Episode 6 RHS Chelsea Flower Show

Hello and welcome to the RHS Chelsea Flower Show.

The wait is finally over as this year's exhibitors and designers find

Ending what could have been months of work.

It's been a day of high emotion across the showground as they

discover if all their tireless hard work and the sleepless

Obviously we speculate having seen the gardens about what medals they

will get but obviously it is there or thereabouts. The judges have been

pretty fair. One or two anomalies, no doubt, there always is. We are

talking today about the gardens on the large show garden area. Six

golds this year. I think that is about right. That is to be discussed

but there or thereabouts. The balance is right. You might nit-pick

on one or two. Yes, we like to predict and now it has all gone.

Anyway. We will be talking about them for the rest of the week.

On tonight's RHS Chelsea Flower Show, an event supported by M

Investments we'll be bringing you all the key results

from the large Show Gardens along with in-depth analysis and opinion

Plus - I'll be revealing which of this year's

has won the RHS 2016 Best Show Garden.

And don't forget there's our own competition to find out

which of our team here have predicted the Best Show Garden

And we'll be welcoming tonight's special guest,

a journalist who spent most of her career reporting from war

zones, so a visit to Chelsea is an easier mission!

Yesterday we saw the judges inspecting all the gardens and then

heading off to deliberate on this year's medals results.

Well, this morning their decisions were finally released to the world.

Early risers James Wong and Nicki Chapman were on hand

to capture all the excitement as it happened.

It's certainly an early start today. I'm sure that the designers and

exhibitors didn't get a wink of sleep because it is medals day. Up

at the crack of dawn. I will see you later. This is Matthew Wilson, it's

his second Chelsea garden. He got the silver last year. I wonder what

it will be. Silver medal. I'm these play everyone who has been involved,

it's been a fantastic team effort for all of Yorkshire. Were you going

for gold? Of course we were. This is Sam, one of the youngest designers

ever. I am over the moon. Really chuffed. This is James Basson.

Congratulations. Yes! What are you going to do for the rest of the day?

I'm going to bed! We're on the hunt to see if we can find Mick Foley,

his first ever Chelsea garden, he has come out with some really

unusual planting. Congratulations. Thank you. Well done, silvergilt. I

know the reasons we didn't get gold, so there is motivation to go even

harder next time. Cleve West is one of my all-time garden design heroes.

He has won five golds. I am nervous for you. Don't string it out. Gold

medal. Thank you. I think it is the best garden I've ever done here. How

are you feeling, Jo? I don't think I can speak. OK, I will hold your

hand. Jo Thompson has been here eight times and describes Chelsea as

a mountain to climb. Congratulations. I got a gold! Huge

congratulations. You have loved your week at Chelsea. It was a painful

build... But it has been worth it. It's been worth it. Tears of joy!

Thank you. Exciting stuff. Earlier Monty and I went to take

a detailed look at two of this year's gold-medal-winning gardens

to find out why they epitomise the very best

in garden design this year. This is the Morgan Stanley Garden

for great Allman is the designed by Chris Beardshaw and it was awarded a

gold medal. -- great Ormond. It has a specific brief, it is for a second

story roof and it has a home. It will be lifted lock, stock and

barrel and put onto the roof of the hospital. It has a specific purpose.

It is designed for families, particularly parents, do have a

quiet, reflective space. Having a sick child is an enormously

stressful thing and this is somewhere where they can heal

momentarily if nothing else. The planting has to reflect that spirit

and the situation, surrounded by tall buildings, it is essentially

woodland, calm greens and plans that can adapt. There are Ferns and even

a tulip tree. It will cope in woodland positions, urban, and yet

when you are here it is calm and beautiful, and there's a real sense

of positive energy that will heal and consoled. I'm here on Jo

Thompson's garden. Jo you got a gold! I know. The elusive gold

medal. I know. I'm so delighted because it was a really complicated

garden with a lot of teamwork behind it. You know, we got it! You've been

here so many times and this is your first gold at Chelsea. You've done

it. For a show garden. Your garden looks so simple and elegant, the

curves all come together. But boy is it complicated? I have stood here on

site saying, who designed this ridiculous shape? That will beat

you! It is so complicated. Curves and points, really hard. It's meant

to be a simple garden, but all of the complicated detail that goes

into it makes it so wonderful. The water comes down and keeps moving

through here, and the shape of the benches, I love them, they are so

elegant. Beautiful. I have to say, the whole garden is fantastic. I

love the sculptures, too. Hang on a minute, every year you say, I'm

never coming back and you've been here every year for the past how

many years? Next year when you can bring back your gold will you be

here? I keep saying I will never do it again, it's not about the medals,

someone asked me why I keep doing it and it's because I really love

making gardens. What is the poll of Chelsea? It gives you a chance to

make a garden that hopefully people will like and I really just love

doing that. I have a funny feeling we will see you again soon.

Congratulations, the judges loved it. Well done, Jo. Thank you.

Joining us in the hot seat to decipher those medal

decisions is RHS judge, James Alexander Sinclair.

James, we have had this sort of discussion before and I promised not

to be too rough with you! I can take it. Bring it on. Four gardens that

were clearly likely to be gold medals, Chris Beardshaw, Cleve West,

James Basson and Andrew Sturgeon. However there were one or two more

that were surprising, for example, I would not automatically have put

Paul Martin's garden in that bracket. Why was that a gold medal?

As you know fully well they are judged in the same way, we have nine

criteria and we go through and we are looking for points, we have a

points -based system. If you get to a certain level you get a gold

medal. The reason why you think what you think is because his design was

much simpler, clearer and easier to do than some of the others. You

build it beautifully and have a simple design that works and follows

the brief and those sorts of things, you tick all the right boxes. Going

into specifics, you know the photo on the back wall, the view over

Westminster Bridge, will that gain him or lose him points? I don't

quite understand that as far as the design is concerned. It is part of

the design. You are just talking about whether you like it or not. We

are talking about the quality of the design. Is that OK? That's his style

and that's the way he wants to do it. Does that mean I gardens that

got silvergilt like you go bug -- like Hugo and Charlie, they may look

at that and think, what do we have to do? How close was that? You have

to build a good garden to get a gold medal, it is that simple. You just

have two tick the boxes? Obviously we take your point. How fine the

margins? How close are they? If you think of the gold medal as a high

jump bar, if you jump just below or just above, that little tiny

narrowband is all that matters. I guess you just have to get over the

line. It's half an inch. This will run and run, I can see. Even

established names have to manage expectations. As Matthew Wilson

discovered when his garden last year just missed out on the top honours.

He is now back with a vary and be as design.

Last year was my first Chelsea, doing my first garden anyway. I was

completely unprepared for how intense the experience was. Even

though I said to myself, this will be tough. I got a silvergilt medal.

And that the time, that moment of getting the medal, it felt like a

disappointment. I was hoping for more. The strange thing was, right

at that moment, and within a few minutes afterwards I thought, this

is ridiculous, why would anyone want to do this again? Within about three

or four hours I was like, maybe... And that is the addictive quality.

It's not about the medals, strangely enough, it's about you pitting

yourself against your own abilities and stretching yourself and seeing

what you can do and what you can achieve, with all of the pressures

that go with it. That's why we do it. This year I'm doing a garden for

all of the county of Yorkshire. The attraction is that it's a landscape

that I absolutely adore. I never get bored. I think you can't get bored

because it's so diverse from epic stuff right the way down to really

intimate landscapes. It's got everything, really. You can't take

this landscape and stick it into a 22 by 12 metre plot in Chelsea, but

you can be an spired by the elements of the water, stone, plants, trees,

try to get something of that rugged nature into the garden.

It's not just about the landscape or the gardens of Yorkshire that have

inspired the Chelsea garden, it's this, the great East window at York

Minster, the largest expanse of medieval glass in Britain. What I

find incredible about eight -- it and so inspiring is the way the

glass and the light interact and the way it changes through the day. In

the same way, that light changes garden through the of the day.

The garden is effectively the arch of the window laid on its side, so I

exploded all of the elements and reconfigured them in a different

way. The planting in a way has been the biggest challenge and I've tried

to think, how can I get the landscape of the gardens of

Yorkshire across in the planting? I have taken the shape and size of

individual windows and laid them on the ground with a stone edge, and

then into those stone windows I have effectively planted plants that will

represent the colours of the stained glass in the planting. That's the

plan, anyway. I've gone for plants that have got hopefully quite a lot

of character, rather than being pristine and they are a bit more

gnarly and craggy and a bit more... Yorkshire!

Capturing something on this scale is a massive challenge for Chelsea

garden. You are effectively scaling everything down, but you have got to

give it the sense of something big and impressive, so we are making a

modern vocation of the great is window in the shape of a glass

window panel which the Yorkshire makers trust are making cover which

will be big, if not quite as big as that. It will be unlike anything

people have seen before at Chelsea. I'm very nervous about it. I would

be stupid not to be nervous about it, but I'm aware that many people

have spent a lot of time and energy and effort helping me to make this

garden happen. I'm definitely nervous about it. It is a big thing,

isn't it? It is a big thing. Matthew, it is a big thing, this is

the biggest show garden. It is. My knees know every inch of it. You

have a silver medal, how do you feel? I feel fine. Garden on this

care with so many components, very intensive, it is a risky garden, and

be more risks you take, the more risk there is of things not going

right. Has it put you off? Has it heck? That is the spirit. You have

flattened this site. Once upon a time it was a bank. I wanted these

two distinct levels because the theme is the great East window at

York Minster and I wanted people to be able to look up to the window.

Down here you have the planting which references the windows. You

also have your fantastic windows which are lit behind, even in

daylight they really shine. Very contemporary. The York lasers trust

-- glaziers trust has said this is a contemporary window, and they have

the same colours in these windows as in the great East window, using the

same glass. There are great confections, movements and ripples,

and that contributes to the way the light moves through the glass. I saw

them in the evening, they are stunning. You have what you people

involved? We have at help from around Yorkshire, from York Minster

and businesses around the county, timber supplies in Sheffield. Helper

heroes? They were brilliant. -- Help For Heroes? They did some of the

Labour in the garden. And this, I made this specifically, I threatened

to send it up to Catterick. It is a big hit with the visitors, lovely to

see you. Thank you very much. Tonight our special guest is Kate

Adie. She became one of the best-known

faces on television reporting But what's less known about this

formidable journalist is her passion for gardening,

which became the perfect antidote Have you always loved gardening?

This was an antidote? I had a childhood in which we had a garden,

rather staid and formal, the rose bed was there, the catalogue came

every year, it was like the tablets from Moses, so important, and also

rather boring. I was interested in flowers and I remember the names

will stop I have found the time in my working life when I was away, I

lived in places without a garden, and I realised when I finished

reporting that I would rather like one. So I found a little house. The

area around it, I had not even used the word garden, it was concrete and

brambles, that was the start of it, I thought, what can I create? Are

you a hands-on gardener? I weed and prune, those are my virtues,

everything in between is a bit vague. Propagating and planting out,

I'm still learning. I love to weed. If anyone needs some space, there is

me. I don't have the great knowledge. Leave a garden to sign in

your family, and I had, Jonathan is married to my niece -- you need a

garden designer in your family. So he put in the shakes, rounded and

gentle, he produced the garden. -- shapes. You talk your plants, you

encourage them? Yes. Not long conversations but I was looking at

the calamitous Clementi 's and I gave it a talking to. If you were

having a word with me, I was stopped dead in my tracks. Work. -- it has

not worked. Because there is a tiny stream at the edge of my garden,

they get burial at sea. Right, OK. I heard that you are not amused by the

amount of gardens which have to have a message or a journey, something

they are supporting and selling. I think the garden is a thing of joy,

an expression of you, it is the That's what I like what I garden

should be. Go out there and I'm what you like stop the

we will see what those results are like with great fascination. I can't

wait. Still to come tonight we'll be

revealing the recipient of Chelsea's biggest prize -

the Best Show garden 2016. And we'll discover which of our

presenting team have Look what I found in the corner of

the Great Pavilion. Sophie has sealed it, head girl. She would

have. Interesting. We will reveal those later on.

There are 103 exhibitors in the Great Pavilion,

all of them showing the absolute best of their chosen plant group.

Best known for exhibiting his gold medal winning peonies,

in recent years he's been increasing in demand to grow plants

This year he's sourcing and growing plants for seven show gardens

and he's the first to admit it's not an easy mission.

My name is Dave Root and I'm the owner of this nurse arena in

Somerset. I started when I wish 13. I have been in the nursery business

ever since, over 30 years now. We first started growing plants for

other Chelsea garden is in 2008 when we were approached by Andy Sturgeon.

We were asked to grow the things that no one else wanted to touch. We

have 39 days to supply over 25,000 plants to seven different Chelsea

Flower Show gardens. This is one of our main growing tunnels, this is

the hothouse. It is about 10 degrees minimum to try and bring on some of

the plants which are a bit slow at the moment. We are growing for James

Bass on, quite a spread. One of the interesting plants is this one. It's

also called the chicken wire plant. The effect of these leaves made it

look like chicken wire. Our speciality is plants from a

particular location. One of the craziest plants we are sowing, it is

coming from New Zealand. It has this rigid spiny leaves. We deal with

Japan, Australia. Not much we can't find. The challenge of doing so is

what excites me. There is a lot of big trees this year. It is a new

thing for us. These came yesterday from Germany.

The brief I had on the street, I needed to find one. We have got this

for the Japanese guys at Chelsea, a monster, about 50 years old. We are

a pretty small nursery, really. Nine guys here and we have about ten - 12

locations. Gary manages them and they are a great bunch of people. We

have had beautiful sunshine, things flowering. We have put them into a

cooler climate to make sure they are on target for the show. I remember

the enormity of what we are doing, but somehow it works out in the end.

Gary and I have a close working relationship, every day we will walk

the entire nursery first thing in the morning and look at every plant

for every job for every designer. The most challenging plant we have

this year are loopingLupins, they are nightmares. Gary goes up to

London, it is a 24-hour seven-day week job, it is crazy. We missing

here. But he is now based in London. -- we miss him here. In the borough

Chelsea everyone gets a bit pent up and crazy, but the plants come and

that is what people care about. It is midday and I've had 27 phone

calls and my phone is on its second charge, and my clients get more

stressed the closer to the show. It is our job to manage them and say,

is OK and we know what we are doing. Don't worry about it. It is

incredibly full on at this time of the year. Constant things going

around in your head. We don't talk about failure. It is not an option.

This is the mathematics garden, you supplied many of these plants? That

is right. We supplied many of the trees. The diversity of plants is

extraordinary. It was a challenge. Even more so because we only joined

the project in January, so we did not have the eight months we

normally have. You enjoyed the challenge? I love getting a plant

list, and we thing, where are we going to go next. Much of it is

plant hunting. That is right. You go all over Europe. You know the people

who are in the know all over Europe. Absolutely. We went to Germany,

Belgium twice, Italy, Spain, Sicily, picking up a few key plants, each

one vital to the garden. You are horticulturalists. You need to know

what is vital. It is also about Chelsea quality. That is right. You

have got to say you have a beautiful one of those. You have got to see

it, and that is what makes the job so time-consuming. Yes, you have got

to see it personally. Do you do most of your business through Chelsea?

Our nursery is really did around Chelsea. And inside? You have a

silvergilt. Yes, it is a silvergilt club this year. Lovely to see you,

Dave. Keep on supplying the great plants. Thank you.

I have found myself in northern Provence.

I'm here with James Basson on his L'Occitane Garden

which is another garden Dave Root has supplied plants for.

You won the gold medal. Thank you very much. You were helped by Dave

route in sourcing the plants? Yes, L'Occitane gave us a chance to get

in early to collect seeds and he has been growing them and his team have

been extraordinarily brilliant. The garden is wonderful but I've heard

people say, and you must have heard them say this too, it is similar to

last year's. Are you just repeating what you're good at? For me it is a

study of the landscape each time and these landscapes have a tone and

texture. People react to the tone and texture especially when they

walked down Main Avenue to see this bright flush and brown and slightly

dry garden and they think it's the same as last year but if you look

closely, it's a complete study of a different part of southern France.

Northern Provence. We are sweeping with too broad a brush? We just had

to pay more attention to detail? If you look in Yorkshire there are 12

or 15 different landscapes. The detail is remarkable. Any particular

thing that has proved difficult or problematic? Err... The real

difficulty was the complexity. 200 species of plant and the way we

manage that was spinning personalities through the garden,

the girls put in filigree and then more characterful people putting in

some polish. We have this spin off personalities. It is interesting

that people's personality comes through in the planting. It was my

wife's favourite garden and I know that the crowds loved it. Thank you

very much. Thank you, Monty. Huge congratulations to James. Two golds

in a row and a beautiful garden this year.

Now the cross pollination of ideas and talent between the gardens

and the Great Pavilion continues this year with the coming together

In a Chelsea first, record-breaking nursery Hillier's have this year

decided to collaborate on their exhibit with

multi-gold-winning show garden designer Sarah Eberle to create,

what's effectively, a garden inside the Great Pavilion.

We caught up with superwoman Sarah as she took on the challenge.

In a garden, the design has to be excellent and the plants have to be

very good indeed. Within the pavilion it's the other way round,

the plants have to be excellent and the design has to be very good. I'm

quite a seasoned exhibitor at Chelsea, and I have fortunately a

gold in every category of garden, I've never done a pavilion before

and if I can achieve with Hillier a gold medal this year I will have the

whole clutch of medals. We've been exhibiting at Chelsea for over 100

years, and in that time we've run 70 gold medals consecutively which is

every year since World War II. We have always been on the monument

stage except for a few years so it's all change this year, this is a

departure from the monument. In some ways the decision wasn't ours so we

have to rethink things. It's one of the biggest exhibits in the floral

section which is presented as a garden and in fact I can't remember

any in my history at Chelsea, two and a half, three and a half

thousand plants, a big pond with 22,000 litres of water, the trees

are huge and everything about the garden is big. This is the cold

store, the secret weapon. I'm here to meet Ricky, the main plant. I'm

hoping for a bit of excitement. -- planter. I can't deny that part of

me is a traditionalist, but the design that Sarah has come up with I

think it is great, I really am looking forward to it and I think

hopefully, hopefully the plants material will justify her design.

Gosh! The stock on the right hopefully is in the right mode to

come out of here and go to Chelsea. Yes. The cherries are a different

ball game, they are asleep at the moment. The role of the cold store

is to put the plants in check. So it slows down the flowering, slows down

Billy think -- slows down the leafing process. This will be my

51st Chelsea, I gather it is the Queen's51st as well. 102 between us!

These plants will peak for Chelsea. I can't wait to get them there.

Here we are at Chelsea, really excited. Tempered by the fact I had

the most terrible phone call from Ricky to say the cold store is

broken and can't be mended, he is not too worried, but the doors are

remaining firmly closed and my fingers are crossed. We have the

pavilion going up at the moment, we have to get it aligned with the edge

of the garden so the steps are in. It's so exciting seeing it, it's a

lovely building and it beautifully frames the garden. One of the issues

is light, you don't get any shadows in here so you have two really

design that in. We have lighting in this garden which we will use even

in the daytime to just tried to create some of the depth of shadow

that you get outside. That will be quite a challenge and I'm still not

sure how successful that is going to be.

Good news! Ricky says that the cherries are the best they've ever

been and he thinks it is really good news. Watch the top of the marquee!

There, they are in. I'm so relieved that the cherries are in. When they

fully burst, wow, that is going to be some impact. I'm so pleased, it

is going to be wonderful. A great time to come to Chelsea.

And I'm here on Sarah's garden with her now. Hillier's Opta today had 70

consecutive gold medals, what did you get? Gold! Of course you did. It

is stunning. Beautiful. The pressure must have been immense? Absolutely,

more relief than elation at the moment, there was a lot of

expectation and pressure. It's only at the point of judging that you

realise the potential for tears and slip-ups. When I looked at your

exhibit, it had gold medal written all over it for me. It now means

that you have a gold medal in every single garden category. The first

ever. I do? I can hardly believe it myself! To achieve a gold medal with

the Flora in the grand Pavilion, it is every designer's dream because

it's all about the plans. Stunning exhibit. -- plants. This is 22

metres by 12, so it is bigger than the general Main Avenue Gardens, so

that is a big space to take on. Is there a story behind it? When

Hillier's came off the monument, with a new design, they had had the

same designer for 25 years and I knew that I could not just equip

what they'd been doing, I needed to put my own stamp on it and not try

to emulate anybody else. Hillier's is such traditional company. I

wanted to take that tradition of the landscape tradition and the pavilion

and grottoes and water features and cascades and woodlands, and take

that into a contemporary setting to show Hillier the modern world. You

have had to take all of these plants and this is not the way you would

normally do this garden. What a combination, you and Ricky. You

haven't let him down and he certainly hasn't let you down. A

winning team, I'd say. Lovely to see you. Well done. Very well done to

Sarah. We'll be looking in depth

at more results from Whilst much of the attention today

is being lavished on this year's medal-winning designers let's not

forgot the real stars out there on Main Avenue -

the plants and flowers. Carol's been to select the plants

that she believes have played a major part in helping

the designers win gold. Plants are a hugely important

element in every garden design and every designer has their own way and

their own ideas about using plants. In Hugo Bugg's garden there are

spots of colours, non-better than this poppy surrounded by the bold

grass. It is brilliant. In the Garden of Mindful Living you really

are lulled into a restful date. By this beautiful clothes coloured

planting. -- restful state. It has purple flowers. Paul has taken the

flowers off here because he wants this sort of colour combination to

be unsullied by anything else. Here in the background this beautiful

Dutch chocolate, actually picks up those colours. And the crowning

glory of the whole ensemble is this iris. Kent Pride, nothing like the

blatant ones that are scattered through the show, it is very subtle.

It sets the scene for the whole beautiful planting.

Sometimes it pays to be bold with colours. In Rosie Hardy's garden, in

this one piece she has three primary colours, red, brilliant yellow, and

a blue geranium and rather than mingling them together she has made

the most of them being completely separate. They are all planted in

blocks, surrounded by this grey and green will stop it really works very

effectively. They draw your attention, and yet they are really

easy to accept. In Jekka McVicar's Modern Apothecary Garden there is a

huge assortment of all sorts of herbs and medicinal plants. But

every so often there's one plants that stands out on its own, and such

plants is this Angelica. We know it as Angelica, it's a thing whose

stems can be Candide. It makes the most superb one-off plant, it is

straightforward to grow, you can grow it from seed and it won't

plough until its third year and after that it will set seed and die

but by then you will have all those seeds to start all over again.

Looking at the gardens here at Chelsea, an event

supported by M Investments, is like flicking through the pages

of a glossy magazine - take this stunning garden

by Sam Ovens, which won him a silver gilt medal.

We all dream of achieving the same at home, but sadly most of us don't

have the money or the space to make it a reality,

particularly if we live in urban areas.

However accessible ideas can be found in many of this year's medal

winning urban garden designs as Toby Buckland has been

One of the reasons the gardens look so picture perfect is that we filmed

them in perfect isolation from the crowds, the clamour, and the cameras

of Main Avenue. But what always strikes me when I walk into the

garden is that despite their busy location and the fact that they are

the most overlooked gardens on the planet, is that they have a sense of

calm, almost privacy. That's down to the designers' genius and using

tricks that you can copy in your garden at home. Charlie Albone has

created an urban retreat which has the sense of seclusion thanks to the

sunken lawn with box hedging around the outside and a phalanx of opium

poppies on the edges. Sinking a lawn takes muscle but it need not cost

money. You can buy thousands of poppies for a pound. The wonderful

thing about being low is that when you have a picnic in the summer you

can be out of sight from the glare of the neighbours. As well as the

levels under your feet what's above your head is also important. A

pergola is an easy way to add instant height and give even a new

garden and established look. This one, is obviously a cut above what

you will buy at the local garden centre but it works the same way, I

can see the blue sky between the slats, but it creates a cosy feel,

an outdoor room inside an outdoor room, somewhere that's comfortable

and intimate enough to put a table and eat a meal. More importantly it

also gives space to grow climbers that in a small garden you might not

otherwise have. Another feature that distinguishes

Chelsea gardens from the run-of-the-mill is of course the

positioning of the Borders. This is Paul Martin's garden and you notice

that his flowers and foliage is in the centre and there's good reason

for that, normally you get a garden with grass at the centre and then

borders and flowers the edge. I'm sure that is familiar. But

designwise it's not always a good idea, by putting trees around the

edge they create privacy and you are using space that is often difficult

to plant because it is so shady. By having borders in the middle you

have an advantage as special in urban areas with low light levels.

Plants get more sun and they can be backlit by the light which makes

them look which perfect, too. This is rather a different garden.

The reason this not be in the busy city. But this is the model

apothecary garden. It has proven that gardening is beneficial for

mental and physical health. Someone who has had varies of this is Mark.

-- someone who has had experience of this is Mark. This is a good story,

but this did not start well. 15 years ago I was in a car accident

with spina bifida complications and I ended up in a wheelchair. I was in

publishing beforehand. Travelling up to London. Over ten years of long

rehabilitation I started to read about gardening and enjoy gardening

and we to -- moved to Kent, it is the experience of being out life in

the garden and being able to get your fingers dirty and picking up

plants and looking at plants, and understanding how plants grow and

how that has a real benefit cognitively and emotionally and

visually and physically. Mentally and socially, I can see. As it

physically help your health? It has. To the fourth were I can turn -- to

the point where I can turn there are limitations, but it has stopped me

to a certain extent. You are designing gardens? Yes, I am, for

disabled people and non-disabled people. It is important to get the

message across that disability and gardening and conditions of

gardening, even, it does so much for you. You are going to look around

Chelsea and pick the exhibits and plants. I know one day you would

like to exhibit a garden here. I certainly do. Hopefully I can report

on it, but we will see you on Friday.

Earlier we caught up with journalist Kate Adie

and discovered her new found passion for plants.

Time now to see what headline-grabbing exhibits she chose

But, -- sneer at the common box. It is gorgeous. It shows you what

plants can be like when you put them in the right place. My great step

aunt at the most wondrous garden and as a child ins were bigger than me,

there were flowers growing above me, it was a magical world and it

started me off with this kind of garden. In Sarajevo in the 1990s, it

was under siege, and the little strips of green which we take for

granted, scruffy bits of grass, the were dug up and turned into

vegetable gardens and they were providing food for people. That is

how important gardening is. This is the St John's Hospice garden and it

is calming and gentle and the water feature makes you want to stand and

stare at it. There are poppies, little things, your eye looks at

them and you think, little sparks of brightness. This is the garden, very

exotic from the far east, where I've travelled. You know how people live

in harmony with water. This is so exotic, it makes me think, 30 years

ago, when I first came to Chelsea, things were more orderly, but now

things are more exotic and people can express themselves for in their

garden and they can say, this is a garden, but it is also me, and I

think that is wonderful. I so agree. The more personalised garden is, the

better. It's almost moment of truth time

as we reveal who has won the most prestigious prize of them all -

the RHS Best Show Garden 2016. But only the large show

garden designers that won Here's a look at this

year's contenders. James has brought a slice of the

wildlife of Provence that has secured his second goal successive

years. The Morgan Stanley Garden for great warmers are, this peaceful

shady secretary sees this means yet another gold -- for Great Ormond

Street Hospital. As the Irishman for my first gold medal, this is

something special. The Telegraph Garden by Andy Sturgeon, previous

winner. He is live on in this kind of a dramatic design which takes us

on a journey from the mountains to glacial valleys. The Chelsea

Barracks Garden five shows Thompson. -- five Joe Thompson, she is the

only female in the running for the Phil Price. Now the M garden. You

already has several awards and it is felt. I carve the contenders.

-- those of the contenders. These were the announcements for the

winners. I'm delighted to announce and the surgeon and the Telegraph

Garden some of the first show garden. -- Andy Sturgeon and the

Telegraph Garden, they have won the first show garden. Regulations.

Congratulations. You have one goal, you have done a great garden. It is

brilliant. A huge amount of work. This is not just for me, this was a

fifth journey. A monumental task. -- big journey. People were thinking

some of those guys are never going to finish, but there are so many

heavy bits of stone, this was a huge task for the people who have built

this garden, crocuses, the people that have done the gardening, they

have an amazing job and this has been a great team effort. Really

regulations. Thank you -- congratulations. He was very

emotional. It means a lot. It's a big thing for a garden designer to

win the best garden at Chelsea. What a fantastic garden. Wonderful.

Outstanding. I could have gone either way. They are good old mates.

I'm sure that they will take it well. Once the excitement died down

I went to have a chat with Andy Sturgeon. Is it sunk in. Are you

feeling on top of the world. I am. I'm also feeling like this.

Exhausted. Was it a difficult field? Very difficult. -- difficult ill.

There was a moment when I thought I was overambitious. That was the

point of the design, I wanted it to be massive and monumental and

striking. The only way I felt that was to go fig. What is noticeable.

Along with the very noticeable thematic stone and shapes, very

subtle delicate planting. How did you arrive at that? I wanted to

balance the landscaping. I wanted it to be really soft and serene and

calm and elegant. And really soft on it and it brings the edge of them.

Introduce harmony, really. They could have been very different. I

took inspiration from travels, especially in the Mediterranean, in

summer. You see the colours in the leaf texture and the shapes and that

was the starting point for this palette. It is lovely and it rewards

repeated viewing. Congratulations again. Thank you very much.

We made our predictions. These are the ones who got it right. Adam,

Toby, Joe. The ones who got it wrong. Including Monsey. Monsey.

The only reason I went for it, you went for Cleve and I thought I would

go for the other one. And don't forget if you disagree

with the RHS's decision you can have your say from tomorrow

when we'll be launching this year's It's your chance to be judge

and jury on this year's Tomorrow evening we'll be giving

you a rundown of all 17 gardens in contention along

with all the details on how you can Your winner will be revealed

on BBC1 on Friday night. Best in show and People's choice

awards are different gardens. Quite often.

Well, that brings us to the end of what's been an emotional

Congratulations once again to all the designers and exhibitors,

who no doubt will be celebrating, or commiserating, perhaps,

Nicki Chapman and James Wong are back tomorrow at 3.45pm on BBC1

as they kick off our floral celebration of the Great Pavilion.

Plus, Strictly star Brendan Cole will be joining in the fun.

Joe and I will be back on the same time tomorrow on BBC Two. Until

then, the Fai. -- goodbye.