Episode 10 RHS Chelsea Flower Show

Hello and welcome to the RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2016.

It's Thursday which explains why the showground is absolutely

heaving with people - it's the first day the show

This is the first wave of the expected 100,000 visitors due

There's a sea of heads and cameras as far as the eye can see.

It's day four but there's still lots more of the Chelsea Flower Show,

an event supported by M Investments, to

Tonight we'll be examining the remarkable designs in both

the Fresh and Artisans categories and revealing the gardens that won

Also coming up later, our special guest Alex Polizzi

will be sharing her thoughts on Chelsea as a shop window

And speaking of making an impact, rhododendrons are back en vogue

and we'll be celebrating a very special centenary.

Acclaimed for his own excellence in the field of hard landscaping,

multi gold winning Chelsea designer Adam Frost picks out

the finer details in the construction of the gardens.

Plus don't forget you don't have long left to vote for your favourite

large show garden in the 'BBC RHS People's Choice

award'- more to come on that but you'll find all the details

on how to get involved on our website bbc.co.uk/chelsea.

The small gardens may be compact in size and budget compared

to their larger counterparts on Main Avenue, but they are

I feel we make a big fanfare about the large gardens, and rightly so,

they are amazing. But they steal thunder from the small gardens but

they are more pertinent to most people's gardens? That is true.

People love them. But the design, they are not always designs you can

lift and take home in the large gardens. People have cleverly

designed them tiering them up. So that they are almost a tableau. A

picture sometimes to look through. And the judging is of course deadly

serious? Of course. It always is Monty! The small gardens have been

judged on criteria set by the RHS. Here is the moment that the medal

decisions were revealed. Good morning. Hello. Your garden is

such a talking point. Congratulations from everyone at the

RHS! Hold it up. You have to hold it up. Thank you, Nikki! Thank you!

Well done. Well done. Hold up your medal for everyone to see.

It's a moment, it is really important for us, for the Russian

designers. Congratulations on a fantastic

garden. Thank you very much! We shall

display that with pride. Is Juliet here? The waiting is over.

Everybody received the garden with such interest and generosity, that

is the real prize but, of course, this is rather nice as well! Well

done. Thank you so much.

That was the official small garden results but what has Toby Buckland

made of them? He has given his verdict on two of the fresh gardens.

The Fresh gardens are notoriously difficult to judge, the designs are

so different. But if one thing unites them, never give the judges

an inch. If you do, it opens up the flood gates and they look for faults

everywhere. That is what happened to Lee Bestall with his design, Urban

Connections. This has to meet building regulations. The path to be

wide enough for wheelchairs and parents with prams to access. But

these are a little mean. Once they saw that, they were on to

the beds. They don't line up, the gap between the metalworks is not

the same and Lee committed the cardinal sin of paving right up to

the base of the birch trees, there should not even be turf touching the

bark as it robs the roots of the moisture and the newt ring-fence.

But that said, this is a brilliantened, I think, an

influential piece of work. The planting is masterful. The right mix

of ever greens and bulbs, like alliums and flowers to give a

year-round interest. I tell you if the waste spices near the town where

I lived had a path half as good as this on them, I would be very happy

indeed. Daniel Bristow's Garden Of Potential

is a garden with wow factor. That is a five-tonne rock above my head, yet

it got a Silver Gilt. One down from the gold. It is a lovely space but I

can only imagine, despite the fact that the exotic plants that were

used, the lilies, and perhaps the gaps in the you hedge in the back,

that the planting does not glow like the hard landscaping. I don't know

what the judges said but is it a fair assessment, Daniel? I guess so.

I like the loser planting scheme. But I can see that the judges wanted

really more stonking plants and less of the spindly ones.

But are you happy with the Silver Gilt? Really happy. It is about as

good as I could have hoped for really. I am not one for tick boxes

for the criteria. I did not even read it. I only wanted to make a

really great garden. I have had a brilliant response from the public.

They don't go around with a magnifying glass looking for a leaf

with a hole in it. And the fresh gardens, the design is

to the to read the rules but to rip up the rule book and think outside

of the box. Attention to detail is not really my

thing. I am more about the big idea. Fair enough. I feel uncomfortable

under the boulder it is worrying! Well, it is right above your head

and you are still here. Well, it is great, great work.

Thank you very much. This year designer Juliet Sargeant

is making her debut in the Fresh Garden category and she's

here to prove that although her garden might be small,

the message can be hugely powerful. Tackling the harrowing subject

of slavery both past and present, we met up with her in the surprising

birthplace of the inspiration I'm at the beautiful Holwood estate,

almost three centuries booing, owned by William Pitt the Younger. It was

here that the seeds were sewn for a piece of legislation to change the

world forever. The slavery abolition act of 1833. From the early 1,500s,

it is estimated that 11 million Africans were enslaved and forceable

transported to the Americas. Over a period of about 350 years. By the

end of the 18th century, Britain was a moisturor player in this

transatlantic slave trade with about 150 slave ships leaving Liverpool,

Bristol, and London each year. But... Around this time, the slave

trade was also provoking rumblings of discontent. In the 178 #0s, the

politicians and social reformer, William Wilberforce, spearheaded a

crusade to abolish it. 1780s. It was here on May 12th, 1787 that the

Prime Minister, William Pitt urged Mr Will better force to present his

antislavery bill to Parliament. It may look like a pile of wood now but

in those days it was a beautiful oak tree. I just love it, that there is

something tangible here for us to have a look at and think about that

auspicious moment. After their chat, Wilberforce wrote

a passage in his diary, inscribed here on the stone bench "I resolve

to give notice on a fit occasion in the House of Commons of my intention

to bring forward the abolition of the slave trade" in 1807, the slave

trade was banned. In 1833 slavery itself was outlawed and slaves from

freed. But, sadly, that's not the end of

the story of the slave trade. This is a modern day slave. Nobody

is prepared to help him until we expose his polite. It is still

happening in many different forms, like sex slavery, forced Labour and

domestic servitude. It is estimated that there are 27 million people in

slavery around the world. That is more than in the entire history of

the transatlantic slave trade. But the good news is that in 2015,

Parliament passed the Modern Slavery Act. They did this to bring

up-to-date the old legislation. I have celebrated this with the design

of a Chelsea garden in the Fresh Section, and called it the The

Modern Slavery Garden. The unique thing about using a

garden to express something as complex as this, is that a garden

gives you so many elements to play with. We have an oak tree that we

are going to put in the centre of the garden. That represents William

Wilberforce. I wanted to illustrate the fact it is going on in ordinary

streets behind ordinary doors. We visited some people who have been

rescued from slavery in the south of England. They have quite a bit of

work to do to get their lives back on track. They told us that they

garden an allotment and really enjoyed doing that. We asked them to

grow some of the plants we are using at The Modern Slavery Garden. At the

moment on their allotment they are looking after the oak saplings that

we will plant around the base of the main oak tree. I hope that people

will enjoy the garden very much. But also that they will enjoy reading

the story that the garden is telling.

Juliet, you won a gold. That is fantastic. Congratulations! Thank

you. This is a deeply provocative garden,

and certainly political. What is the general reaction? I have been

delighted by the reaction. People have been quite emotional,

actually. Even big Burley men have been Welling up with tears. I have

had workmen hi-fiving me in the streets around Chelsea. The thing

that I love the most is that some teachers are saying that they will

use the garden in assembly to illustrate the subject for their

children in this subject of modern slavery.

One cannot help notice that there have been questions raised to ask if

Chelsea is the right place to do something provocative, not that,

that is wrong but as deep as this. People are coming here for a day

out, having a nice time, looking at pretty flowers and bang! Then they

are confronted by this? I think it is fine. Absolutely fine. For me,

making gardens is an art form. You may go to an art gallery for a nice

day out. There you see the flowers and the paintings that could of 6 a

lapped scape but also painting that provoke you differently. That is

fine there, so why not in a garden? And one cannot help but point out

that you are the first black female designer in the history of the show,

and not enough womening coming here, so it is all coming together to

tackle diversity issues? I did not mean to tackle that but it is good.

In a creative see ifs, the more in the mix, the better.

Did you expect people to translate the ideas to their own gardens, or

do they see it as a work of art and think and react to themselves? Can

horticultural absorb influences like this in a private world, or is this

a show that is different from our gardens at home? With this garden

there are lots of lovely plants to draw inspiration from but in your

own garden you can perhaps think about using it as an art form,

reflecting your own memories or the way you relate to your landscape and

environment. There is no reason why even in your own home you cannot

have little bit of metaphors within your garden.

And the final question, you have had a huge success doing a fresh garden,

are you doing a big show garden? It would have to be a real challenge,

an interesting brief. But I don't think it is necessary to have a

bigger garden. You can do a lot in a small space

and a lot with a small budget. Well, you have done a huge amount

with a small space. Many congratulations.

Thank you, Monty. Of the two gold winning gardens

in the Fresh category the RHS had to choose one to scope the big prize

'Best Fresh Garden' and we were there to capture

the moment the winner was announced. Martin and Gary. Best Fresh Garden.

Many APPLAUSE.

Brilliant. Well done. You deserve that, it is the most amazing garden.

I am with the designers. Martin and Gary, congratulations. Everyone is

talking about this garden. We are getting shots inside looking inside

from above at the planting. How did you plan to this? Chris Hollins is a

tremendous plantsman and he has done nine medal winning gardens and he

says this is the smallest but the most difficult by a mile. And all of

those mirrors. It must be confusing? We were looking through those holes

and saying that there was foxglove by the left knee and if you move

that a little bit to the left, and he said, there is no foxglove! It is

like a of errors. And you have to climb the ladder hundreds of times.

All three of us, Gary, Chris and myself did the equivalent of

claiming Mont blanc last week. Looking after the garden throughout,

how are the plants copping? They are delicate woodland plants who would

normally not get much sunshine. And that was a problem. We got to the

show and we thought we had thought of everything. It has been a long

road to get here and there started life in Portugal and came to Watford

and then here and we thought we had thought of everything and Chris got

inside and we did not think... We had a plastic pollen and we came

back and it had melted! -- for pollen. They like cool conditions.

You must water them a lot. And there is shading over the top. On a sunny

day like today, there is a cool, shaded woodland. Any other ideas

going forward? Yes, we have ideas. But we must be very passionate about

something, you must really want to do something. It'll be to see what

you come up with and people are literally queueing up around the

block! That is amazing! Well done, chaps! Cheers.

We'll be taking an in depth look at the medal results in the Artisan

But first, anyone familiar with my personal garden passions

will know that I'm particularly fond of the art of topiary.

So I'm delighted to see it appearing in rude health

And particularly, bonsai. Derbyshire bonsai. This is a superb example of

an ancient art. These plants of all kinds, oak trees, pine trees,

growing in tiny parts. That is what bonsai means, grown in pots and

around the showground you will find different types of training and

pruning. Here is the top picks... Pruning is a craft, some might say

it is an artform and here at the Flower Show you will find the best

examples of training and training, shaping and sculpting -- sculpting

anywhere in the world. Diarmuid Gavin has gone to time on his

topiary. This magnificent hornbeam trees at the back of the garden and

it might seem strange to do this to a tree, they have naturally quite a

neat, compact shape so he is taking that one step further. Bay is a

perfect candidate although I prefer using secateurs so that you don't

cut through many individual leaves and to do this too early because

these green shoots, the new leaves, and it is slightly tender so if it

is soon, they will get a sharp frost and could be damaged. And of course,

the twirling is optional! Boxes, the classic plant for shaping butter

churn something like these bays into the spiral is very simple to do.

Visibly attach string lowdown and take that around the cone, to the

top and then adjust those bands to be happy with the shape and then

cut, go around and make the initial cut as the guide and remove the

string and Kerry Ann and if you go very deep towards the central stem

you will get this sharply contoured shape and you can also leave this

very loose and fluffy, like here. Athletics is not the only reason to

train a planned, it is often done for productivity and with these

pairs, they have input against the wall on long wires to produce

horizontal lunches and that encourages the planned to send new

shoots which have the putting spurs. It is important to ensure the

variety of temporary or Apple is grafted onto it to one thing stock

because it is naturally programmed to want to romp away. The space is

at a premium, you can grow these fruit by using the ultimate in

pruning and I cannot think of a nicer way to edge any path or

border. It is not only human intervention that determines the

shape at the plant will take. Here, the prevailing wind over many years

has forced this to go sideways so we get this incredible architectural

shape and sometimes nature knows best.

Our guest tonight is a regular visitor to Chelsea but is best known

as the tough talking businesswoman tasked with turning

around failing ventures on 'The Hotel Inspector'

and 'The Fixer.' And it seems Alex Polizzi's love

Twelve years ago she teamed up with her mother Olga to restore 19th

century Endsleigh House and gardens in Devon to its former glory.

We visited them to find out more about this

For me, it is a thing I have done in my life that I am proudest of, being

involved in this project from the beginning, that was a real

challenge. I was looking for another hotel and a friend said this is an

extraordinary place full of follies and wonderful trees in Devon. We

drove here and we arrived on a beautiful day, we opened the doors

and walked out and we thought, we have to buy this. The house was on

the most crowded state. But the garden, the river and trees and it

was enough to take your breath away. -- decrepit. I love seeing this

cover, this has come along over the years and it softens things up.

There is so much variety in the scarring, that is what struck me.

The longest continuous herbaceous border in England, apparently.

Weeping beech is unusual, the Ritz and the branches, the size of it,

and the age of it, it is a wonderful tree. Our favourite, this is the

dell, designed to look like miniature Scottish Ballet. And all

of these steps, little tunnels, it is a garden for all seasons. The

Duke and Duchess of Bedford owned half of Devon and they chose this

place to build their house because they thought it was the most

beautiful piece of their land. Because was built by Sir Geoffrey

Wyatt and the garden is by Care Act in so it is important. He was a

great designer, Repton, he was carried around in his chair when

designing because he had an accident and had hurt his back and it was

wonderful because very little had been changed from the time of Repton

and this is one of the only gardens which really shows Repton at his

best. Repton was famous, every time he designed a garden, he presented

this to his client, red book. I think it is very interesting, in the

days before photographs, this is before and after of the grounds. I

think what is ready impressive is just the sheer scale of the earth

moving and foresight and the clearing. And that helps us to carry

on his legacy. It would be lovely to have as many gardeners as Egypt

Jakarta Duchess had. They had 35. -- the Duke and Duchess. We have 2.51

part of the year and 3.5 the other part of the year and they were

continuously, cutting down the trees that have fallen down. It is mulling

the land, strumming, chanting, just the rose, it looks wonderful for

about one month every year and that takes 11 months of hard work to get

to. This is the nicest time of year for the wild flowers. Bluebells.

Wild garlic. I mean, it is full of it. It does look wonderful. I love

gardening. It is what I really enjoy. And here, obviously, there is

scope for amazing gardening. I have never fallen out of love with this

place. And every time I walk out here, onto that long, and I see that

wonderful view, I remember one mother bought it. -- I remember why

my mother bought it. It is fair to say that currently, I am not the

garden that my mother is. But life is a learning process and gardening

is something I am learning about. The Chelsea Flower Show is a

wonderful way to do that. Looking at that, it is the most

fantastic garden. Wonderful. One of my forebears designed the house.

When you come to Chelsea, things edgy applied directly to the garden,

back home, or is this more general? I have had if you disasters like the

year when I came here and I got completely overtaken by the idea of

Fosters. -- hostas. And I watched in despair as the snails and slugs

chomped on them and I have tried several years after and I finally

gave up. I have learned not to come to Chelsea and get grand ideas. It

is for inspiration and it is always nice to know what is current. We

have been coming for a very long time. Do you feel that these trends,

do they reflect what the outside world is doing? I always find it

astonishing just how fashion and gardens and art seem to find a

Congress nature, if people get into a room and find the pastels and the

shapes but the gardens this year have had a lot of strong Orange

which I have not seen for years at Chelsea. And some of them have this

vivid colour... The poppies. And that is the same as fashion and the

pots of colour in fabric design. Which I know more about than

gardening. And obviously there is this zeitgeist which I am not part

of. I watch an admiration. You are great expert on presenting the wares

and management. Are you looking with the hypercritical eye? Are you

wishing for a difference? I love lots of things about Chelsea, I

mainly come here for inspiration and it is good for the soul to see so

much that is beautiful. The way that it is done. Obviously, one could

critique anything! I think possibly we have slightly

outgrown the space. Looking at what is behind us, it is not a very

pleasant way. You must be incredibly dedicated to want to spend an

afternoon here. It is quite hard to see the garden, and I think that is

a shame. I think it is quite commercial. There is nothing against

that, I have a mercantele bent myself. But, I don't know, maybe,

rather grandly, I wish there was more selection going on some of the

stuff that is being sold. I don't always love the stuff that is here,

in a rather snobby way, maybe. I... I don't know, it is probably time. I

think everything should change. Gardeners are basically,

conservative people if you want to change conservative people and their

gardens, do you you force them to go somewhere else? How do you go about

it? I think you lay out the benefits of change. And hopefully carry

conthe consensus with you. I think for everyone here it is such an

opportunity to showcase it is a unique event in the horticultural

calendar, envied throughout the world. Surely, surely, we cannot

think we have got it perfect. One can always improve on things. There

is that thought always in my head. I do sometimes wonder if some of the

smaller nurseries, in particular, who put so much work coming into

Chelsea, if it is worth their while? I hope it is, I mean, really,

otherwise they should not do it. They shouldn't do it, for that

reason but it is the grandest, best show on earth. I would not like to

see all of these little businesses go out of business for the luxury of

coming to Chelsea. And Chelsea would not be the same

without them. If we could solve that problem, then we have it.

Thank you for coming to the Chelsea flower show.

Still to come tonight, we'll be celebrating

the revival of the rhododendron and if you haven't had chance

to vote for your favourite large show garden in the 'BBC RHS People's

choice award' we've all the details coming up on how you can.

But before all that, back to the small gardens.

The Artisans brief is firmly rooted in the celebration

This is Freddie White's Arts Crafts Garden. My favourite part of the

garden is this oak frame structure. Really chunky with a view out on to

the world, or, I guess, an imaginary landscape and a frame to view into

it. Freddie got a silver medal, a great medal a at Chelsea. I think

that the judges thought he was trying to fit too much into a small

space. There are many elements but don't come together co hesively. And

the plants are meant to energise and relax. In a small space it is really

hard to do two things. It's a fact that gardens are getting

smaller, so we have to be more clever with the space. The Japanese

designer here, has shown you can create a garden that is both

beautiful and also space-saving too. I think he's cracked it. So with a

small footprint he created a two-tier garden. But what I like is

that there is planting at this level too. He is creating the scene with

the maples and the moss, so that the whole scheme is integrated at this

level. As you come down the stairs, there

is a vertical garden here but also coming out at you as a

three-dimensional. You can get nice and close to the plants like this

pine. They look like they are growing out of the walls here. And a

water future. It draws you through beautifully.

So we have a terrace, we have a great garden. There is even space

for a car! Now, you would expect to see a Japanese import, wouldn't you,

oh, no, this is Chelsea, after all! Out of the way, everybody!

Out of all the gold medal winning Artisan gardens

here at Chelsea, an event supported by M Investments, only one

could be chosen as the best overall design of the collective bunch.

It was exciting to capture the moment the RHS awarded

Many, many congratulations! Thank you very much.

That's amazing. Thank you.

Hey, look! Sarah, huge congratulations.

Best Show Garden in the Artisan category. How does it feel?

Absolutely wonderful. You hope to achieve this award. It is really

difficult. You never even dare to dream.

You had to manage your time carefully. You have a huge exhibit

here. And then the Artisan Garden as well. How has it been? Actually,

managing two I found it almost easier. It allows me to approach

each garden with fresh eyes. It just involved a lot of walking. I have

been doing a half a marathon every day.

Do you have an app for it? I do. It is good motivation! But, the garden

should not have taken up so much time? This is so challenging and

doing a small garden, the details is so important. In a big garden you

can get away with broad gestures but here you need the detail and to

engage people without overworking it.

What are your favourite elements of the garden? I love the canopy,

inspired by the giant can't levered fishing nets. In the morning at

7.00am, the sun creeping over the trees comes through the canopy and

hits the back of the boat. It is like a celestial bean dropping over

the garden. It is charming. You are a record-breaker, you now

have a gold medal in every single garden category. How does that feel?

Well, it has not really sunk in but yes, I'm really proud.

Lovely to see you, Sarah. Thank you.

To win Best in Show in every single category is extraordinary.

Congratulations to Sarah, I'm in awe of her! This year, there are a

number of anniversary marked here supported by M Investments. The

most notable is the Queen's 90th birthday. She visited the show for

the 51st time on Monday. One of the celebrations, a way to mark the

event, is this extraordinary floral gate. It was designed and decorated

by Stephen Connolly, the man who did the floor declarations for the

wedding of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge. It is based on a picture

of a similar gate that the Queen visited in Reigate in Surrey. And

these flowers are changed every single day. So it is a living floral

arrangement, spanning the entrance to the show, it seems an apt way to

enter into the showground. There are a number of celebrations going on.

One milestone is the centenary of the Rhododendron Society. Founded by

four enthusiasts in 1916. By the end of the 19th century, different

rhododendrons were coming into the country. The plants were increasing

as part of our popular have been abar.

As a recent introduction from China and the Himalayas,

the men were keen to get these amazing plants into the nations

psyche and held their first AGM here at the Royal Hospital exactly

We joined Charles Williams, a direct descendant of one of this

pioneering group to find out more about this exciting anniversary.

My name is Charles Williams. I live in the depths of Cornwall. I

grew up in horticultural. Trained by the head gardener here as a child.

It has always been in my blood and in the family genes.

Oh! Look at that... You tell me a rhododendron that is this yellow

with this big a flower, there isn't one. This is as good as it gets.

Every year people ask me the same question as to what is my favourite

plant in the garden... Today it is this rhododendron in its pomp and

prime, by the middle of next week it will be something else. That is what

we are excited about, that is the beauty and the surprises that can

emerge from a garden such as this. There are three great advantages to

these rhododendrons. Firstly, the acid soil. Which they must have.

Secondly, the rainfall is 55 inches in average here, so higher than the

rest of the country. And what the rhododendrons like. And thirdly, and

importantly, we seldom get much frost. So the plants grow for longer

as they are not held back by cold winters.

My great grandfather, JC Williams was the first member of the family

to have a passion for rhododendrons. He was at a forefront of

commissioning gorge If orest to go on expeditions to China to bring

back new varieties of rhododendron. George was keen to be sent to China

to earn his fame and fortune, he achieved that by the time he died in

China in 1932. I think people imagine that travelling to China was

something of a rather jolly holiday. But, Forest had to escape wars

between feudal War Lordses by dressing in native dress and hiding

in the woods to escape detection. Can you imagine the excitement? Here

is a packet of seeds, we have a letter from gorge Forest that says

that this is something fantastic in the wild that grows up to 30 or 40

feet and you have to see it in flower as it is amazing. So what did

you do? You wanted to form a society a club of like-minded people to

compare notes. The Rhododendron Society was formed in 1916 by four

founding members. My great uncle, PD Williams, JC Williams, and Charles

Eley and John Millais. They were there to give people cuttings and to

establish a wider base. The society today is a mixture of

professionals in horticultural and rank amateurs but that is ultimately

what a passion for a particular genus of flower is about, it is

abouten owing them with others, swapping them, growing them,

hybridising them and talking about them.

The theme here at Chelsea is in keeping with the group of

rhododendron, the plan plants, used are some of those that survived 100

years ago and are still being found in China all of that time ago. This

is the largest leafed rhododendron of all.

What we have done is we have dug around a large root ball and we are

going to gently lift it on to a wire netting platform after we have got

the wire netting in place, we will put the hissian around it to keep

the moisture in. Whether it flowers or not remains to be seen but the

next time you see this plant again, we will all hopefully be at Chelsea.

Well, I am here with three committee members of the the RHS Rhododendron

Camille group. The technical name.

So, Charles Williams, how does it feel to be here, 100 years on at

Chelsea, you are all direct descendents of the family. How does

it feel? What could be more extraordinary than to have three

people still in business, still loving rhododendrons, still selling

them and growing them 100 years on. Still friends? Yes! You all have the

tweed on. Looking smart. Is this the traditional dress? It was then!

How big is this society? Is a global? Yes, the membership, we have

had a flowering of members over the past month or so, about 750 and I

have been the secretary for about ten years. And I love every minute

of being involved with this. It is amazing. Rarely the three of us

could still be involved 100 years down the line. By pure chance. There

is a lot at Chelsea. People have been choosing members of the

committee, they have been choosing your favourite rhododendrons, which

is not easy. We opened the survey up to the entire membership with more

than 250 responses and the winner is... This plant was found in 1931,

soon after the group was founded in 1950. That is fascinating, thank you

for bringing this. We need a photograph to mark this occasion.

Huddled together, chaps. That is definitely one for the album. Well

done! Thank you. We saw the rhododendrons being

bundled up carefully to be brought here to Chelsea from Cornwall and

here it is. And it has not flowered yet. But it has developed this

lovely foliage. This delicate, despite the leaves being large, this

wonderful felted grey colouring. And the foliage of rhododendrons is

often fascinating and just as beautiful. One of the problems with

rhododendrons, they were everywhere when I was at school, is that you

cannot grow them on alkaline soil. Until the Germans, and they have

been working on this for a very long time, they developed a rhododendron

that would cope with neutral conditions. This one, you can grow

this with a ph of 6.5 or seven and this has a very strong root and the

secret is to feed this very well. Medication is soil, pine bark, keep

it moist but not saturated and that should flower and flower for years.

Whilst Rhododendrons are having a renaissance,

there are some plants and flowers that continue to divide opinion -

So it got us thinking - of all the plants and flowers

here at the show, and beyond, which are Britain's least liked?

Hard to say but it is fair to say that there are lots of reasons for

disliking any plant, it could be the smell reminds you of something, and

for years I always hated rhododendrons because of the smell.

It is Association but for me, it is the rose of Sharon, their first job

was digging this out, it was like a weed and it is not very attractive,

little yellow flowers. I don't mind some grass. I am much more rational,

I hate a plant because it is just repulsive, ugly, and that is the

begonia. Is that reasonable? I will not say that... You will not upset

me. Millions of people love begonias, there are fanciers are

bounced down this country. I didn't think I would end up defending

begonias. We asked the team which plants they liked the least. Has to

be this. Coriander. Along with about 20 percentage the population, I

possess a gene that makes me perceive this as tasting soapy. It

has to be the red-hot poker that I remember from childhood, the orange

red top and the bottom half looks half dead. The Basque, tall and

spindly, nothing to commend that. It is the ugliest plant I think I have

ever met. I don't really like grass, in the form of a lawn, it is just a

monoculture and imagine all of those exciting, marvellous plants you

could be growing in the same space. I love my garden and it is small and

nearly perfectly formed but I hate bamboo because it has taken over a

one-sided that and James looked at the picture and he said this is not

bamboo, that is horsetail. This is an accident waiting to happen, the

leaves are like the teeth of sharks and the flowers draw you onto those

spikes. Like a siren. Do not plan that unless you like spending time

in Accident and Emergency. So that's our choices,

but we want to know which plant Maybe you agree with some

of our selections or have your own Share your choices on Twitter page

@BBCFlowerShows using the hashtag. And we'll let you know the nations

least loved plants tomorrow night. The key to a successful Chelsea

garden is the creation of a harmonious relationship

between the planting, or soft landscaping,

and the hard landscaping elements A master of balancing both

is designer Adam Frost, winner of no less than seven golds

here in the past decade. He has been guiding us through this

year's structural highlights. I love the construction of this

water feature. It starts with these big blocks of stone that have been

channelled out so it starts at the end and works its way down and drops

into the slower pool and travels through large lumps, underneath and

then drops into the slower pool. It is a lovely piece of work and on top

of that we have this building but this cantilever and this lovely wall

at the back with this large stone block and what stands out is that

lovely little shadow feature, it feels like the roof is floating. I

love the Portuguese limestone that Andy has used but because he has

such big pieces of stone and they have been carved out angles, it must

have been a nightmare for the stonemason, it is like putting a

jigsaw together, unbelievable. And when we look at these bridges, they

are lovely, rectangles, simple, but actually, they are not, every single

one has been tapered and that has been finely polished. Andy has

introduced these lovely steel, this Ron 's pattern, which gives lovely

rhythm and they look beautiful but somebody has had to swing those in

place, fix them. It is quite an astounding piece of work.

I have a soft spot for stonework, my old man first got me dressing stone

when I was ten years old and he had me building dry stone walls and what

I love about them is the sense of place, it talks of the region and

this garden is all about North Provence. And it says that. I have

been there and southern Provence and when you get further south the

stonework changes, North, we have this detailed, small slivers, and

further south, the lumps get bigger. And James flew people in from France

to build these, actual masons from that region. And behind me, this

archway, the water dribbling down the back of the wall, this beautiful

flooring and natural stonework that makes this lovely stream works down.

This garden has been constructed absolutely beautifully. In reality,

it feels like it has been here forever and that is what makes a

great Chelsea garden. I am chuffed, this is the first year that

landscapers have been recognised at Chelsea, with their own formal award

and I am off to meet the winner. The best instruction was given to Steve

Swanton. He built the energy garden for Kate West. Well done. What is it

really like to get the first award? Over the years, we always strive to

get every ounce out of the material and try to achieve the best out of

the design so the design is happy and the client is happy and to get

judged and get recognised for that is a really great thing. What is

your favourite? I think the areas where we work on site, the base of

the pool, we were given free rein. And the path at the front, I was

vague on just how I wanted that and Steve had the idea about the larger

stones with the smaller detailing. What did you like that came out of

his head? The biggest thing was the two disciplines, contemporary stone

and the dry stone and it just shows this is a varied skill that you have

got. That is what I love about this. You collected the award? I will keep

it at home! Even the designer managed to pick up the structural

award? Credit! From man-made and natural structures

and fewer plants have more drama than the Proteaceae family and they

have a great show here. These plans are native to South Africa but they

also have been thriving recently in the Tuscan villas of Italy, thanks

to a corporate of a passionate growers who brought a selection of

their own proteas here for the first time. You have been in charge of

this? Silver and Gold medals. Your first Chelsea? We are delighted. It

was a tremendous effort. These are immediately exotic plants, big

impact, they look like nothing that we can grow here. What conditions do

you need? Is it possible to grow these in Britain? They could grow on

the south coast. In sheltered spots. They grow outside in Cornwall and in

the islands. Anywhere else and in the end, they could be grown similar

to citrus plants. How much cold will they take? They can take hold up to

around -5, as long as the compost is kept dry. In Italy, where do they

grow? I have never seen proteas near Florence, for example. At our

nursery they grow under glass in conservatories. Shelter from the

rain. Although they can grow outside, south of Rome. You have

brought them here and they are flowering superbly. Was it easy? The

biggest challenge for me was timing. For the flowering. Because proteas

are at their best in April and not the end of May. I must be honest,

there was a certain degree, as they say in Italy, of hoping for the

best. I think the best happened! This is a superb display so thank

you very much for bringing them to Chelsea. Picky. -- thank you.

Time is running out to vote in the BBC RHS People's Choice awards to

decide the biggest large show garden of 2016. Details of all gardens in

contention and how to vote are on the website. Bbc.co.uk/chelsea.

Voting has been opened since nine o'clock last night and if you have

not voted yet, hurry up, you only have until 9:30pm tonight and the

winner will be revealed tomorrow evening at 7:30pm. We will be back

tomorrow to look at what influence this year's show will have on the

future. And having a look at the gardens as you have never seen

before, it up at night. And celibate implants that are wonderful in-laws.

Mickey and James are back at 3:45pm on BBC 1- until then, it is goodbye

from all of the team here at Chelsea. Goodbye. -- BBC One.

You've got to be able to hit that target before it hits you.