Episode 4 RHS Chelsea Flower Show

It's not every day that you walk through a field

...Or share the ground with over 17 members of the Royal Family...

...or finding yourself surrounded by hundreds of the world's top

garden designers and plant experts is pretty special too.

Here at the the Royal Hospital Gardens there's very

Welcome to the 2016 Chelsea Flower Show.

And so today marks the opening day of the most famous

All week our team from the world of horticulture and garden design

will be bringing you the very best of this event supported

Being a Monday the show ground was also packed

Ladies and gentlemen of the press fought for pole position to capture

the scenes as some big names descended upon the show.

Coming up on tonight's show we take a trip down memory

lane with Chelsea champ, designer Cleve West as he revisits

And of course Her Majesty the Queen came today

Also we find out how designer Hugo Bugg is bringing some middle

this morning very early, I spent some time as the Sun

getting a very privileged view of these gardens

It's a fine, clear morning, rising over London. I've got Chelsea not

quite to myself, I'm sharing it with a few photographers, but the chance

to look at all of the show gardens and the weeks of work has come to an

end, they are ready. Not yet judged or seen by the world but poised and

perfect. What you're looking for at Chelsea

is the special, things that immediately hit you. This is the

Telegraph Garden designed by Andy Sturgeon. Andy has made a garden

with geological power, using vast slabs of triangular stones and yet

combine debt with very subtle, gentle almost planting, although its

arid. Using a palette that is low-key but never drab makes a

culmination that is in chanting. I think this is a really special

garden. -- entrancing. This garden, called the antithesis of sarcophagi,

which is a man full, by Martin cooked and Gary Breeze looks like an

enormous block of granite surrounded by rather drab gravel. -- Martin

Cook. It seems like not a lot is going on but then you notice there

are tiny and full holes on the side of the block and if you peer through

the holes what is revealed is a beautiful garden. -- tiny little

holes. The combination of the stone and the garden hidden inside it

creates one of the most uplifting things I've ever seen at Chelsea. I

think the M garden designed by Cleve West is inspired, I love the

way it becomes a modern garden with open space and that takes real

skill. Knowing when to stop, knowing when not to fill a space with

something is a sign of a master at his peak. Just for a short time at

the beginning of this long day I've been able to share these gardens

with a kind of innocence. And solely to perfection. -- unsullied. That

has been a treat. Obviously those experiences of getting in ahead of

the crowd is great, fantastic. What you can't help noticing as well as

individual gardens is certain themes and patterns and plants get

repeated. They identified a vintage somehow. When you combine them

together, the designs and colours, that's how you remember Chelsea in

years to come. In terms of colour, what strikes you? Lots of oranges.

And Andy has the exotic foxglove, I've forgotten the name. Working

against the bronze. They used to be rusty steel but now it is bronze

with oranges and purple foliage in front. With a lot of natural

planting like we see in the Cleve West garden and quite a few others,

I think there is also more colour and more diverse colour. More

flowers. They were worried because we had such a cold spring and in the

last few years everything has burst into flour and those plants have

become available. Lots of people are using pink amid the oranges and

blues and purples. It is tricky. Some people have gone for every

colour under the sun and its gardens with restricted palettes that really

work. There is also a division between very geometric gardens like

Hugo Bugg and Andy Sturgeon. And then the other gardens like James

Basson. The flow of the space. There is a slight division there.

Manipulating space, the division again is pure gardens versus

landscape becoming a garden or being drawn from a garden. Naturalistic

planting we have talked about is a feature of a number of gardens this

year. They have taken their cue

from the natural world of flora as Rachel De Thame

has been to find out. Although there are gardens here that

are definitely manicure, there's also a real sense that nature knows

best. I'm standing in your garden and you

do feel as though you are surrounded by nature and you have been

transported. It has been transported here on many lorries. One of the

things at Chelsea is that you expect all of the plants to be perfect and

you come here and you have these old man's which are far from perfect,

they have been hacked about. -- almonds. It's a risky thing to do to

stick a bad tree in the front of a Chelsea garden but it works in the

landscape. The more you look the more you see. There are white snail

shells up there. It is a little white snail which creeps up the

grass to keep cool and you almost think they are flowers in the

landscape. I'm so seduced by that natural feel that coming to Chelsea

is such a great opportunity to express my passion for the natural

look. Sam Opens achieves a spectacularly naturalistic feel with

a garden which uses a wonderful mix of plans which are held together

with this graph -- grass. You get these highlights of colour which are

not native, it has these in the orange and this from South Africa.

You don't have to leave British shores to achieve that sort of

wonderful naturalness. Catherine, your garden has the most magical

atmosphere and I think it is this really naturalistic planting. I just

wanted to do something with our British native species. To try to

encourage people to perhaps use them in their own garden and appreciate

them more. How easy do you think it would be for somebody to recreate

this kind of effect in their own garden? I think it would be fairly

easy. A lot of the species are plants that are readily available,

and this is the native British silver birch which is under planted

by native species. It is something to do with the way that you have the

whole thing from the canopy, right through, you have the hedging as

well. You have wonderful layering of plants which gives it a natural

quality. What made you decide to choose this sort of rather natural

feel rather than something that was perhaps more manicure and formal? We

have a contemporary glasshouse structure, and I wanted to have a

contrast with the planting. And you can definitely use planting to do

that. It works beautifully. Thank you.

Incorporating elements of nature in terms of landscape and planting

are central to the garden designed by Cleve West.

Some of you will be familiar with Cleve who has notched up five

Chelsea golds over the years which include two Best Show Gardens.

He may be a familiar face on Main Avenue but this year he has

gone back into his past on Exmoor for inspiration.

But when I was 14 years old my whole family moved here.

Porlock in Exmoor, to run this hotel.

I think my fondest memory is the fact we came down here exactly the

same time as Fawlty Towers was popular on TV. Basically my dad was

Basil Fawlty. It was hilarious. It was quite a culture shock coming to

a quiet little village, but on the other side we have lovely

countryside to roam in and escape into. I used to hightail into the

hills and to the sea and it was perfect. We are in the Woods just up

the hill and the atmosphere was powerful and it stayed with me for

some time. I used to do athletics and I ran in the hills and I

competed at a high level against the likes of Billy Thomson and Linford

Christie and obviously I let them win! It has come as quite a shock

that I have become a gardener and garden design. I'm trying to evoke a

memory. That's the most difficult thing at Chelsea. I've decided I'm

going to have oak trees and oak trees are key to the garden. And I

will use things like blueberries in the garden, just as a token, but I

don't want to try to recreate this, you just can't do it in a 22 metre

space. The amazing thing about Exmoor is the diversity. You have

rock scapes here and sea views and more land. Valleys and fields, it is

so diverse, it's incredible. Stone will play a large part in the

garden. Not in a natural way, like you see here, it will be more

contrived, so they will form walls and benches and we will have a

mixture of rough-hewn stone and sawn stone so there will be a

contemporary edge to the whole thing. It's interesting on the way

up here, we were passing all sorts of woodland plants like wild garlic

and Angelica and those things you associate with woodland. I don't

think I was conscious of that in my teenage years. I certainly wasn't

learning the names and I wasn't interested in gardening at that

time, but seeing it now you read it in a more informed way. It's just a

new experience for me, coming up here and being able to read the

landscape more clearly. When I was about 18 we moved back to London as

a family. I went to a college to do art and physical education, I was

fortunate to work in David Hockney's studio for a week and my antilabour

round the corner and I spend my lunch times with her and she had a

big garden in Chiswick and I got hooked into gardening. The penny

dropped at that moment. When my aunt died she left me a small legacy and

I was able to support myself to go to the Hampton Court Flower Show and

that is what got me on the first rung of the ladder and I'm eternally

grateful. It's curious how things work out. This wasn't planned by any

stretch of the imagination. I want to try to make a very

contemporary space. That acknowledges the memory of living

here. We have all the ingredients, the oak trees, stone and water and

woodland planting. The trick will be to try to mix them up and make it a

modern and contemporary garden, evoking Exmoor without looking like

it. It is a bit of an experiment, I am a bit nervous about it. But it is

a challenge. And I always enjoy a challenge at Chelsea. I think this

is the best piece of work I have ever seen you do. I have been

following and admiring you for a long time. Does it feel like a

special piece of work to you? I'm sure it's the Best Show Garden I

have done at Chelsea. It is personal. It is based on my memories

of living near Exmoor and all those memories are confused in this garden

in some way, it carries a level of emotion which I think makes a good

garden. There are certain things about it which are quite risky. This

space for example is very open. A lot of people would have filled it

with something. I did have a drawing of a table chairs but quickly took

it out because it looked wrong. And these lovely blocks of stone, this

stone looks different, white did you choose it compared to natural? It is

the same, this rusty looking stone is coloured blue when you cut it in

half. Maybe that is why it works. I was nervous about using it. But held

my nerve and it looks great, much better than anticipated. And the

fence, I love that. Did you always know that is what you wanted? I knew

it but it was just finding that weathered timber, that was the

difficulty. The planting is not native, you have all kinds of things

going on, even though this is based on place. I did not want to recreate

Exmoor, I wanted to make a garden that was based on memories but not

every creation. I could not better it, I wanted to do something that

was just a personal reflection of celebration of the memory. So it is

a garden that is personal but clearly other people cannot know

that. It is a very self-indulgent garden, I'm sorry for that! But I

think it makes a better garden forehead rather than trying to

adhere to some of theme that you have got to stick to. It comes from

the heart. Well that comes through and if everyone enjoys it as much as

I already have, and I look forward to the rest of the week, I think it

will give a lot of people a lot of pleasure. Thank you very much.

In the build up to this event the press reported

that she is the first black female designer at the Chelsea Flower Show,

which has raised questions as to how diverse the world

I'm joined now by Juliet Sargeant, designer of the Modern Slavery

Garden here at the show, and Sue Biggs, Director

I cannot believe the first female black designer, that is shocking and

also great news. It had not occurred to me, I was just excited to be

doing Chelsea. Hopefully it is not once-in-a-lifetime! But a lifetime

dream. And then a journalist mentioned this and everyone is

talking. So someone had looked into the history of the designers and you

are the first like designer. Now the subject has been blown up quite a

lot by the press. And as soon, how do you feel about this as far as the

RHS is concerned that you mark just a year at ago we sat and talked

about how we would like more woman designers. Now there are more women

designers and I think it will just take time, Juliet will be a

brilliant role model and I hope that we can get more and more. We tried

with campaigns to get youngsters of all backgrounds beginning to garden.

They will come through and when they watched the television tonight and

they see Juliet, they will be inspired. Do you think that there is

a barrier between gardening, it is cross gender and appeals to all

ages, it is diverse in nature. That is what is so wonderful. But

professionally, to attract diversity into gardening and garden design,

you think that there is a problem. I think with garden design in

particular, it is expensive to train. Private colleges are quite

expensive and even if you do not go to one of those you have got to find

the funds to do the training and as a garden designer then it is unusual

to be able to earn a decent living straightaway. So just putting this

out there is a possibility, perhaps there is some economic barrier.

There are no barriers to gardening in itself, just the professional

side. You're doing stuff, you did a project recently in Brixton, in

inner-city areas. On the programme last night it had that amazing

coming together in Angell Town to build the basics of the garden. And

this garden in Chelsea were going to relocate that together with them.

They will all be kids who will have seen how wonderful it is to get your

hands in the soil and snow for the first time in their lives what it is

like to garden. I'm sure that some of them, and unfortunately Josh is

sick today so we will not see him go but I know he's excited about the

possibility of horticulture as a career. If we can achieve that they

will come through the line of being garden designers, landscape

architects, it is coming. It will take time. Great to have you here

are Juliet, and very positive news all round.

Now with Her Majesty's visit dominating the conversation

at Chelsea today, Carol's been in the Great Pavilion picking out

plants at the peak of perfection that really are fit for a queen.

Everyone is dressed to the nines trying to stand out from the crowd.

And I'm not talking about the people, I'm talking about the

plants. I want to find those subjects who truly are worthy of

regal attention. On parade today, two ladies in

waiting from the truly noble family. The family name trips off the

tongue. The first is agapanthus. Renowned for growing these beautiful

plants. Flowers beloved by the Queen Mother. One of them even called

Queen Mum. We have become familiar with them in our gardens but they

still retain this exalted status, a very special plant and no wonder.

Waiting in the wings are these debutants wearing their best party

frocks. Narine, iridescent petals sparkling. They hold their heads

high. This is their first time here. You're just not expecting to see

them because essentially there are autumn flowering. But somehow

Hoyland plans have managed to conjure them into bloom for their

first royal performance. And talk about regiments. Pomp and

circumstance. Just take a look at these vegetables. This truly is

Trooping the Colour. And is this a pyramid, a pillar or a pinnacle of

purple pod peas, it certainly puts the Busby bearskin in the shade.

Long before you see the brilliant colours of these dutiful hyacinths,

you can detect the fragrance wafting around the Great Pavilion. They are

the princesses of purple. For me this is the ultimate Royal Gala

performance. The like of which we have never seen before. Composed of

the Crown Jewels of the floral world. And it makes me feel like a

queen. Well I'm joined by radio royalty, DJ

and TV presenter Jo Wiley. Lovely to have you here. I love coming here.

You're always here, I see you every year. The number of people who ask

me if I actually garden. It is like being in an Alice in Wonderland

garden. Just having a bit of fun with the Chelsea visitors. I love

gardening. People keep asking if I do any gardening. Yes, that is why I

come here. What kind of gardening do you do? We have got a big field and

the Borders. I have got four children so we have a lot of play

areas, a tree house and also a vegetable garden. Different borders

all over the place. Would you call that are designed garden, or is it a

bit random. It is very random. Areas that are designed but it is just me

feeling my way through. I come here for inspiration, many friends are

into gardening so I pick their brains. But I'm happiest with the

whole day ahead of me to get into the garden and just getting weeding,

kicking and chanting. Do you find it distressing? If I wake up in a black

mood is as great therapy to go out in the garden. When you're at war

with the weeds, and you feel you're winning, that is great. Oh no, not

my favourite job! What ages are your children? Seven, 17, 15 and 20 four.

My seven-year-old is really good, every year we plant strawberries and

raspberries and we have a lot going on in the vegetable garden. She is

really good. You produce a lot for the kitchen. I do not cook I'm happy

to grow the staff and my 24-year-old daughter at does the cooking. You

have got every angle covered. And we have table tennis and a trampoline

so the others just play on the trampoline. Sounds like a versatile

space, outdoor living to the max. We are outdoors all the time. So how

does Chelsea compared to someone like Glastonbury as an event,

because you cover a lot of events. I do, this is the Glastonbury of

gardening. All kinds of craziness going on! And that sense of

occasion, we will just showing off their wares. Whether it is banned on

the stage at Glastonbury, you have people here showing their wares and

being very creative. I'm not sure it is as cool as you make it sound. I

think gardening is underrated, physically it is the hardest thing

you can ever do. At the end of the day your bones are aching. Like

being on the stage. But you get to hang out with all the rock stars.

Cleve West is pretty rock 'n' roll! And I just saw Lily Allen, she is a

big gardener. This is the celeb day on the Monday. What are you looking

forward to seeing? I just want ideas, I take photographs with my

phone and will take it home and see if I can make it work. Have you done

things at home that you have seen at Chelsea, and thought you could make

it work? I try to make all the Borders like Chelsea Borders. I'm

not sure I will have revolving bay trees in the garden any time soon!

That is rock 'n' roll for you. That is why I come. I know you will have

a good look around. I will go and investigate. Lovely to see you.

We've got plenty more coming up on tonight's Chelsea Flower Show,

an event supported by M Investments.

We'll be bringing you the Royal visit in full, meanwhile a number

of exhibits here at the show have gone to great lengths

to celebrate the 90th birthday of Her Majesty the Queen.

Toby Buckland has been to visit those with a nod

The highlight of any mandir Chelsea of course is the visit by Her

Majesty The Queen. To celebrate her recent significant birthday

exhibitors at the Great Pavilion have laid on so much more than cake

and balloons. The atmosphere is buzzing.

Commemorative arrangements, even the exhibitors have scrubbed up. But one

man has more in common with Her Majesty than most. Sir David, you

have got quite a lot in common with the Queen. You recently had your

90th birthday. Absolutely, I am a bit older, only about a month. You

have worked with roses pretty much all your life. I started as I left

school, about 18. And you work everyday, just like the Queen. That

is true. You have named quite a few roses for members of the family.

What to think she will make this display. I hope that she will like

it. It is fit for a queen! So many exhibits make a nod to Her Majesty

with planting schemes and the plants contained within them. This is a

vintage allotment. Tell me about this scheme.

We tried to create an allotment from 1926, the Queen'sbirth year. It was

grown for food, they needed potatoes and spinach and things like that to

get them some food. It is quite serendipitous in what they ate? They

have lovely turnips and of course we just eat the fruit but in those days

they used the tops and cooked them like cabbage. Waste not want not?

Absolutely. They used to eat the stems, braised, roasted, something

like that. Royal references aren't just in the plant names and borders

but even on the walls. I love this display. Carpet bedding at its best.

This is how sleek, they stopped up roots in Turkistan, so they say. And

this plant is a native succulents. You see it growing on the moors and

craggy hilltops. Both are extremely drought tolerant. Perfect for

something like this. That's it, the great Pavilion is set for the royal

arrival. By the looks of it, in a celebratory mood. Covent Garden in

central London dates back to medieval times.

And was home to the famous produce market supplying flowers,

fruit and veg to the UK. The original site of the flower

market in Covent Garden was a fashionable piazza

where Londoners would come to buy their fruit and vegetables.

This square that was also home to a variety of entertainment

But as time passed London got busier and busier and the demands

on the crowded streets surrounding the market grew.

Home to over 200 businesses and supplying three quarters

of London's florists, the new site is a busy

and thriving enterprise, selling a huge array of produce

from daffodils to pansies, chrysanthemums to orchids.

For decades this market has been supplying cut flowers,

foliage and plants to Chelsea, and this year they're putting

on their own exhibit for the first time.

While the capital was still snoozing, Adam Frost stepped

out to discover more about this very busy market.

Whilst London sleeps the whole world of horticulture stirs down by the

Thames. Wow. Unbelievable. I feel a bit like

Charlie Walker into Charlie and the chocolate factory. -- walking into.

I can't believe it's four o'clock in the morning and all this is going

on. This is the new Covent Garden flower market and it is like Mecca

for London florists, 75% of London florists come here. You can see why,

it's not only massive but has everything you can imagine. Gypsy

Ophelia from Ecuador, hydrangeas from Colombia. Sweet peas from

England. They literally come from all over the world. You must live in

a slightly different universe to the rest of the us. Monday morning is

half past 12 in the morning, Tuesday Wednesday, and on Saturday it's

three o'clock. We have a lie in! Where do all of these bits and

pieces come from? These come from South America. They are grasses from

Canada. They are from Peru. When would this be cut? Last Tuesday. And

it would have been sent over the weekend for today. About a week

really. Just under a week. Why do you do this job? The main reason is

that I love pretty things, flowers are pretty and we also get a lot of

pretty women in here! Best things about the job. If you're single it's

the best place to come. But I'm not here just to look at the flowers, I

have come to meet Ming Veevers Carter. She creates floral designs

for weddings, parties, events, the whole shebang. Not only in the UK

but across the world. Do you come here a lot? Four times a week if I

can. Every day is different. The colours and the smell and the people

and history. It's an amazing place. Here you are doing something at the

Chelsea Flower Show. We have been asked by new Covent Garden market to

do a display for them. The key behind every great florist is the

market and these guys support every single florist and it is the first

time they have ever displayed and the first time we have ever done

anything. This is the plan? This is the plan. This side shows the flower

market in itself, the buckets as you can see on the stands. Of course.

There is a whole wall of buckets and it shows the strength and support

that the market gives the florists. The buckets in here come into a core

and then burst out in colour on the other side. This is green and white

and simple and on the other side,... It's the Queen's head! Because the

Queen opened the flower market in 1975 and it's her 90th birthday so

it will be in really strong colours, we are going for fashionable colours

right now, yellows and oranges. And purples and blues. That looks as

though it layers back all the way through to the other side. Yes, so

from this site you can't actually see any of the buckets but when you

come from the other side you can't see the green either, so you have to

go all around. To get the full experience. I am going to see it, I

can't wait. Naman Ojha. It really does look

fantastic. You showed me the pictures, but this is blowing me

away. It's not just how it looks but it smells fantastic. It smells

amazing. It is beautiful. How did you find it? It was fantastic. As we

said before, the whole of the Chelsea Flower Show is like one big

family. Everyone has been helpful, the team we have is amazing. It's

been a real pleasure. No sleep but a real pleasure. How many days have

you done? We have been here since Monday. I don't even know what day

it is today! Seven days! You get a bit punch-drunk, don't you? Give me

an idea of the flowers you have used. Purple gladioli, red roses,

peonies, carnations are making a comeback. And sweet peas obviously

for the smell. Orchids, to show the international market. And tonnes of

freesia. It's just like my Thai! That is where I got the inspiration.

Bless you. Any difficult things in the build? Building the structure,

that was the most complicated thing because we had to really plan out a

lot before we put the flowers in. It's all about the mechanics behind

the scenes. Making sure the flowers last and making sure that we could

see the colours from a distance. So you get those layers. Any of the

plants being replaced in the week? We will replace about a third, not

every day but we will come in every morning and evening and check

everything and water it and spray it and gave it a lot of love and care

and have a chat. Then we will put it to bed. It is fantastic, the colours

and sent, I'm sure you will enjoy the week. I bet the Queen really

loved it. I hope so. We did it in her honour and we want to wish her a

happy birthday. That's lovely. It wasn't just royalty here at the show

today. Monday is press day and the show

ground was deluged with special guests all celebrating

the world of gardening. about gardening is radio DJ and TV

presenter Jo Whiley. Earlier today she took a tour

of the ground to find out One of the reasons I love coming to

Chelsea is because I'm a keen gardener, people might not expect

that but I'm like Mike pie and so are many people who come here, you

see things you like and I'm the person always taking photos and I

hot foot it back home and tried to buy the plans straightaway and it's

a wonderful process, and you spend the rest of the year seeing if those

plants actually look as good as they do at Chelsea. The chances are they

don't. What I love about this garden is the colouring. I love the copper,

the tones of the planting. The deep violet and black tones, that

contrast beautifully with soft greens and also there is a distance

to the garden, the way you can go on a journey. I can see it happening

for a very long time. You would not expect a garden to be

inside this massive slab of rock, that is the kind of thing I would

happily have in my garden, right down at the end for the kids to

climb on, they would have a trampoline at the bottom so they

could bounce off without hurting themselves and then inside there

would be this amazing garden. This is what I always say about

gardening, it is rock 'n' roll and good for the soul, it is all of

those things. This garden is great because it's an escape from

everything else that's going on out there and that is what gardening is

for me. It is kind of therapy. If I'm really stressed I will retreat

to my garden and I will start weeding and digging and at the end I

will feel better. This garden is very much like that, beautiful

running water and it smells gorgeous and it has herbs all over the place

and it is therapeutic and that is what gardening is funny, it's my

therapy, I guess. One thing gardening teaches you is patience,

and it's the whole relationship you have with the garden, Prince Charles

spoke about talking to his plans and everyone ridiculed him but now I

have been gardening so long that I understand. When the plants are

looking me in the eye I end up talking to them, what are you doing

here?! It makes me sound mad but maybe other gardeners can relate to

what I'm talking about here. It may come as is a prize but I can't

listen to music when I'm gardening and I don't want to listen to music,

I want to hear the water feature, the birdsong around me. And the

humming of the bees as I'm working away. That for me is the alternate

soundtrack, just the sound of my garden. -- the ultimate soundtrack.

2016 sees the return of some of the younger designers to main

avenue and in Friday's programme we'll be looking at their influence

One of those young designers is back and going for gold.

We caught up with him on a plant pilgrimage to the Middle East.

I have been visiting Jordan now for a few years and it is a magical

place. Beyond the city the countryside is

truly breathtaking stop there is a Mediterranean pine forest in the

north-west of Jordan. The limestone/ contained some of the last examples

of pine and oak habitat in the Middle East. Due to the underlying

limestone any water that falls swiftly drains away. Seeing these

incredible fans growing in such a harsh landscape inspired my garden

at Chelsea this year. I was fascinated to see how little

rainfall this beautiful flora required and I wanted my garden to

convey the message that water, so vital for the environment. Look at

these red and enemies behind me, I hope mine in the UK can be just

right for the show. Out in Jordan there followed by buttercups and

poppies and I will grow them in the UK and hopefully one of them will be

just right for the show. I walk further into the landscape

and another hidden gem is revealed growing in the wild.

I just found this lovely looping, the smell is incredible, these are

going crazy. I have got to have them for Chelsea but do not know if that

is possible. Back to the UK and the nursery and ask them very nicely.

This hostile landscape is home to the Bedouin people.

I'm intrigued by the traditional cloth that their craft and managed

to persuade them to supply me with some of this unique fabric.

This is a small village and I'm going to see the fabric being woven

for this Chelsea garden. This is my first chance to see the wool

close-up in its raw state. Before it is spun and woven. Is that three

pieces woven together or one piece? It is ready for weaving. It goes

through different phases. They select the right sheep, they wash it

and then make it ready for spinning. So this is made from goats and they

spin the hair to make the wool and weave it to make these panels. It is

a really coarse fabric but really immaculately done. These are around

because they're older but they start off black. They just replace

sections every year was up some of these are new and some are 20 years

old. How long would it take to weave this fabric? I have the fabric I

need will not take too long to make. It takes one year to make one metre

by 15 metres and we asked for 30 metres by three metres. So quite a

few years of work! By my reckoning it would take two and half years to

create the fabric I need but luckily, there are numerous ladies

in the village all weaving for Chelsea, so we should be OK. With

the deal done, we only have the small task of shipping the fabric to

Devon and hand waxing it to improve durability for the UK climate.

It is the first time I have been in your garden and it is stunning,

really very beautiful. You have got though poppies in flower not be in

enemies. Not the enemies. We had such a warm December, there were

flown in and that was it. You had something to take over and the

poppies look great and also you have the Lupin. That is magical, they

were planted ages ago. We managed to do it and that is great. The

geometry of the garden is quite baffling. What shape are these stone

structures? This is associated with water and it is the only equilateral

triangle in the whole garden. There is another one hidden inside the

water, that is quite a sacred shape associated with water. And that

ripple is beautiful, and the reflective quality. Your fabric came

good! You talked about it taking years to make. The amount of square

metres you wanted. It was a lot. The Bedouin ladieswear weaving it, then

we brought it to the UK and had a great team and waxing it. Because we

wanted it to be more durable if it rains and also the garden being

relocated, we wanted to think about that. And the geometric forms on the

boundary, tell us about that. I always wanted a three-dimensional

garden. And the same forms and geometry found deep within water

particles that I put into the fabric. They have all got a link

back to water. And you grow a lot of the plants from seed. Around 80% are

native to Jordan. So it has been really challenging, quite a couple

of years with this experimental process. I have been working with

the nursery manager in Jordan to test what might flower and bringing

that knowledge back to the UK and working with the nursery team here.

Are you happy? Really pleased, it has been a big challenge for the

whole team and I am delighted with how it turned out. I think for any

designer be important thing is to be happy with the garden. Thank you

very much. Today has been a big day for VIP

visitors and none more She arrived here just a few hours

ago to take it all in. Sophie Raworth was there

to witness her experience Her Majesty The Queen arriving here

at the Chelsea Flower Show. This is her 51st visit. She has been coming

since before she was Queen, first captured on film in 1947. And she's

about to pass through the arch on the Chelsea embankment, the first

time in the history of the flower show it has been bedecked with

flowers. It has been done in honour of her 90th birthday.

The Queen is about to be presented with a bouquet made by a

six-year-old girl, herself a keen gardener who grows roses and flowers

in her grandmother 's garden. The Queen is now talking to David

Austen, the famous Rose grower. He's also years old. And like the Queen

he is still working. What did she say about your beautiful roses? She

seemed to like them. How did it feel for you to have her here? It is a

great honour. Jo Thompson showing that you can

Duchess of Cambridge around her garden along with Prince Harry.

Prince Harry is of course something of a veteran of Chelsea, he was here

last year with his own show garden for his charity. The Duke and

Duchess have visited the Chelsea Flower Show for the first time,

plenty for them to see including a flower named after their daughter

incest Charlotte. The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, their first

time at Chelsea and they are in your garden admiring your lawn! It is

priceless, a wonderful moment I will remember for ever.

I'm sure this will be a memorable part of the Queen 's visit to the

Chelsea Flower Show today, she's about to see this field of poppies,

more than 300,000 poppies that have been knitted by people all over the

world to honour those who died in conflicts over the past century.

Look at you both! I have got tears in my eyes. It has been amazing. She

was a bit surprised about what it was and how it came about and 50,000

people involved in putting it together. It is an amazing feeling,

she appreciated our work. It's been a very regal day

here and the gardens and exhibits This display has been made for us,

roses, lily of the valley. It is quite incredible. All the roses

making this caution. You could have six of these on your sofa at home!

Nigel sleeps on something like this! It is in the spirit of the day.

Judging has now taken place and tomorrow Chelsea

There will be tears of joy and I suspect some tears of sorrow as

well. Across the week we'll be reporting

on what medals the gardens and exhibits here were awarded

and tomorrow we can bring you the results

of the Best Show Garden. That award will be given to one

of the gold medal winners here. Today, we've been asking the team

to lay their bets on who will The one they think the judges will

pick. Explain how they make that decision. There is a points system,

as simple as that. You have got I think quite a few gold medals out

there and one of those on the points system, will win Best Show Garden.

We have got to make some predictions and my problem is I think there are

two outstanding gardens. Cleve West and Andy Sturgeon. I think head and

shoulders they are above the other gardens and a standout. I think the

judging process, whether it comes out in the wash that one is slightly

better than the other, I do not know how they will do that. Surely

somewhere down the line someone has got to make an order butchery

decision, I just like it more. -- an arbitrary decision. I think it could

be done on points at the same time, it could go down to a tie. I think

it will be Cleve West. I'm prepared to say I think Cleve West will win

Best Show Garden. I'm going to write it down. You may be correct. I'm not

telling you. I'm not a coward! We might both be right, we could both

be wrong. Tomorrow we have all the medal

results and Kate Adie reveals her secret

passion for plants. Our coverage starts again tomorrow

at 3.45 on BBC1 when Nicki Chapman and James Wong will have

all the medal results. The biggest and bloodiest

naval battle...