Episode 4 RHS Chelsea Flower Show

You would still win a Gold with that one today, but not that outfit.

What was I thinking? Someone said, did you go to Finchley School. I

The amount of pressure to do a garden - I had been talking about

it for long enough. The moment I liked best is when Nicki awarded

you. Here she is with his card on the

Alan will be delighted. He may have to be really nice to you now!

only did it for you. You would ring home on your mobile to say what you

got. Way back when I got mine I had to find a phonebox. Or find a

pigeon. I did have more hair then. Rather more weight. The Royal

Family has been linked to Chelsea since its early beginnings. Queen

Mary was a regular patron. To celebrate George V's - there was a

special exhibition of plants from across the empire. Her visits

continues until after her husband's death. The new King George VI and

They too, like so many of their subjects are keen garden lovers and

seldom miss this. Our present Queen has missed only 12 shows. She

delighted crowds throughout the '60s and '70s. Sadly, in 1953, a

wealth of commitments prevented Her Majesty from seeing the special

Commonwealth display staged in her honour. Well, 60 years later,

plants from across the globe still thrill visitors to The Great

Pavillion. Carol has had a look at this year's

offerings. For this -- at this site for the past 100 years people and

plants have gathered together to celebrate horticulture. The most

incredible sights - I have never seen such a magnificent garden. It

shows you the richness and glory of Australian flora. Just look at

this! This is a tree which is probably prehistoric. This plant

depends on fire to pro-create. It will only germinate after it has

been through smoke. What a brilliant plant it is. Look at that

spiky growth. All around the -- here are these bottle trees. The

trunks act as reservoirs and they store water, when it comes, very,

very seldom, and keep it for when it is needed. From the desert heat

of Australia, to the tropical heat of the Caribbean. Do we have

Chelsea Pensioners in the back? We have soldiers from the garrison at

Bridge Turn. And that military theme has been continued with this

flowers here all in line. The whole thing is exotic, so vibrant. Such a

wonderful colour. People from all over the globe have brought their

plants here. There are some from our very own island who have been

out into the world to bring back plants for our delight. This is

only the second time that this display has graced Chelsea with its

presence. You think, what is it? It is a bamboo - not a bit of it, it

is a delight. The whole stand gives you an idea

of what is involved with this plant-hunting.

There are all manner of certification. Through the jungle

foliage you can spot this. It is really brand new. It has small

flowers. It has got the most glorious purple flushed foliage in

the spring. The wonderful thing about Chelsea is whether it is

people from all around the globe bringing their plants with them or

whether it is our own intrepid plant hunters showing their wears

the whole place is full of the most One new stand in The Great

Pavillion reflects the work of cut flower farms in Kenya. The Marks &

Spencer gardens highlights what is Isn't that lovely. It checks how

clean the water is. All the water is recycled. These roses, which are

grown in Kenya, virtually on the equator are all grown on recycled

water, which is done as naturally as can be, over stones, and all the

roses which are grown in water. will hearten people who worry about

growing roses from Kenya. They are grown sustainably. It is wonderful.

It is a win-win situation. How long have you been coming here? I see

you every now and again? I came here at 18. I shared a flat in

Earl's Court. I came on the clear- out day. I bought an enormous lily

in a pot. It was seven feet high. It was pouring with rain. An ice

cream van came along and said, where are you going? I said Earl's

Court. He said, there'll be one payment. I said, what is that. He

said, "A kiss." Are you a keen gardener? I adore gardening. Things

I want to put in. Maybe with my soil it would not work, but maybe I

could have it in a pot. The garden is long and thin and mysterious.

You go around a corner and it is like, I didn't know it would go on

there. You love it. I love it. Quite a few familiar faces have

been coming here religiously for I have been coming to Chelsea for

about 11 years now. Only the latter part of my life. I love it. I have

been coming for years. It is a day I look forward to. My husband and I

came. We were staggering out with our pots. You cannot park, you have

to be able to carry it. I was brought by my mother when I was a

child. I don't remember it being this big or overwhelming. I think

it is about ten yearsvy been coming regularly on the Monday mornings,

which is fantastic. This is a first for me. I am a little bit, I don't

know, put out it's the first for another, short, ugly, maybe

strange-looking person as well - the gnome. Is that true? I used to

come with my husband all the time. We always spent more money than we

could afford here. I have been coming here with my mother, who

loves this, since I was a little boy. This is very much my childhood

and beyond. Hopefully I will bring my own kids here one day. It is the

best part of the year. When ever the press office are not

concentrating they mistakenly send me a ticket and I come along and

pretend I know about gardening. First time I came here I didn't

have a garden. Now I don't have enough time for my garden. Happy

birthday, Chelsea. I came to the first one and I'm still coming!

In the early years of Chelsea, the gardens on the east side of the

gardens was a place to relax. In 1988 a row of tiny gardens sprang

up. They disappeared as quickly as they appeared. They come back after

Over the years, they have been categorised in a number of ways.

They were the small gardens, then the courtyards, until now, when

they finally find their nearby as The brief is to combine

craftsmanship with art and conservation all in one design. It

is done perfectly here, in this hebbri deian garden. It is life on

the Western Isles. I love the work in this wall. This grass lintel on

the top, it is a living gutter. The roots go down through the stones

and help the moisture percolate out, so the walls do not get wet inside.

Then there is the planting w the ferns and cotton grass, self-son

from the moors. There is a veg patch by the front. I love this

because in between the onions and cabbage there is kel p -- kelp.

This would flavour potatoes and it will keep off the slugs. The vegs

are not just for eating. Carrots would give wool a vivid orange

colour. The potatoes are purple. All these elements together, they

paint a picture, and a beautiful one at that, of a way of life which

This is the Get Well Soon Garden. It is a med evil plot. Every plant,

every leaf has a medicine use. These were used for facial

eruptions and frebgls. Then this -- freckles. Then this, this was for

the use of excessive alcohol intake. One I would not be without is

bronds fennel, it is fabulous -- bronze fennel. It is fabulous with

fish. There is this reflexology path. The

pebbles push up into your feet and treat different parts of the body.

It is best barefoot and on a warm day. The artisan gardens may be new

comers in terms of Chelsea's 100 years, but with the pleasing

stories they tell, I am sure it is a category which is here to stay.

We are nearly halfway through our visit to the RHS Chelsea Flower

Show, supported by M&G Investments. There is more to come on tonight's

programme - Jim Durrant tells us how science has helped make orchids

an affordable luxury. A day in the life - we spend a day with the man

who has been working behind the scenes at Chelsea for the past 35

years. And attempting tableau - Joe Swift

visits The Great Pavillion stand mirroring the work of the earliest

exhibiter. Now, it is at this stage of the

proceedings that my learned friend and I get a little thirsty. I have

arranged for cocktails for you. Here you are, you can have a choice

from the non-alcoholic or the alcoholic Chelsea Fringe Collins.

Rosemary and infused and mint and lemon juice, garnished with lemon.

These have come from Lotty, who is at the Brunel Museum.

This is the non-alcoholic and this one, elderflower... That's the one.

That's the one. He gets an alcoholic cocktail. What do I get?

I get a cushion! It must be my age and general condition. Stop leaning

over my cushion. These were made in 1999.

Val has donated this. They were made from the old marquee in '99.

At my age you can do more! You can have a cocktail and a

cushion. Planting perfection here and in The Great Pavillion has been

a staple of Chelsea since the first year. In the years before the First

World War, the staging of these floral exhibits was approached

differently. These early marquees were a group of plants in beds and

a set of table-top displays. That was until 1929 when one of the most

famous exhibiters arrived, in the form of Sherman Hoyt, from the

garden club of America Conservation Committee. Her display took the

show by storm. Instead of the displays of plants lined up in rows,

this showed cacti and succulents against background of American

Apology for the loss of subtitles for 567 seconds

I keep doing until I have my 1,000. They all have come from the same,

The Chelsea Flower Show is our window to show the world, not just

the UK, the world the different types of plants we have got. It is

a showcase for us. McBeans plant will be this flower - we've had

this plant on the nursery for 113 years this year. We are sure it

went to the very first Chelsea Flower Show. It will be one of the

very few that went to this year's and the first one, 100 years ago.

Jim, not only is your dress giving us a flavour of 1913, I expect your

stand is as well. We tried to copy as much as we could of the original

group 100 years ago. There are well over 150 more plants than we

normally would have. We followed it as much as we could, using the same

varieties. How many plants are here? Just under 500. We normally

get 300-400. Now people can go to the supermarket and put in an

orchid with the frozen peas, has that made your life easier or more

difficult? It has introduced a lot more people to the orchid world.

You can pick up your orchid. When you want someone different you seek

us out. We have a huge range we can sell you after that. What have

people learnt is how long they last. You can get three months. Some may

only last a couple of months. Even so, that is good going on pot plant

terms. Are you as passionate as you ever were? We are doing a lot of

seed work. The best flower is p one which has not flowered yet. A royal

blue orchid? Well, there are some blues. We are getting there. We are

getting there. Watch this space - in another 100 years time! Maybe!

As you can see, orchids come in all shapes and sizes. Unless you are a

specialist, like Jim, it can be different to tell your cymbidian

from your fal fal from the phalanopsis.

This is like a sweet shop without the calories. The most exciting

thing is this little guy, looking like something out of a science

fiction film. This is one of the orchids which

gives the family its difficult to grow reputation. It comes from

Borneo and requires the conditions all year. Almost impossible to grow

in the UK. Things don't have to be this way. There are loads of types

of orchids. Some are in flower all year around and are as easy to grow

as an African violet. My top tip is to go for something

from a tempor rate region. It looks tropical, but comes from northern

regions, who enjoys cool conditions. If you have it in a hot room it

does not flower well. These enjoy a resting period during the autumn.

They will naturally start to yellow their leaves through autumn, at

which point you reduce the watering. You cut them up at the base here.

Keep these bulbs in tact. They are like a big storage organ.

The ultimate has to be the moth orchid. It is one of the most

democratically priced and easiest to grow. They like bright, but

indetective sunlight. Not a south- facing window. These things grow

typically on the branches of trees underneath a canopy. They like

light, but not roasting sunshine. Watering - what you need to do is

pop the plant in a sink with water, leave it there for ten minutes. It

is called immersion watering. Pop it out. Let it dry and entirely dry

off. You will keep it dry enough, but without the roots having a

chance to rot. Who would have thought that one of

the easiest of all house plants would come in such an exotic

package! The history of the Chelsea Flower

Show has fascinated Brent Elliott. So much so he has written a book,

documenting the highs and lows of the past 100 years. Welcome. How

has it changed? Is that impossible to say? A century is a long time.

There have been some very dramatic changes. The most obvious one is

the demise of the country house, as the primary focus of horticultural.

The original, two-thirds of the exhibiters were plants and

nurseries, one third were country houses, where the exhibits were set

up by the gardeners, but the owners got their names in the booklets.

After the Second World War country house exhibiting dropped. It was

dramatic, wasn't it with all the private exhibiters and the

personalities. Who were some of these astonishing people - the

oddities, if you like, of the plant world? In the history of Chelsea,

the memorable was Harry Wheatcroft, a rose grower in Nottinghamshire.

Many of his roses become famous, not necessarily ones he bred, but

ones he introduced like Peace and Fragrant Cloud. He was a great

showman. During the 1950s he was a one-man Victorian revival in hair

and clothing. Do you remember him? The images in that book of Chelsea

are packed with people in the Victorian... It is very similar,

the amount of people, and the significance of the show is

incredible. It has always been important. Now it seems to be

important in a different way. Is it impossible to predict how it will

change in the future? Impossible. I deal with the past! Is it a better

show now than it was 100 years ago? I wasn't around 100 years ago. It

is better than in the 1970s, when I first started to come. I am glad

about that. One thing is certain, it will

continue to entice a host of well- known faces year after year. Who

As soon as you come through the gates, the smells of all the

flowers. It is nature at its finest. This year will be Chelsea at its

finest. It is ever changing. It is evolving. It is not trying to be

too outrageous. It is drawing people who don't feel

as if they are part of the gardening world in there too.

It is one of the places that sort of does reaffirm the fact that the

world is quite a nice place because it is full of people enjoying

gardens, talking about gardens, loving plants. I would like to stay

here and not move from here and carry on all year round.

I keep coming back because my mum and sister are always here. They

are really the gardeners. I kind of do a bit of gardening. I would if I

had more time. Had I been a musician I would have -- had I not

been a musician, I would have been a gardener. I had a lupin named

after me. I am so proud. I think now I have gone into a group of

lupins. 100 years, there will be gardens and we will be zooming

above to look at them. These are some of the reasons why our

celebrities can not get enough of Chelsea. A host of backstage staff

come back year after year. One man has been working here for Chelsea

build-up for 35 years. He has marked plots to night-time security.

This year we followed David to find out why he cannot keep away. What

job was he engrossed in when we My job title would be "casual

assistant mark-out." We mark out where the pavilions are, where all

the services are. People come in and can obviously build from that.

If you had everybody coming in it We work in little teams.

We all have to work together. We have to work together to fit in

and make the show a success. First of all, we will go around the

outside of the pavilion and mark all the edges out. Then we string

lines from one corner to the other corner. Then we mark off the stans

in the centre. -- stands in the centre.

The most challenging thing, I would say, is actually getting the

infrastructure in in the first place. If it is wrong, then the

rest does not fit and it causes lots of problems. This is Richard.

We always have problem with Richard every year. He has a tape that does

not correspond with ours. It is always his which is wrong. Am I

right, Richard? No. You have a People can damage water pipes,

electricity pipes - all that then have to be reinstated before the

show can start. That's electrics - it an electric pit box. If anybody

strikes into that, then there could be a little bit of an explosion and

the same with the water. Occasionally we have had the odd

error when they are spiked and you have a gush of water into the air.

Very rare, but it does happen. This is our office for the duration

of the show. In here we keep all the paint, all our marking

equipment. We do have a cup here so we can have a cup of tea now and

again. These facilities are far better than when we originally

started. We would have been out in the rain now.

In four-and-a-half weeks it is transformed into the Chelsea Flower

Show. It is amazing if you look at the gardens which actually spring

up. Then it comes down and, ten months later we start again.

Everything seems to have gone smoothly. The show is up and

running. You are looking smart. would like to think I can relax and

would like to think I can relax and enjoy it. There is much to do D

there are site signs to be erected, ropes and posts to be finished off.

Then perhaps some relaxation, then it is over to Battersea Park for

the buses to make sure that people can get from the park to the show

and also the mobility bus, arranging that can work OK and then

we will get ready for breakdown. Don't say that - are you serious -

the show has only just started! must think of that early on. There

is a lot to be done. You have it all planned. Are you a keen

gardener? I am not a great gardener. I like to sit in them and have a

glass of wine and look at the plants. As for gardening... You are

in the right place. You can enjoy all these gardens around you.

Didn't you have a special royal visit once you were in charge of?

would not say in charge. I actually escorted Princess Diana. We used to

have the hanging baskets. She was looking at the baskets, I was to

make sure nobody got too close. you were security? Yes. Have a

great show. It has been great meeting you. Thank you. David may