world and the eyes of the judges is

tough. Does it get easier with experience. Carol, Nicki and James

have been catching up with some Chelsea veteran to see how their

pre-opening nerves are coping. Chris, do you ever get stressed?

have a receden hairline and grey hairs! The point is getting

stressed and worrying about it doesn't make the job easier, it

makes it worse. You have to believe in the plants. They almost tell you

where they want to be in the garden. They bounce off one another. Tell

us more about this garden. This is the Furzey garden and it is to

celebrate the Minster Training Project in the heart of the New

Forest, which is 30 years old. It deals specifically with adults with

learning disabilities. This whole initiative is celebrating how they,

if they are given the right tuition, the right funding and support, can

integrate into a skilled team and produce these results. It is the

first time these sorts of people have created a garden in Chelsea.

They've never created a garden but we thought if we are to do it, do

it on the grandest scale. involved did the students become?

The vast majority of the material has been lift from the garden or

propagated by the opportunities at Furzey. We've had students every

day on the build. They've been hands on. The master Thatcher Simon

has a student. It is full involvement. That's what has really

been fun, because it has brought a smile to everyone's face. It means

something to them just as much as it does to us. Our master thatcher

builds these on a single piece of work. It starts there and we

started with a twisted cherry and allowed it to evolve. These are

lookout platforms, retreats. get on well with your neighbours?

Yes, we do. There has never been a formal boundary between us. We play

chess with our shrubs and trees and created a flowing structure.

are you going to do on medals day? I don't think the judges will like

it. These are rhododendrons and they are big and blousey. Let's see

if you get a prize. Thank you. Andy, you have been coming so long

you are called a veteran. You will be wearing a red coat before you

know where you are. How due come one these new ideas every time?

sit for months waiting for a you Rica moment and then it comes. I

had an idea to base the garden on the principles of the arts and

crafts movement. Although I design modern gardens I'm employing quite

traditional techniques. It seemed a natural thing to do. It is a lovely

progress. Gardening is a traditional thing anyway isn't it,

based in the earth. It It works wonderfully. It really does. This

lovely coppery colour picked up everywhere by your planting.

trees have a coppery tinge in the legal. And the grass. The shapes

and circles, I have Angelica and cow parsley and other humbles.

Subtle things. And don't they just work beautifully? You've really

pulled it off. Thank you very much. Jason, you are new to Chelsea but

you are working with a really experienced Flemings team, with an

amazing pedigree. Are you feeling the pressure? I felt the pressure

before I got here. I've used their experience. That's calmed me down,

but it has been emotional and satisfying. I picked an amazing

team of people. It is like being a footie coach. Pick Apple the right

guys and work together. That's just as rewarding to see that happen as

building this beautiful garden. can see the spirit of Australia

here. Is there anything specifically here? Talk me through

it. The back wall is like the Sydney harbour bridge, made of

sandstone. The floors represent Melbourne. Everyone has a tin shed

in their back yard. That's my old roof. The feel is my Australia -

Melbourne and Sydneyened and the plants are subtropical, which is

Queensland. And you have an outdoor fireplace. I didn't like school

much and dad taught me a lot sight around a Barbie. I like the

subtropical stuff. A top two? are a few Australian natives and

others from New Zealand and Europe. We are multicultural but when we

are together we are all Australian. It is brilliant. Congratulations.

Thanks mate. There is still plenty of gardens to

be unveiled, large and small, and the Great Pavilion is hiding more

than a few surprises too. The race is on for all the exhibitors to

finish before the gates open to the press and Her Majesty the Queen

tomorrow. What a show. Any trends you've spotted? There are often

similarities. Yes, startling similarities really between the

gardens. Lots of this contrast between the formal and the informal.

Lots of pleached hedging and beautiful straight steps and paths.

In contrast this lovely flowing planting. It's a treat. But it is

right the way through. We could talk about it for hours. If you

can't get to the show but are in the capital this week, all over

London the Chelsea Fringe are stages gardening-related events.

We'll bring you news of some of them during the week. If you want

to check them out now go, to our website - bbc.co.uk/chelsea. It's a

all that we have time for tonight. We've reserved awe front row seat

starting on BBC 13 at 12.30pm tomorrow when Nicki Chapman and