Episode 6 RHS Chelsea Flower Show

Hello. Welcome to the RHS Chelsea Flower Show. The show has been

opened for two days and the reaction to this year's show gardens and

exhibits in the Great Pavilion has been across the press. In the

Independent, they are talking about youth, coming to Chelsea. As hoe it

is a disgrace. Particulary if you are young and a woman. The Queen

came yesterday. She found Birmingham City Council's exhibit, she found

that incredibly realistic and thought it was fantastic. Talking

about the trenches of the First World War, I loved this picture from

The Guardian. We've got the War Horse that came to the No Man?s Land

Garden. I didn't see it. I wish I had. I saw it. It was amazing. It

was incredible, but at the time, there was this orang-utan! Yes, I

saw it. It was so realistic this orang-utan. It started pulling my

tie. One of the judges fell into the

Stoke-on-Trent Pond. He just stepped backwards and went up to his knees.

The Perspex stopped him falling all the way and he got out and said,

"That was rather cooling actually. Rather lovely." A bit of British

stiff, upper lip hopefully we will have more excitement. What I know is

going to happen on tonight's show, we will be unpicking why one garden

received the ultimate accolade, the coveted Best in Show Award.

Margaret and Susan Robinson tells us why bringing their exhibition to the

Great Pavilion is a family tradition. I imagine you will be

producing something like this in our garden? I really, really like this.

Tuesday at Chelsea is about one thing and one thing alone and that

is the medal results. Today, over 500 exhibitors across the showground

received that much anticipated news from the RHS judges as to what

colour medal they had received. Of course, one they all wanted was a

gold! The judges decisions on the colour of the medals awarded can be

make or break. Folks can get very emotional. With the tensions running

high, the judges didn't keep people hanging about. Nikki Chapman was

there as the medals were hand delivered.

Good morning. I'm delighted to say you have won

gold. This is your fifth gold at Chelsea? It is. Fantastic. What are

you particularly proud of? All the elements worked, going from the hot

deserty down to the sunken garden with the craftsmanship. He sounds

emotional. You said a couple of days ago when we were talking about

designing gardens and you said that Chelsea is the one place that you

can design a garden that you dream of? When you are designing private

gardens, there is taste. At Chelsea, there is no compromise, you do it

exactly the way you want to do it. You have won a gold medal.

Thank you very much. Congratulations. Thank you. What's

so special about winning gold at Chelsea? It has been very special

and flattering for me. I haven't had time to take it in. Is it torture?

You know it is. I just want to know what that is and I can sleep! You've

won gold for your Homebase garden. An impressive track record. How many

golds now, is this on the trot? Six. Six gold medals. Someone told me

that you have been up for 48 hours! Something like that! I managed to

get a little bit of sleep last night. That's the length you have to

go to, isn't it, to win gold here at Chelsea?

Gold. Congratulations. Thank you very much.

First time at Chelsea and the tender age of? 27. A gold medal. You must

be one of the youngest gold medal winners that Chelsea has seen.

Fantastic. Thank you very much. You never compromised and this garden is

fresh and it is original and well done. Everyone like back at home and

the team have all like chipped in and helped out. Yeah, really, really

pleased. I can hear in your voice how much this means to you? Yeah,

I'm very happy. Well done! Well, here on Main Avenue, the dust

and the excitement has died down and this garden here, Waterscape has

been awarded a gold medal. What makes it special is that Matthew

Bugg is only 26 and this is his first large show garden and it is

staggeringly good. It takes the importance of water shortage and

picks it up and use the river bed that's dried up. We have watery

plants and water trickling through. There is water working on the rust

and this glorious river of irises which, of course, are growing out of

the wet. Perhaps the white jar is a little, but that's a personal taste.

This is a gold medal winning Chelsea Garden by a young man. There is a

very, very bright future ahead for him.

This garden is called the The Extended Spac Started off as a

conceptual garden. It was going to be up there in the Fresh Garden

category and they brought it down to Main Avenue and it turned into a

classic outdoor room. There is a strong theme running about it. It is

about sustainability and climate change. The inspiration comes from a

forest in Switzerland and the damage that's been done to the pines over

there. They are being depleted. We have a strong pine theme. As if I'm

coming out of the woodland here with the pine beams and a pine backdrop

over there and as you expect, pine trees are here as well. We have a

lovely multi-stemmed pine tree over there. These pines, the lovely domes

are being used. Now, you know, a lot of these designers, they have these

ideas and grand schemes about the gardens, but I believe with this

one, if you understand what it is about, it gives it more depth. They

got silver. Well done them. I find it just staggering that this

garden for Help For Heroes is his very first show garden. Not only is

it moving with its story based around the recovery of soldiers from

terrible injuries, but also the way that it is done, it is just a really

good garden. I love the way the architecture, it is like a

cathedral. There is a nave coming down. The tall hornbeams filled with

colour. The intense plum colours of thistles and the lupins and the

purples mixed with the whites and the cleanness of it. So your garden

is a journey and you come to this end piece which is like another

chapel and when you get here, there is a real sense of arrival, but a

future. And that's what I get from Matthew's journey as well as the

soldiers making their recovery, here is somebody entering out into a

journey in garden design and what a way to start!

Patrick Collins is no strange tore Chelsea. He has got a pocket full of

medals and done some hugely ambitious gardens, but this is close

to his heart, this garden. It is called First Touch and it is about

premature -- premature babies and their families. He project managed

and he had to raise the money. He is exhausted. It is a fabulous garden.

It used the rock bank slope and created this stylised landscape and

it charts the family's life. As it cascades down through the site, it

gets calmer and calmer until it reaches the bottom and with that

stylised landscape we've got wetland plants thaw would expect. They have

combined beautifully and many people have come to this garden and they've

looked at this garden and it is the way it has been reinterpreted this

rock bank like that I like so much. You can tell when a designer put

their heart and soul into a creation. I think it is fantastic

and I hope you love it too. I'm joined by James Alexander

Sinclair who is going to talk about some of this year's medal decisions.

There are six golds and I think some of them, like for example the

Perrier Garden came as no surprise. Some of the others were a bit more

interesting, not contentious this year. It is interesting how you come

to these decisions. You have changed your process, haven't you? We've

changed the way that garden judging happens. It is more methodical and

we're trying to make sure that everybody understands the way we do

it rather than that this illusion that people have had that the RHS is

all secretive and we want to fling it open and say, "Right, this is

what you have got to do if you want to get a gold medal. " Do you

compare gardens as you judge? You are judging each garden to this

particular criteria, but there is a chap called the moderator and he is

not a voting judge and his job is to make sure you are consistent and he

will tap the chairman a say xous me, you have given a gold medal to that,

look at that one you did three gardens ago. You start off and you

get more and more excited and it changes. His job is to pull the

reigns back sometimes. That's the thing. Some people go around the

gardens and they compare a gold medal and a silver gilt and they say

why did that get a silver, but that one got a gold? Because this one

looks better. You have to make a judgement across-the-board whether

you feel you have got it correct. It worked. It has worked. The new

system worked across-the-board and I think that it is fair. The six gold

medals out there. That's right. They have gun generous with them in the

-- they have been generous with them in the past. You gave a gold medal

to Adam Frost, but I didn't think it was as lovely as the other gold

medals? It is as lovely. The full mark is 36 points. That's a range.

There is a range in there. Adam fell within that range. Have you been in

Adam's garden? I haven't, no. I actually, I know Adam will kill me

for saying this, I know him well, but I thought that was a silver. He

got golds in the past and I was worried it was his reputation. I

wasn't sure about the range of plants and the variety of plants and

colours. It becomes subjective, but the plants didn't have time to relax

because he was up against it at the last minute, but it was maybe bowled

one of them over. You look around, are you saying you have to get in to

be able to judge it? Yes, you do. The public can't do that? No, the

public can't. We're doing that on their behalf and you will take the

public inside so they can see it. What about where you give someone a

bronze which is a tough thing to do? I have had a bronze at Chelsea. It

was a lovely garden too, I remember. Does it have to be about across the

board or does one thing take it down? A number of little things that

take it down. You don't walk into the garden and think oh my goodness

this is a bronze garden. You go through the process, it is the same

process. We try and keep it as scientific and as fair as possible.

I know for the exhibitors, a medal can be the be all and end all, but a

bronze garden can give as much pleasure as a gold medal garden,

can't it? It can. As you will probably already know, 2014 marks

the centenary of the beginning of World War I and this highly

significant and poignant date has motivated a number of exhibitors

here at Chelsea to commemorate it. Amongst them is No Man's Land, a

show garden by first-time designer Charlotte Rowe. We joined her as she

visited the Somme in France, a battlefield that provided highly

personal inspiration for her garden. We are standing in a field at a spot

where my grandfather, who was 19 at the time, would have been one of

many people planning on getting ready to go over the top in July,

1916. He and another 1,000 people from his Renment would have moved

across to the German lines, some survived, some didn't. Around 20,000

people died that day. He was lucky to come back.

He was wounded, he was shot through the chest, through his back. He did

get as far as the German lines, we know that. Then he hid and then was

able then to start making his way back wounded. He was within moments

of being blown up by German shell because he arrived back after it had

blown and one of his comrades was less fortunate and he describes how

they tried to make the best of it for this poor man, gave him a

cigarette and tried to prop him up and how he remained cheerful to the

end. He did say this instant bore on him more than anything else that

happened in his time in the trenches of the futility and beast

beastliness as it called it of war. It's an amazing feeling standing

here on-the-spot where he probably went over, more or less, give or

take a few yards. This landscape of the Somme has

really informed and influenced my garden. There's traces of mine

craters. There is traces of trenches and tunnelling. But it's all almost

like a silent landscape because a lot is going on under the ground.

We are in a very secret place, it's secret because this is not open to

the public. This is an area which is part of farmer's land and they've

left it to be as it is. You can see the zigzags of trenches as they were

dug 100 years ago. We have used this in a way as sort of inspiration for

the way we have excavated our garden to have undulating mounds running

around the rear part of the garden with grass and wild flowers sort of

reinhabited. It's just the pattern and the way the light plays on the

grass which is absolutely amazing. You can see it's just beautiful with

the trees coming through. The cemetaries were not just put

somewhere, they were built where the men died and I think that's really

important. This is the memorial to the missing

of the Somme. Many, many men are commemorated here.

It's really quite poignant. We have come across these two panels which

mark the names of the people from my grandfather's regiment, the

Middlesex regiment, I have even seen a name I recognise from his memoirs,

and he died in the conflict, he obviously had no resting place and

he is commemorated here, which is very sad.

about the past, it's about the future and the present. It's called

No Man's Land because it tries to configure that when people come

through conflict, just in the way that landscape can regenerate and

heal after terrible scarring, that the human spirit and the human body

can come back and overcome and regenerate and find a new life after

conflict. I am here with Charlotte on her

garden and Charlotte, first of all, congratulations. Thank you. Gold

medal, you must be delighted. Delighted and relieved after months

of work, it's been a journey. This has been a difficult garden top do,

I imagine. Technically very difficult. If ever I do a show

garden again there are going to be no slopes and curves, it's almost

impossible planting this in a show garden context. It is always amazing

to see gardens planted as naturalistically as the slope

behind. It's also full naturalistically as the slope

aforeand mean -- metaphor and meaning. There is a lot of symbols.

The curves are obviously indicating the undulating of traces of trenches

and tunnelling work. We have got a poppy or two although we

and tunnelling work. We have got a made a big thing about that at the

edges. We have used wild rose, before the poppy became a symbol for

the World War I, the rose was something very much associated with

the men coming back. And the crater is the - the mine crater is there.

All the craters you see now on the Western Front are teeming with life

and vibrant again. The wall is like a trench wall but not actually a

trench wall, it's conceptual. But the main feature here is meant to be

like - I suppose a bunk or a box or even the trench. There is a strong

personal element for you, is this now completion on that, these things

are important in one's life? It's not so much closure, I found my

grandfather's memoirs, I knew him terribly well. He wrote about his

experience but saw the funny side of everything. I found them and thought

this is amazing. He went over the top on the first day of the Battle

of the Somme, 1st July, 1916, 19 years old, shot, survived, came back

and went out and ended up working with Monty in North Africa in the

Second World War. Also, at the same time, my grandmother who I didn't

know, she got a military medal for nursing for bravery in the war.

There is a real personal tie. That's the same of everybody in this

country. We all have a personal tie to the World War I. You have managed

to translate all that into a garden. Will you be coming back to Chelsea?

I don't know, we shall see. All right, I think it's wonderful. I am

sure the public will both enjoy the garden and the story behind it.

Can you imagine the huge amount of work that's gone into putting on

these wonderful displays in the Great Pavilion? People have been

working all year and it's all been about today. Today is medals day.

It's usually -- it's hugely important for every exhibitor, it's

particularly significant if this is your very first time.

For Brighter Blooms of Preston this is their first Chelsea. Matthew, I

met you five years ago when you were doing your first display. That's

right. Up north. This is looking magnificent. Thank you. You have won

a silver gilt for your first Chelsea. That's right. This plant

has been shortlisted for the Chelsea Plant of the Year, 2014. It's got

into the top 20. Fantastic. Two reasons to celebrate. It's been

fantastic. I love the display. It really shows the public exactly what

the range of these wonderful flowers are. Tell us about cultivating them.

They're not hardy, are they? Fine outside in the garden during the

summer on the patio, warm sheltered location. But they do need to come

in during the winter for frost protection. No water at all. None at

all? None in the winter, completely dry. They'll get through and sprout

again next year. Next spring you bring them on with gentle watering?

Ideally a warmer location, greenhouse or window sill. This week

has been ideal. Brilliant. Well done. Thank you very much. Another

first-timer is the City of Cape Town who have won a silver gilt medal,

not bad for your first display. It's composed of a sort of tapestry made

up of cut blooms. All flowers which are typical of South Africa.

Including their national flower. It's a glorious display of texture

and colour. First-timers Drointon Nursery have a

wonderful display. Silver gilt. Congratulations, it's a brilliant

achievement. It's always nice to get the top award, sometimes the weather

doesn't work for you and it's been a bit warm over the last few days

since we have been setting up. They're intriguing and beautiful.

It's a dmrorious display. Well -- glorious display. Well done. Thank

you very much. This time the story's a bit different. They've been

exhibiting at Chelsea for a number of years, but this is their first

gold medal. How are you feeling about it, Jane? Elated. It's been a

long time overdue, I think. You felt a bit frustrated in past years,

haven't you about not winning the gold? I have been very frustrated in

the past years, but we try and put in a selection of the different

climbers. When the judges are judging, they like the wow factor

and want the flower. We always do like to put something different in.

We have sneaked a few in. What did you feel like doing last year when

you didn't get gold? I was very, very bad-tempered, I must say. This

year we didn't get the gold and I threatened to stand on Chelsea

Bridge, throw all the plants in and follow with the clay pots. Not the

judges, I am sure? Would have been tempting! It's absolutely brilliant

to have your achievement recognised like that. Very well deserved. Thank

you very much. Well done. Every Chelsea is a mixture of

disappointments and triumphs. But regardless of which awards, all

these exhibitors get, we should thank them all for putting on such a

superb and memorable show. Anybody exhibiting in the Great

Pavilion for the first time has to hit the floor running because

competition to grow the best is fierce, something Tim Penrose knows

well, not many go from working in a funeral parlour to buying up a hosta

and then a fern nursery. Not satisfied with two businesses, he is

-- showkadz casing his newest acquisition. I wanted to leave

school. It's good to never be satisfied and that drive comes

partially from my parents. Bowden Hostas had been owned by my

parents. I could see that there was perhaps a new approach. My way

wasn't always the right way. There were lots of fiascos, lots of things

that didn't go to plan. But I was always trying to find different ways

of doing things. After we found how things worked over the first three

or four years we wanted to expand and it seemed sensible to expand

into something else that was a suitable plant and ferns for me, I

got excited by Ferns, one of the things that I really got excited

about were tree ferns, partially because they're architecturely

stunning and I realised there wasn't just the one type of tree fern but

all sorts of exotic tree ferns. The black tree fern has been recorded as

growing 18 inches in one year over in Ireland.

Running a business is like riding a bicycle, you have to keep pedalling,

otherwise you are going to fall off. It was important for us to have a

next challenge. Then I saw some bamboos in the garden, they're

tactile, impressive, tall, they wave in the wind which I thought was fun.

I loved the fact that it was different. Then I started talking to

Paul Whitaker, a legend in bamboo. This normally, as far as I have

read, is a runner but it doesn't look like it's running here very

fast. Well, it's all about maturity. It stayed as a tight clump probably

for, let's say, ten, 15 years, maybe longer. It's now starting to mature.

I like them because they're tactile. You have got the strength and you

have got the Dell Cassie of some of the fine finest -- the delicacy of

some of the finest leaves. But they're evergreen. The noise in the

wind is a reason people actually buy them. When you are surrounded by

them it's extremely soothing and you virtually hear nothing else, apart

from maybe the birds. I always call the gold medals horticultural

Oscars. We have won nine gold medals and the last two years we added

Oscars. We have won nine gold medals fern. So we did a hostas and fern

double. This year, we're going to go for three golds.

How did you get on? We didn't manage a gold on the bamboo, but sometimes

you win and sometimes you learn! It is great to be at Chelsea exhibiting

bamboo and even to be exhibiting with PW who knows his bamboo. Paul,

you are the bamboo specialist, have you brought some new varieties? It

is a big first. There are a group of clump forming bamboos. So it is

doubling the amount available to the public. People have got this fear.

They have no fear at all because there is a wide choice of clumpers.

Give us some examples? When this matures, it has sky blue cones.

That's a beauty. Very dark and very hardy and tried and tested because

we have had three hard winters over the last four years. I like to use

them to create peuf assy without too much -- privacy without too much

shade. Overlooking windows, extensions. It is a big seller. And

that whole exotic look as well. Tim, what about some flowers? I don't do

flowers, Tim. It is an honour to be working on the bamboos. It is beyond

the obsessive and it is fun and that's what it is about. I want to

work with great people. There is a lot of work to do next year. I'm

looking for great people. Thank you very much.

Each night this week, I'm going to be joined by people from different

creative backgrounds to share their view of Chelsea. Tonight, the

designers Wayne and Geraldine Hemmingway are my guests. You are no

strangers to Chelsea? We had our show garden here in 2009. It was

only a little small plot, but it was our take on a community garden which

was more than garden, it was about exercise and getting out there and

getting involved in an allotment environment. We were doing a housing

development in gates head and we wanted to design something for the

council. We have known and one of the big things about the housing we

do is the importance of having outdoor space. Especially now in

Britain house sizes are so small. You have got to be able to get

outside of the you have got to have that release. So coming here you can

see new ideas and the compact gardens and it is useful as

inspiration for designers, not just for gardeners, for all sorts of

designers, there is inspiration. I know you are keen gardeners, aren't

you? You have a beautiful garden and you love it? Yeah, I mean, you know,

as a family, we can't wait to get outside all the time. We have a

beautiful house, but having a house that flows into the garden and

Geraldine delivered awes us a wonderful life and the family flowed

out into it. It is an extension of the house. We've lots going on from

the barbecue area... All our kids have grown up. But as soon as the

weather is fine they will want to come back. It is not to come back

and slob around in the house in front of the television, it is to

eat and to play and to relive their youth. So when you come to Chelsea,

as professional designers and as gardeners, what are you looking for?

What do you look for? I look at the garden, the planting schemes and the

colour things that are going through, but I think I look for, I'm

not sure I look for inspiration, but sometimes things maybe you could do

things better. I don't know. That's very Geraldine. Because we have a

philosophy about design is about improving things that matter. This

matters. The things that are talked about and exhibited here matters in

life a lot. You are naturally critics and you go around and start

to say, "That could be done like that or that feels old-fashioned."

Are you talking about individual gardens or the whole show?

Individual gardens. I look at the restaurant and I think this could be

done better. I look at the menu. You look at the show as a whole. You are

concentrating more because of your love of plants and of gardens and

I'm looking at it, I'm looking at what people are wearing. I like your

denim suit today, sir! You are focussing in and that's the way you

work together? Yes. You complement each other? Yes.

Do you think anyone designer can apply themselves across the whole

board? Can garden design relate to clothes and that sort of thing? Does

it affect each other? Well, very much so, I think. Yeah. If you are a

creative person, you are thinking about everything. You will know as a

creative person that you are walking down the street and you'll think,

there could be a stl route to make it safe and you will see a front

garden and see that could be done like that and you'll see somebody's

hair style and you think,"I quite fancy that next time." Have a walk

around and fancy that next time." Have a walk

make of it. Yes. Any Anyone successful - although the small

gardens are compact, they are impressive. Toby has been looking to

see who impressed the judges. There is Joe Thompson. Reachout by John

Everest. And LDC's Design, The Mind's Eye which scooped best in

designs that caught my eye even designs that caught my eye even

though they missed out on gold. This garden won a silver gilt and I love

it particularly the planting. It has the chocolately tones to the fennel

to the iris and roses. This is western west cedar. It is a caramel

colour but, it will turn a more George Clooney shade of grey. You

can lift it up and put it anybody and it would be fabulous. Sophie

Walker got a silver medal. This looks like a shipping container and

when you look inside you are greeted by a jumble of plants. They are not

positioned conventionally. This is a view into the wilderness. The work

in this has been over decades, going out into the wild and collecting

seed from where it grows on out into the wild and collecting

tops and in gullies. Perhaps the judges awarded this garden silver

because it is before its time or just a little too conceptual, but I

love it. Here, amongst the hustle and bustle of Chelsea, it is like a

telly port machine taking you off into the wild!

The artisan gardens are always so popular with the crowds and this

year two got a gold medal. There is DialAFlight Potter?s Garden and this

by Kazuyuki Ishihara which got Best in Show.

This garden is just a triumph. It got silver gilt, but it is beautiful

and well crafted. I love the topiary and the while planting even more.

There is also an element of realism here. See these lupins, but when

they are over and because they are grown in pots, they can be replaced

by something else. There is that real element, the crowds here at

Chelsea will enjoy the most. This building, with its ancient scraped

brick work, was built for the show. Isn't that magic?

The roof garden by David Lewis got a bronze medal, but that doesn't mean

it is not beautiful. In fact, it is unique, the colour palate used is

bright and vibrant. Here, there are tenders plants, subtropical

specimens and this, kay Nairy island Cranes Bill. The plants work for

David, and he has chosen them because the more storeys you rise up

on a building, the less chance your garden is to be frosted. It is

perfect for the roof gardens of Kensington.

The judges here at Chelsea have such a difficult job. I think they have

done it well because some gardens don't just stand up against the

strict judging criteria. As the old saying goes, beauty is in the eye of

the be holder and the gardens here at Chelsea are certainly very

beautiful. Well, here, a huge congratulations

to Dibbley's Nurseries. I know Monty has been smitten by these and

started to grow a few varieties. This one, Christina, is my

favourite. It is gorgeous. It has a very well setty, purple flower on

it. These begonias are intriguing. It is all about the foliage. This

has a snail-shaped leaf. Over here, this one, this stumps me. Do I like

it? Do I not like it? I know it is hairy and even a little bit scary

somehow! Now, nestling amidst the sea of flora is Robinson's Nursery.

This family business is run by Margaret and Susan whose ambition is

to keep the strict standards set by their father and offer the next

generation of vegetable growers something extra.

We're the fifth generation. Prior to this, they have all been William

Robinsons, but in our generation, there's Margaret and I. And then, my

son is the next generation after that. Which we feel is very

important. You know, to keep the line going, to keep it totally

controlled over what we do. Chelsea was the exciting show. Father used

to hold it in such high esteam. It is Chelsea. It is as it is today

really. The old displays, well, they were 60

feet long. Two-tiers. Huge arches of onions and pillars of leeks and

everything is very straight. Lots and lots of straight lines. It is.

And everything very balanced you know, one there and one there. It is

slightly architectural I suppose and that really is not our style these

days. One of the reasons we started to take plants is you know, we have

got customers looking at a cone of tomatoes and saying, "How do you

grow them like that?" Yes. LAUGHTER

We thought well we need to show people, no, they don't grow like or

in a little plastic tray! They grow on a plant so let's take the plant

which is what we do. We said, well, we've got a nice plant, let's put it

in a big pot and it worked, didn't it? Yes, it works. Nobody complains

they can't grow a cone of tomatoes! These days people are looking for

things on different criteria, can I grow it? Can I eat it? Does it taste

nice? Is it viable? ? Is it do-able? Any vegetable that meets those,

these it, that's what people are going to grow. It doesn't matter

that it's not the traditional cabbage, carrots, potatoes, anything

from any part of the world is do-able. Like our displays have to

move with the times. Everything has to move along and go with the era

you're living in because sometimes change is good. We have a new purple

podded pea and it is a modern take on the old-fashioned Heritage

Variety. Just takes up less space and it is a lovely sweet sugar snap.

One of the things we always put on and it's old-fashioned is the green

curly Kale and fantastic flavour and easy to grow on a balcony, ledge,

and it's a super food. Absolutely full of vitamins, like spinach which

creeps into how people's choice is today.

Father and grandfather always expected you to be as good and do as

absolutely as well as you possibly could. With everything. With

everything. Whatever you do it had to be good. We love gold medals,

everyone loves gold medals, that little circle of gold is

magnificent, but the medal is half the award. The other half of the a

award is meeting the public and getting feedback and seeing what

they think. When the visitors come to the show on day one and say, wow,

love this and that, whatever award we have won, it's doubled.

You say that the reaction from the public doubles the value of the

medal. If you double the value of your medal what have you got? We got

a silver gilt, so if we double it's gold plus? Gold-plus. I always love

visiting your stand. I love growing vegetables, I have grown up with the

generation and you saw them in rows, it was part of a treat like a show

in Chelsea Chelsea. You have had to adapt, how does that go down with

the public? Really very well. The public like to see something

growing. Not just vegetables in ranks, something a little bit more

less formal. Do people still think things grow in the arrangement you

have got there? You see everybody has a patio container and that's the

way forward, start with containers. The really important thing is are

you getting young people interested in vegetable growing? Yes, most

definitely. The younger people are willing to try something different.

Not just carrots, onions, and leeks, the established vegetables. I will

stop you there, onions, you were going to bring giant onions, what

happened? They're not quite ready. We don't like to force them. We

don't like to rush them. We like them to grow at their own pace so

the next show, there will be one or two. And they'll be at Tatton.

Before I go, you have a new flat pea, can I try it? Yes. It looks

beautiful and it tastes delicious. It's good, isn't it? Lovely. That's

fantastic. Congratulations. And enjoy the rest of Chelsea. Thank you

very much indeed, we shall. There are many women making their

mark in the Great Pavilion like Susan and Margaret Robinson, but the

question is why aren't there so many designing show gardens? I am joined

by Anne Marie Powell, whose British Heart Foundation garden in 2011 got

a silver and Sarah Eberle, your Monaco garden was a classic. This

year there's five women on Main Avenue, and that's high

proportionately. But the question is why are there not more women here?

It's funny, it's not something in the past I have really thought about

because I see all designers as my colleagues, whether they're male or

female. It's an interesting point. I do think there should be more women.

Why aren't they there? Sometimes I wonder whether it's about their

ability to have a better life balance. It consumes your life.

Maybe it's not that important to them in terms of their overall

balance of life. They talk about... Lots of women, it's a huge ambition

to have a garden on the Main Avenue at Chelsea, if women want to be

there, we want to encourage them. In the real world there's probably more

women designers than men. Why aren't they represented at Chelsea? You

have two young kids, is that a factor do you think when designing a

show garden? It's all-consumer. I two have two children but I work

full-time and men have children too and they're here. I don't think

that's a factor at all. Not at all. Sarah, you are here this year and

you have a garden here. I have a small garden having only ever done

Main Avenue gardens at Chelsea, I have returned with a six-metre

square garden. It is a huge challenge. It's far more difficult

designing and building a small garden. There is nowhere to hide. I

have had probably far more stress than building the Monaco garden.

It's been a learning curve. We are going to see you back here, Anne

Marie? I would be delighted, yeah and hopefully you will be here too,

yeah, together. We need to readdress this issue and try and encourage

more women to come down here, no doubt about that. Absolutely. You

have to get out there and do it, all of us!

Earlier Wayne and Geraldine Hemingway joined us for a chat about

the horticultural spectacle that is the Chelsea Flower Show. Before they

left they promised to let us tag along as they looked around the

show. I like this one. The sense of the

scale and size and planting scheme and everything on this is really

nice. There's one thing about the possibility overuse of marble, it

seems to be going on in every garden. It's an unusual thing, there

is a generation that love polished stone and marble and it feels you

have arrived, it feels rich and luxurious, but to a new generation

coming through it feels the opposite of that. It feels like you are

trying too hard and people want things more natural and we are on

the cusp of that change at the moment.

This is commemorating 100 years since the outbreak of the World War

I. It feels like it's been here 100 years. It does. Look at the could be

tras -- contrast between the form and function of the Telegraph garden

to this, it's a quantity recycled - everything is upcycled. It makes

even me want to roll up my sleeves and you could say, Wayne, do this.

It shows how timeless design can feel right. It's gone back to the

values that were important then that are just as important today. It's

really nice. Inspirational, no wonder it's won gold.

Talking to the two young designers of this, they're 26 and 23, they've

summed up the generational shift going on. They wanted to talk about

the afteruse, it's being recycled and going to an you a tips tick

centre. -- autistic centre. The use of the stones. There is imperfection

everywhere. It's brilliant. That's the difference between something

that's too perfect and something that's imperfect that's beautifully

conceived. The planting scheme is great, as well. Really lovely. Yeah,

this is us. It seems pretty apt that two young

designers, 26 and 23-year-old, have captured what design is all about at

the moment, about reuse, about natural. I just love the way this

has more fluidity about it. A lot of the other gardens are just too

formal and too precise. This can be broken down and be used in so many

different ways yet still look as beautiful as here at Chelsea.

Some interesting thoughts there from Wayne and Geraldine about Chelsea

and the limited life of some of the show gardens. We will pick up on

that idea on Friday as some of the gardens go on to have a second life.

Every year on Main Avenue one large gold medal-winning show garden is

chosen by the RHS judges to win the highest horticultural award there is

at Chelsea. It's called Best in Show award and

this year it was given to Luciano. Congratulations. What I want to know

is what it took, what you think has made this garden better than any

others? What work had to go into it? This is a special garden for me

personally. It's my third garden here at Chelsea. With each garden

what I found is you are going deeper in your understanding about yourself

and with under stand understanding it's courage to make decisions and

come out of your normal vocabularly and to try up this nings and ideas.

What new -- to try new things and ideas. What have you tried? The

trajectory, the cross and through that I met James and I worked with

him and it has that essence, not just about flowers, but about values

and about the way we work. What you seem to be saying, which is

interesting to me, is that you have to develop as a person before your

work can develop? Totally. You cannot separate that from work. It's

a trajectory of collective people, cannot separate that from work. It's

of sharing moments, not just in horticultural and in flowers but in

moments in talking about and giving you something. One of the

things that's often talked about is attention to detail. Is that

something that you really focus on? I think this is very Italian to say

so, the stonework is only one stone and it's cut in different ways.

There are 270 millimetre of hand split faces and I suppose it's

important to us. In terms of planting which I know is

part of your development, part of your journey, what did you try and

achieve with the flowers you have used? The first thing for me was

coral, yellow and the plant, lupins as long as I can see them. Why

lupins? Fergus was working with them and I thought they're beautiful

plants. So it was from that moment of the moment of seeing it there. I

really wanted to see the lupins in the beds. The secret of being Best

in Show is personal development and lupins! Fantastic. We spotted a new

and welcome phenomenon today, some of the biggest and broadest of

smiles. Fabulous. That was really lovely.

Congratulations. Thank you. I think this is fantastic. Really

very special. I dressed for the occasion. Yeah! Hip-hip-horray!

It was beautiful. It's been quite a day. But that's

all we have time for tonight. The judges may have had their say today

by awarding the best, but did you agree? You can cast your vote for

your favourite large show garden in the BBC RHS People's Choice Award.

If you press your red button after the show you will find an in-depth

look at five of the gardens. You will need to keep watching every

day, on Thursday you can decide which garden to vote for. We will be

announcing the winning garden on Friday night. Nicki and Andy will be

back tomorrow afternoon at 3.00pm on BBC1 with Darcey Bussell and her

mum. Joe and I will see you tomorrow at 8.00pm on BBC2. See you