Episode 1 RHS Chelsea Flower Show

Society's Chelsea Flower Show, an event supported by M&G Investments.

For three fleeting days in May 1913, the Royal Horticultural Society

tentatively planted the roots of its Great Spring Show here in the Royal

Hospital grounds, London. Fast forward a century and the Chelsea

Pensioners' front garden hasn't changed much but this world-famous

flower festival has. It's now the most important date on the global

gardening calendar. Who could have predicted that the exhibits and

designs showcased here over the last ten decades would dramatically

influence how we garden? Tomorrow, the gates officially open for

Chelsea Flower Show's 100th year. Tonight we invite you for an

exclusive preview. Call it an early birthday present packed full of

centenary surprises! Coming up tonight on Centenary Chelsea...

Horticultural time travel. Designer Roger Platts reveals how he's

captured a hundred years of Chelsea in a show garden. I have really

tried to give a flavour of years ago, and a flavour of being

up-to-date. Kelway's nursery reveals the century-old secrets behind their

gold medal-winning peonies and irises. This one is going to go

straight down to a shady place and we will try to get him to close up

again, and that one might be OK for the show. Nicki Chapman takes a look

at our front gardens through the generations.

I'm sure you will agree it is set to be a momentous Centenary year, and

you don't even need a much coveted ticket. Over the next seven days

we've got an incredible 11 hours of coverage so you won't miss a single

petal or leaf. And joining us each day is a line up reading like a

who's who of horticulture. Carol Klein and Rachel De Thame from

Gardeners' World. As well as garden designers Chris Beardshaw, James

Wong and James Alexander Sinclair and plant hunter Tom Hart Dyke, to

to name but a few. We also have a whole host of Chelsea-loving

celebrities for you including Joanna Lumley, Rob Brydon, Judy Parfitt,

Sandi Toksvig and Linford Christie. And if that's not enough we'll be

tweeting all week with extra news. Toby Buckland and Christine Walkden

will be ready and waiting for you when you press your red button from

tomorrow lunchtime and I'll be here every day with Andy Sturgeon at 1230

on BB One with even more Centenary Chelsea. He'll be joining us later

in the programme for a first look at the small gardens. Chelsea's changed

beyond recognition over the years. 240 exhibitors wowed the crowds at

the very first show in 1913. It was a mix of trade stands, nurseries,

and rock gardens, which were the height of fashion and continued to

be so right up to the late fifties. A section of the ground is still

called Rock Garden Bank. Today there's double the number of

exhibitors and this year 15 of them are large show gardens. With time

ticking away to the grand opening tomorrow morning, some designers are

still working frantically to get finished. Trying not to disturb

them, earlier we went to take an be at the peak of perfection? Why

this avenue of dead trees? This is a garden designed for an agency that

has put together this garden called Stop The Spread, reminding us that

we need to be vigilant about diseases coming into Britain. By

plans from British nurseries, check they are healthy, and then we can

enjoy spring after spring. This is a springtime garden, this royal fern

erupting through the beds and borders, and British natives which

is foaming its way through roadside verges across the country now - cow

parsley. There are reminders even in planned names. Even some of the

plants in this garden are pasteurised, but this is the most

timely reminder of all. A little oak tree growing on an island surrounded

by water. It is important to try and protect our plants so they don't go

the way of the ash. I hope this isn't the tombstone. The ash tree,

5000 BC - 2012A.D. Let's hope it is not rest in peace. This garden is

designed by Michael Balston and designed by Michael Balston and

Marie-Louise Agius. There is some horticultural heritage back in the

Lee Valley itself, going back many years and it's lovely structure at

the back represents the glass houses that were there. The water itself

dissecting the plot and the lovely curves, that is the river which is

planted beautifully around with real volume. I am standing underneath

this tree which creates a lovely shape. The planting, what I like

about it, is it has been brought into the centre of the garden. You

don't want to see a blank space in the middle with planting around the

edge. That is a good tip for any garden. These beautiful white

flowers standing nice and upright, and then the lush planting moving

into the more exotic Euphorbia plants over there. The sinuous

curves of the brickwork and the lawn in the middle, I think work very

well. Another theme I think the visitors of the show will really

appreciate is the way the garden is laid out, as if you are looking over

a communal space. There are balconies where visitors can look

right over it, very different from a residential garden behind an average

house. Michael Balston, he has been a judge at the show many times so he

is sticking his neck on the line. Has this one done enough to win a

gold medal? The Chelsea garden catwalk has welcomed many new

designers over the years. Back in the '90s it was Roger Platts'. His

show gardens won him acclaim, gold medals and two Best In Show awards.

Now he's one of Chelsea's most experienced exhibitors. This year

he's back with a garden called Windows Through Time. Its aim is to

reflect how British gardening has evolved over the last century. A few

weeks ago, we went to meet him at Nymans in Sussex - a garden that has

to see why somebody would want to live here with the fabulous views.

You can see for miles. It is wonderful. You can understand why

they have created a garden here, because it is lovely acid soil on

which rhododendrons, camellias, to name just a few, thrive and make it

so special. I trained as a grower, and then in the late 1980s began to

design gardens. Partly because people are supplying plants and

asking me how to use them and I felt they weren't creating the right

spaces to put them in so they weren't getting the right benefit

from the plants. Then you start to look more deeply at the structure,

the balance, the scale, and suddenly I was fired up by the design aspect.

I am a mixture of design and suddenly realised it had quite an

influence on my design for the M&G Investments garden this year so it

must have filtered through the subconscious and it felt quite

exhilarating. I get very excited about seeing some of these

historical elements. I love that sense of time, the pattern in age is

wonderful. The stone paving is just the same as we are going to be using

at Chelsea, meant to represent the older part of the garden, the

historical aspect. Being at Nymans with this late spring is wonderful.

Because it is so late, a lot is crossing over. Here at Nymans, this

plant is full of promise so everything is bursting into life or

just about to burst into life all at the same time. Rhododendrons

represent the early days of Chelsea to me because they were hugely

popular during the late Victorian, early Edwardian times, when the

plant collectors brought them in. These wonderful Himalayan varieties

such as this one, with the lovely part under the leaf. I have got to

have some rhododendrons, albeit as a supporting role at the back of the

garden just to represent that era. There are some plants which evoke a

certain timelessness and this Japanese maple is one of them, which

has been used in gardens over the last 100 years at Chelsea -4 the

rock gardens in the 1930s, the 1950s. I started using them in the

1980s, because they are such a versatile plant and I am sure we

will continue to see them at Chelsea on a regular basis. The exciting

thing about putting on a garden at Chelsea is having lived the design

and the elements for months and months, you can at last put it

together. You have got the time pressure, but that brings the

frisson of excitement. It is pretty tough trying to work in such a small

space, but each little piece that you painstakingly create, and you

stand back and it just gives you a fabulous feeling. Sumptuous

planting, Roger. You seem to have cheated the season is beautifully

but how has it been trying to condense 100 years into a single

garden? It is a challenge and I have been asked this question quite a

lot. I have tried to take it from the angle of giving flavour of years

ago and a flavour of being up-to-date. You are pointing that

way and then that way, does the garden work through the years?

we have the ruined wall, giving a feel of age and history, and the

gate which is from around that period. I picked that up, it was

circa around 1910, then the rhododendrons which were very

popular in Edwardian Victorian times and also very much about what the

Chelsea flower show was about when it first started on this site.

feels like a very traditional garden. The visitors will adore it,

the planting is spot-on, but the contemporary elements, where are

they? Firstly we obviously start with the design and the materials,

and I have used the paving for example, some stone paving rather

than more rustic to give the contemporary feel, and we have run

that right the way through. It is blending it which I hope is the

trick. But then finishing it off with the sculpture, which is... In

recent years we have seen a lot of steel structures so it is popular

now, and then bringing the planting into that. I have used grasses which

have been popular again in recent years. Together with those,

wildflower planting, meadows. You have had to distil it down. You have

done a fabulous job. Chelsea isn't all about the garden design.

Standing at the very heart to have show ground is the great pavillion.

It's been the canvas-covered backbone of the show since the very

beginning. Back then, it was called the Grand Marquee, about 100

meetering by 100 metres, that's 300 feet in old money. These day, it's

almost twice that size and one of the largest of its kind in the

world. In here, it's all about the growing and showing of plant

perfection. It's also the place I knew I would find Carol Klein.

lurking in the olive grove. You are always in here. You love what we

still call the marquee. You love the pavillion though? I absolutely love

it. Probably because I exhibited here for quite a long time. But also

because it's all about the plants. It's an Aladdin's cave of plants.

It's a plant's person's paradise. We'll go on that one then! Do you

remember the first time you got a gold medal? Yes, vividly, I really

do. You never know. I came in and I was right over the other side and

people were trying to stop me and tell me things and I almost closed

my eyes, put my fingers in my ears because I just wanted to wait until

I got there and it was there and it was like there was a very loud

whoop, you could here me on the other side of the embankment.

special. This is the highest standard of the world ever. You get

used to coming here every year and people saying "oh, the Chelsea".

It's difficult to overestimate the quality of plant material and this

year the difficulty. How far behind do you reckon we are in terms of

outdoors? Looking at some of the gardens, I think a month. Still,

yes. Maybe it's come on a bit since the Bank Holiday but still well

behind. Still worth looking at. We are not talking about bare branches

though. We still manage to get flower-filled marquees and gardens?

People are so resourceful and it's a splendid show, the whole place is

fresh and wonderful and colours better with this cool weather too.

The colours are even better this year for its Centenary. Sneaking in

here before the show opens is a privilege. The petals and leaves are

still being preened to perfection. It's the perfect chance to see

which, out of the 109 exhibits, are going to cause a stir. Shall we take

a sneaky peak? Let's do it! I don't know about a sneaky peak,

I'm having a sneaky sniff. Here, the whole air is just full of the most

delicious fragrance. In fact, the not just one kind of scent, because

every single rose on here snells different. Over the arches here,

it's the hill Langian Must have beening. I grow it at homism grows

huge, right up into the trees, that the only way you can see it, is from

the bedroom window. Here, you can get your nose right in, and it's

delightful with this wonderful must have beeningy, rather exotic kind of

sense. Here is Little White Pet. How 've

they got all these roses to the Peak of Perfection? It's brilliant! That

too has got a lovely must have beeningy smell. But there, the more

a question of getting down on your knees to smell it because it's a

short-growing rose. Daw I haves Austin Rose's are renowned for their

English roses and combine all the qualities of old races -- vale did

Austin Rose's -- David. Long, long-lasting flowers. They flower

for ages and ages. The superb rose roses that they are. They real will

you are. -- they really are. You look at one and think, that's the

one for me, you go on to the next one and that's just as gorgeous. But

everywhere, all of them have the most beautiful perfume.

I'm going to say a word to you which will make you go "oh lovely" or "not

for me" and the word is "dahlia" the national Dahlia Society is here.

This is what most people tend to think of dahlias, big, fat, blousy

growing between the came and cabbages, good for cutting, taking

home and putting in a vase but not much fun in the garden and when they

are in the garden, perhaps this is what you think they look like, still

fat, big, and blousy. The National Dahlia Society is showing us that

that ain't necessarily so. A lot of them like magenta star bred in New

Zealand are going back, this frothy foliage of form makes them a great

garden and border plant. While you are looking at one stand here

covered in spring flowering daffodils and you come and look at

late summer and autumn, it will remind you that this is a stalwart

bloom which can give you colour in your garden from July, right until

the frosts of autumn which can sometimes be as late as November.

Don't spurn the dahlia, it's worth a second look.

The Taiwan Or kid Growers Association is brought the most

wonderful stand to Chelsea. It's a celebration of the Centenary,

representing the 100 peaks of Taiwan. These are no ordinary peaks.

These are covered, smothered in the most beautiful orchids you have ever

seen. There's every kind of orchid you could think of. There are ones

that we are used to seeing and putting on our own windowsills, but

then there are incredible rarities too. Things like this delightful

slipper orchid. This is wrothschild anium, one of the most sought-after.

The blooms are perfect, you cannot find fault with them. The whole

stand is symbolic. It represents the landscape of Taiwan. Up on the top

of the mountains are these beautiful, white, great big cumulous

clouds floating over the top. Then there are all manner of tiny orchids

representing fairy dancing in this lovely, musty place. You could just

imagine yourself there. Everything about it is just perfection. You

look up and you think, what? ! What is this tree doing? You look further

into it and find that even it is composed full of orchids. A tiny

taste of the treasures to be found in this year's great pavillion.

Carol will reveal more about her exhibiting career on Friday at 8

o'clock on BBC Two. For the specialist Chloers who exhibit here,

Chelsea's all about reputation. Kellway's nursery, famed for

penallies and iris know this more than most. -- Kelway. The owner

wants to win gold. He's had to work hard to persuade his confused plants

to flower on time. We swung by the nursery in Langport, in Somerset

last month, to see how he was coping. Pf INEBREAK The first thing

I do is run in and check the peonies which is very strange, but they

often flower overnight. The growth overnight can be huge.

For the Chelsea flower show, we are growing around about 2,000 irises

Kelway's must be one of the best-known brush names in

horticulture. It was set up in 1851 on May Day by James Kelway, head

gardener at the time at a stately house not far from us. He started

initially by growing vegetable, a small market garden, and progressed

unto perennials. At one time, there was over 50 acres of glad owe loos

here in Langport. He went on, he loved Peonies and it just grew unto

a huge, huge victorial cacophony of all things horticultural, supplying

the Royalty, the gentry, housing, estates, anyone who was anyone was a

customer of Kellway at the time. It's a massive responsibility owning

the business with the heritage that we have. I've only been involved for

nearly 20 years and I guess it's a little bit like these people that

own big country houses, no-one wants to be the generation where it all

goes wrong. Pf The weather just got to the stage

where you just don't know what to do really. We have had day after day,

week after week of cold darkness. Even though we can make things nice

and warm in the tunnels, you can't groat the light.

On some plants, the irises, for example, they are very light

dependent and without the light, they just don't grow.

At the moment, some things are coming on too fast for the show,

others are too slow and it's constantly moving plants from one

environment to the other to hopefully get them perfectly ripe

for the 20th May. It just never stops.

Several times a day, we are looking at every single flower we've got

coming on, feeling the bud to see the state of its development. If it

softens, things are about to move and it will show some colour. If

it's still hard and small, say like that one, that will need to go to a

warmer environment, because that's not big enough 20 days before

Chelsea. This beauty, which we suddenly discovered this morning,

has been popped open overnight. I didn't think it would for a few days

yet. It will go straight down to a very dark shaded place, probably

even to a dark spot under some trees in the garden and we'll try to get

him to close up again. Even that It's our biggest exhibit ever. It's

going to be ten metres by ten meerts square, which is probably double the

size of anything attempted before at the 100th Chelsea in our 163rd year

and in the Colesed winter for 50 years, so no pressure!

-- coldest winter for 50 years. Dave, what may surprise people fla

is that they won't be surprised that some plants won't make it and some

plants will have gone over, but that you can hold some of them steady?

Peonies are temperature-dependent and we can adjust flowers and keep

nit a cold store for nearly two years to stop it opening.

Astonishing. How has it been? Have you managed it this year? I think we

have just about got there. Some of the irises may not open. Although

it's been a difficult year, it's been consistently bad so we have

been automobile to work with it, whereas if you get flew chew

weighses, you are in and out and it's a roller coaster. It's been

steady all the way through so we have dealt with it pretty well.

a fan of peonies, I love them. the ans the payings.

postponement of gratification. I love that one there, this

astonishing colour, almost peachy pink? It's coral charm, one of the

colour changing peonies. They are intense pink, then they go orange,

to salmon and finish up yellow. So you have different colours at the

same time. Wonderful. Will you be selling those particular plants on

Saturday? Possibly, yes.A little red tag on them now, please!

what we can do. Best of luck. You have done it again. Hone how you do

it. Thank you very much.Still plenty to come on this exclusive

Chelsea show presue. Fresh full of ideas, Andy Sturgeon's looking at

gardens for designers to think outside the box. This garden makes

you think, you can do a lot in a small space. Extraordinary things on

a small budget. The incurable gardener, Chris

Beardshaw reveals why he feels his latest design in his bones. I was

diagnosed with arthritis as a teenager. It dedestroyed everything

I wanted to do and there's a moment in your life when you think, what am

I going to do now? And gnome way! Lawrence explains why these

naughties are being granted access all areas, when they've been barred

the last century, and it has contributed to the way each

generation has made use of its front garden. There has been an

opportunity to see how much in the generation garden. This year's

generation garden highlight the changes of people's gardens over the

last 100 years so let's stepping -- step back in time to 1913. Our first

garden is dominated by these ladies, the suffragettes, fighting

for the right to vote which wasn't granted until 1918. This Edwardian

garden has the formality and precision of the time. You have got

the very structure of lines of the flower beds, violets and sweet

peas, but everything done in a garden of this age would have to

have been done manually. Can you imagine how long it would have

taken, mellowing with this. -- mowing. We have jumped forward to

the 1940s and Britain is at war. The motto of the time was dig for

victory, everyone was encouraged to transform their gardens into

vegetable patches. Behind me is an Anderson shelter, a sobering

reminder that gardens were about saving your life as well as growing

vegetables. It is the 1970s and we are using our gardens as an

extension to our homes. It is officially the patio revolution. We

have even got a glitter ball for a hanging basket. We have our first

electric lawnmower. Can you imagine how many hours that must have

saved? I'm not too sure about her outfit. Bringing us up to age, 2013,

our contemporary garden, the fusion. We have plans and vegetables

side-by-side. Check this out for technology, the robotic lawnmower.

No arguing who will mow the lawn on Sunday afternoon. We have four

garden is celebrating 100 glorious years of gardening, but I wonder

what the next 100 years has in store. Small gardens have played an

important role at Chelsea, first making an appearance in the show at

1988. Since then they have appeared, disappeared, been split

into categories, known as courtyard, chic, city and urban gardens. The

designers created clever solutions for smaller spaces, the budget was a

lot smaller, but don't be fooled, these innovative spaces still pack a

pond. This year there are 19 altogether, 11 of them in the fresh

garden category. Andy Sturgeon is taking a look. The fresh garden

category demands the designer to think cutting edge and experimental,

and to be less conventional. These gardens aim to provoke a reaction,

and this one certainly makes you think. Designed by Paul

Hervey-Brookes, he has tried to focus on the psychology of what we

wear, why we wear it, and what people think when we are wearing

certain things. The garden is divided into two parts with the

private section here, and the public section on this side. On the private

side, there are these textile sculptures. You have to make an

effort to look at them, and when you do, does that person want to be

looked up? When you look closer still, they are lenses so they

distort the view. It is about perception. All of the colours here

are taken from the major fashion houses springing 2013 collections.

These colours are all very fashionable. It just so happens I

have got a tie like this hanging on my wardrobe so that shows I am right

on it! This is the 9 billion conversation garden, and sponsored

by a charity whose aim is to get businesses to think about what their

impact is on there environment. By 2050 there will be 9 billion people

in the world and we are going to have to live together in harmony,

and that is why this garden is very Serena and harmonious. Very green,

the flowers drawn from calm colour palettes. It is also a garden that

makes you think, think goodness you can do a lot in a small space! And

the lawn does not have to be flat. Three things, business, community

and media, they have to work well together. This amphitheatre

represents society because people have to come together and think

about things. Finally, the reflective pool, this will make

people think about how to work together. There is a great message

in this garden and the thing about it is it will make people go away

gardens category are Artisan gardens, gardens that shows

sustainability, giving flavours of different parts of Britain.

Particularly this one from Yorkshire. Why? In 2014 the Tour de

France begins in Yorkshire, and you may say what is sustainable about

steel? This wonderful great freeze of the towns that the Tour de France

will be going to, including my hometown. There is a wonderful bit

of Yorkshire dry stone walling, inside its wildflowers and at the

back propeller -- a peloton of wheels. This flower, just gently

skulking at the bottom with the grasses, reminding us of

Yorkshire's grasslands offering some of the rarest plants in Britain.

These small gardens are placed for new designers to try out their

skills and see how they work. The Rich brothers have done two show

gardens so far, and they are here with a third, really flexing their

muscles. We did our first show garden last year, and now suddenly

we have been given the opportunity to stage our garden at Chelsea.

is such a prestigious show and some of the greatest designers are there

so it is an awesome thing to be able to do it. We have always grown up in

the foothills of the Brecon Beacons, surrounded by woodlands and nature

so this has been our playground all of our lives. It is fundamental

having the landscape into our designs because a lot of

urbanisation is going on these days, people distancing themselves from

nature. What we find so important is making that re-connection and

letting people experience the wilderness, but within a usable

environment. The name of the garden means one stone, so if we have got

one large stone it will be cut down to create these different aspects of

the garden. We have the stone for stonewalling, the boulders produce

-- protruding out of the walls. This is all part of the landscape, our

natural landscape, local to this area so I think that captures the

heart of what we want. We have kept our wall very traditional in the

sense that it looks just like this, but we are trying to change it from

the horizontal to vertical. It is simple because we are not changing

anything else except the direction of the stone. It will attract the

eye. Our main concern is due to the cold weather and the plant is not

coming on, but something that we love is to have that natural feel

and you lose it from bringing plans on when they are not supposed to be

out yet. You are forcing them on and we are looking to show a

representation of what they will be like in nature as it is now. In this

woodland, the snow would have slowed everything down and it is nice to

show people at the show that if it is not out at this time, that is

what it would be like. We are taking a snippet of this inspiration and we

don't want to represent it in a non-truthful way. One of the first

gardens we did when we started was a garden called Stargazer, on top of a

common looking over the Brecon Beacons. The design plays with the

natural forms. We have really worked with the landform to create

different spaces. We have used a fallen down oak tree on site so it

was nice to recycle something that wasn't going to get used or grown

over that we could use and create this natural structure. This is my

favourite part of the garden. I love the way these firms have grown over,

even the fundi growing up amongst it. They have taken over again and

if we can capture this in the Chelsea garden, we will be so

pleased. Ultimately we believe gardens are spaces to be enjoyed. It

is a space to be outside and a retreat to be by yourself or with

friends and family. Even though the clouds are out today, it is

something you can enjoy, and take a step back and really feed the soul.

Here you are, Chelsea first timers, how does it feel? It has been a

surreal process, it has been really nice to be part of the show. We have

worked hard and we are pleased with it. I love the stonework, the

different size of the boulders, the paving, the way it gives a

harmonious feel. The plans must have been tricky because you didn't force

any plants, did you? Know, and it was a bit of a worry because we had

snow just before Chelsea. The dark stems of these plans reflects back

on the stone wall. Who did the moss and the fern? It was a long process

but it was really enjoyable! I love the box as well, it gives it a

solidity to the planting. We were conscious of bringing the stonework

back into the garden because the planting is soft and it flows so it

is really nice. I think you have done a brilliant job. Do you think

you might be coming back next year? It is a definite possibility.

sound like a football manager or a politician. Yes, then!Enjoy your

week. For 100 years, gnomes have been barred from Chelsea. It even

states in the regulations that any brightly coloured creatures in

general are not allowed. Have you seen what is up there? This year for

the centenary, they have been given a special dispensation hummer but

some mischievous imps have been Lawrence Llewellyn Bowen is a big

gnome man. But Sue Biggs, what possessed you, why did you allow

them in? We decided it would be good to have fun and also to raise money

for the Centenary appeal. You did pot idol last year? Pot art.That's

it! How did it do? Very well. Raised over �14,000 for the campaign for

school gardening and we have very, very high hopes for our gnomes this

year. The calibre's gone up for the auction. All kinds of celebrities

doing them from Maggie Smith and Elton John? Yes.To the man to your

left? Yes.You are setting the bar incredibly high with your gnome, not

least because he's bigger than the others? I've gone for quality and

quantity. I've always been such a huge gnome fan subsequent winly ever

since I was quite small. Gnomes are naughty in the corner of the garden,

aren't they, that little element of wild misrule. Some people think they

are plain naff, don't they? But it's down to what they look like. There

are naff gnomes noovened naff gnomes. This is a Lawrence Llewellyn

non-naff gnome. Here we go. Look at that! Who is this unspired by?

Pooss. From Cheltenham?I think it probably was. I call it the stealth

gnome because if I painted to it look as posh as possible, then you

lot and the society would be perhaps beguile and entranced by that.

both beguiled an entranced by that. I'll be bidding for that one, that's

a promise. We'll take a look at some of the celebrity gnomes throughout

the week. Doubt they'll match that one! If you would like more

information on how to bid for them, go to the RHS website. Unlike

gnomes, Chris Beardshaw's no stranger to Chelsea. He has scooped

three gold medals here to date and is hoping to add another to his

Cabinet. But this year, the inspiration for his Chelsea garden

is personal because it's a design he hugely beneficial, emotionally and

spiritually. They are emotionally uplifting places. This is one of my

favourite gardens. It's one of the best examples, in the UK, of the

English garden style. It's Woolaton Old Hall and I've been coming here

for many years and have watched the garden unfold and develop. It's like

a work of art where every time you visit, you, in a way, just clear a

layer of dust off the surface and something else reveals itself.

The reason I wanted to come to this garden today was, as a reminder of

what we are trying to achieve at Chelsea flower show. Although this

isn't the direct influence for the garden, so many of the components

within Woolaton Old Hall can be found in the garden at Chelsea.

This year for me is about arthritis research UK and my involvement with

that particular charity. It's very special for me because, as a

teenager, I was diagnosed with arthritis to the point where I was

unable to do all sorts of activities. One of the most

frustrating things for me was the fact I'd already decided what I

wanted to do in life, I wanted to be a gardener, I liked the physicality,

the outdoor life. So to suddenly find yourself in a situation where

you can't walk, you can't have any outdoor activity, particularly

during the winter months, it was just absolutely crippling. It

destroyed everything that I wanted to do really. There's a moment in

your life when you think, what am I going to do now. ? The design is

very much a reflection of an emotional narrative, an emotional

journey, and in a way, it came from my own experience of being

diagnosed. The garden has three distinctly different areas. The

first is towards the rear of the garden, as most people will see it.

I wanted people to be taken right back to the beginning, to the point

where diagnosis or perhaps the inflammation, the pain, is at its

most acute. It's referred to as the valed garden. It's reminiscent of

that feeling of your boundaries suddenly starting to reduce, your

optimism starts to wane. We wanted to try to create an area where the

views were, in a way, foiled. That's very much how you feel with

arthritis, that life is existing, but you can't engage fully. And

there is a suggest sun that you would want to take steps to get out

of it. That's really the intention that, it provokes you to make the

next bold step. What can I do to deal with the condition I've been

The lucid section of garden is an area where there is light back in

life. You realise that, firstly, you are not alone in having to deal with

the condition. So in the planting, it becomes a little more consistent

and considered. Light starts to creep back in. The canopy which has

been restricting your view and acting as a fog starts to come back.

You can start to see the sky. Your horizons suddenly broaden. There is

The radiant section of garden is very much herbaceous rich. The sorts

of things that you would see in a normal garden like this will start

to Brunning that sense of enjoyment back into the garden. The trees and

shrubs, they are heavily prune and tortured, but what's important about

them, is that they have a new lease of life, that there are new shoots

bursting out of every section and it's that positive feel we want to

convey. There is no doubt in my mind that I wouldn't be embarking on the

range of activities in my career that I am able to do today had I not

been diagnosed with arthritis. So what started out as inincredibly

soul-destroying and challenging effect on me, suddenly became twist

and turned and reapplied into something much more positive.

So, Chris, you obviously have put your heart and soul into this garden

almost like no other? Yes. Thest been a very personal experience,

more personal than anything I've ever done, certainly in show gardens

because it's a case of opening up and admitting to people that you

have arthritis and for 20-odd years, I've not admitted that. I didn't

know that. Did it make this garden easier or harder? Harder I think.

It's a personal thing and it's about the emotions you feel on that route

from diagnosis where you think the world is closing in to learning how

to live with it. I didn't accept to anybody that I was struggling with

arthritis. I think in admitting it, you realise it will be helpful to

people because if I had the help that hopefully a show garden like

this will provide, I would have known what treatments were

available. How's it affected your life? Yes, I have an undiagnosed

form because I gave up talking to consultants because I just became an

experiment largely. There is a diverse range, some are muscular and

skeletal and some are to do with inflammation and age so it was very

difficult to diagnose this. How does yours affect you? The joints, all

the soft tissues disappear and the bones fuse together every time you

walk. It's like breaking your feet. You hurt a lot then? It's not

pleasant. Especially when you push a wheel barrow. It's the silly thing,

you get up, move forward and suddenly you go and when you go it's

like just breaking your toe. People might be surprised to hear that of

you, but won't be surprised by your standard of planting. We have come

to expect this wonderful explosion of pictures of flowers, an

astonishing border. You've had fun doing this, haven't you? I've had

great fuvenlt these are boisterous, bold, excitable, unabash and it's

plants on steroids! So to play with them in a way where you don't want

them to completely dominate but you want to keep that energy and

injection of pace, it's been a challenge and it's great to

challenge yourself at Chelsea. I think if you play safe, in a way you

are talking away the risk and I like producing gardens that are really

quite risk toy for me in terms of delivering a product -- risky the

for me. I'm here with Adam Frost on his Sewing the Seeds of Change

Garden. Adam, you look tired! know, you look lovely. Yes, 19 days

and I'm nearly finished. The garden looks stunning. Seen it on paper but

didn't realise how elevated the trees would be, blocking the views

and creating exciting spaces. It's all about getting people to grow and

cook more at home? Yes, it is. The I think separation is really for a

family. Parents love gardening but want the kids to engage with what is

going on outside. In a sense, you have two words, harvest and habitat,

somewhere wildlife can too. So that's the principle. Also it's a

social space, it's broken into three areas, you know, a big kitchen table

at the back, central cooking area, beehive and lawn at the front.

lovely. People think family garden, massive lawn, play equipment down

the end, somewhere to sit and eat something, but it can be so much

more exciting? Oh, yes. If you think that we want our kids to engage with

their environment, the tanks, you know, they're dipping ponds, they

are inspired from - I had a scruffy nan yes - and outside her door she

had helligan. She had Belfast sinks and she would hoard stuff and it was

all there. I look back and think about that and it was awesome. We

want our kids to get involved. leave you to it. You have a bit of

work to do. It's looking great. one, cheers. Bless you.

There are some garden designers whose work you look forward to with

interest and some whose work you look forward to with excitement and

one who falls into that latter category is the designer of this

garden, he's designed a garden for Laurent-perrier. Ulf, what did you

want to create here? I wanted to combine knowledge from the past and

present and I wanted to do something new, contemporary with a twist of

romanticness. Old-fashioned with a twist of romantic and modern as

well, that's me! You have used two distinct trails, relaxed and

trailed? It's a simple way of doing contrasts, using few species and sub

see seize. That's my way. It seems to me, particularly with your

gardens, that line and perspective are perhaps the most important

things of all. Is that true? Yes. The structure, it's very, very

important, but of course the light in the garden which we have put in

here with a copper wall this year, it puts the feeling into it like the

South of France, also with the glittering of the stone. The

sculpture too, I am very proud to have that in the garden, which

celebrates the life. I could stay here all afternoon. Thank you very

much. Thank you. One thing's for sure, this garden

from the Australian nursery phlegmings and designer Philip

Johnson is going to get a lot of attention. Certainly is. It's a

crowd-pleaser. This structure you can see from all over the show

ground amazing. A statement. Yes. This is a billabong, not a pond, I

had to tell you. Tell you what, it's great to see a rock garden back on

the rock bank. Been absent too long. We'll take a closer look tomorrow

BBC One at 7. 7.30. It's really worth a close look and the pressure

is on for all the exhibitors to get to the gates. Her Majesty the Queen

will be here. I'll be back at 12. 30 with Andy Sturgeon to find out if

we'll get the horticultural high we've come to expect. Joe and I will

be back tomorrow night. If you can't wait until then, follow us on