Episode 9 RHS Chelsea Flower Show

It's day four here at the greatest flower show in the world and today's

show is all about the wonderful small gardens here at Chelsea.

But it may take a while to get to them as it's absolutely

And who can blame people stopping to get that

all-important photo to say - I was there!

Which means progress through the showground is best

You know what James, if you can't beat

Hello and welcome back to the Chelsea Flower Show,

it's Thursday, which means the gates have been thrown open to everyone

lucky enough to have got their hands on a ticket.

Up to 35,000 people are expected through the gates today,

which is why it's absolutely heaving!

Today, it's all about the small gardens as we're on a mission

to prove that even when space is at a premium the ideas

Our instant gardener, Danny Clarke, continues to find

takeaway inspiration here at Chelsea and today he's looking at novel ways

to maximise the potential of your outdoor pots and planters.

Special guest, Alex Polizzi, will be joining us to cast her

Self-confessed floral fan model, Kelly Brook, joins in the fun too.

But time to take a look at the Fresh gardens here at Chelsea,

an event supported by M Investments.

This year there are seven challenging designs,

so Ann Marie Powell has been to try to out what they really

I always really enjoy the Fresh gardens at Chelsea. These are the

gardens without any kind of constraints. Designers can make them

any size they like, embrace brace new technology or a really exciting

or unusual idea. This garden by Russian design has

particularly caught my eye. The theme of the garden is called

Revive. That's wonderfully illustrated here. We have this metal

fretwork which runs throughout the space, supporting the natural. Look

at those steams. It feels like it's holding the yew up. We have this

naturalistic planting behind me here. Moving through all sorts of

plants, which is to represent prime evil nature. You have more structure

here and there. I think where the garden doesn't quite succeed is that

the planting could be bigger and the formal planting isn't formal enough.

What unifies nature here is the beautiful lace work that runs

through the space. I don't think it's quite enough.

I have to say, I really, really love this garden. This garden is by

Claudy Jonstra. It's a space in which to work. It's beautiful and

practical, too. Let me show you how it works. Every single plant in this

whole garden and even nettles are used to make dye. We have these

beautiful flow forms. What they do is naturally purify the water, which

aids the dying process, as does this Cooper pot which enarrives the

colour. The wool goes in, dyede made into balls ever wool. They become

magical. Up the steps we have this tapestry. We are losing our dying

skills, but this celebrates the craft and I - love it!

Whilst the Fresh gardens have continued to push perceptions

of what gardens can be, the Artisans have produced a range

of designs rooted in the world of traditional craftsmanship.

James has been to take a look at some of the incredible

This Suffolk-themed garden is inspired by the Arts and Craft

movement. It was about artisan skills and materials. It's really

packed in here. You have tiles in the roof, you have these incredible

oak beams from trees grown in Suffolk. We have hand made bricks on

the floor. Right at the back you have this flint wall. I don't know

how they managed to put it together in the tiny amount of time these

gardens have to do. My favourite bit has to be this plaster work. It's

apparently a traditional Suffolk way of using plaster on the ex-tieror of

a building to create these beautiful leaves. There are iris here,

represented at the planting in the front. The person who created this

is a third generation. They have been combined in a really small

space to create a garden for artistry. This is a design all about

practicing music. The word "artisan" in gardening might suggest a design

that frozen a couple of hundred years ago. That doesn't have to be

the case. What I love about this particular design is it's really

playful with the past and the present. For starters, you have

these immaculate dry stonewalls. A technology that is thousands of

years old. It's contrasted up at the front with these sculpture that is

are so cutting-edge, it's literally never been done before. These are 3D

scans of real survivors of meningitis that are put into a room

in Birmingham and multiple cameras take so many pictures of them you

create perfect models in a computer. A robot has gone through layers and

layers of cedar and sliced away areas, stuck them together to create

a real-life image. The old and new sitting seamlessly alongside each

other. Craftmanship can take so many forms.

From the achievements of the craftsmen and women

in the Artisans, to a designer who has excelled himself this year

by embedding the work of some long established artistry

Designer Matthew Wilson has only gone and brought

We joined him to find out more on the Yorkshire moors.

This year I'm doing a garden for the whole of the county of Yorkshire.

The attraction for me is, it's a landscape that I absolutely adore. I

never get bored of it. I think you can't get bored of it because it's

so diverse, from big scale epic stuff right the way down to intimate

and very, kind of, costing landscapes. It has everything. You

can't take this landscape and stick it into a plot in Chelsea. You can

be inspired by the elements, the water, the stone, the plants, the

trees and try and get something of that ruggedness and put that into a

garden. It's not just about the landscape or

the gardens of Yorkshire that 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 it, and so

inspiring about it, is the way that the glass and the light interact and

the way it changes through the course of the day. In the same way,

actually, that light changes a garden during the course of a day.

The garden is effectively the arch of the window, laid on its side. So,

I've kind of exploded all the elements and resembled them in a

different way, reconfigured them. The planting in a way has been the

biggest challenge. I tried to think - how can I get the landscape and

the gardens of Yorkshire across through the planting. I have taken

the shape of the windows and the size of the individual windows and

laid them on to the ground, with the stone edge, and into those stone

windows I will effectively be planting plants that represent the

colours of the stained glass in planting. That's the plan anyway!

I've gone for plants that have got, hopefully, quite a lot of character

in them. So rather than things that are absolutely pristine they are

more craggey and a bit more Yorkshire.

Capturing something on this scale is, obviously a massive challenge

for a Chelsea garden, where you're effectively scaling everything down

but, at the same time, you have to give it a sense of something big,

something impressive, something people will look at and go - wow. We

are making a modern East Window, a five meter by three meter stained

glass panel which the York Glaziers Trust issic making. It will be big.

Not quite as big as that, it's big none the less. It will be something

quite unlike anybody has seen before at Chelsea. I'm very nervous about

it. Auto I'd be stupid not to be nervous about it. But, yes, I'm

aware a lot of people have spent a lot of time, energy and effort

helping me to make this garden happen. So, yeah, I am definitely

nervous about it. It's a big thing, isn't it? It's a big thing.

As you can see here on Matthew's garden the representation

of York Minster's East window is a triumph.

A county with medieval features on a modern show. It's near-impossible.

He's really pulled it out of the bag. What I really love about this

are the incredible attention to detail in artisan features. Starting

with one of them, this backlit modern interpretation of a stained

glass window made by the same crafts people that are restoring the

original. We have the shape of the window reflected in a collapsed way

in this central pavilion, made of indigenous materials, like this

fabulous stone and these chunky oak beams. The one thing I think is a

shape for visitors is this view. You have a wild, stylised interpretation

of a Yorkshire landscape, complete with oak tree, framed by a goth

arch. The plan of the garden is a cross shape like a cathedral. He's

taken thousands of pictures of the cathedral, scattered them around and

stitched them back together. An incredible job, Matthew.

What's fantastic to see at Chelsea is the number of people

who treat a visit to the show as an opportunity for some

Our first guest today is one such visitor.

Businesswoman and television presenter, Alex Polizzi, takes

an annual pilgrimage to the show with her plant-loving

mother Olga and every year is a highlight for them both.

Is your mum with you? She isn't. She's already been. Good reports? We

are excited to see the difference there is this year. When you come

with her, what is it that you're looking for when you walk around the

gardens? I'm looking for inspiration. I'm looking to see what

we can replicate from our small, from this big. It's a chance to see

lots of old friends in the horticultural world who are here. My

mother is a keen gardener. I have come to it later. I really adore it.

Do you? You say later, how late? I'm 44 now. I've been gardening - I was

going to ask you how old you are, in the last few years? I opened my

mum's hotel in Devon, 15 years ago, I had to become informed because I

had to instruct a garden for the first time in my life. We had to

make decisions. Quickly I discovered a passion for it. It's a huge

restoration project, isn't it? We will see a film on tonight's show.

How long has it taken? We have owned the hotel since 2004. Really, every

year it's a learning process. Discovering what works in a garden,

what doesn't. We keep on trying. Hopefully, we improve on things

every year. In your opinion, how important are gardens to hotels

Well, I mean certainly there are different types of hotels. If you

are a city centre hotel you don't require a garden so much. I do

believe gardens are an oasis. I think that's what I look for looking

around Chelsea. I like to find contemporary gardens that would fit

in any city. In ends Leah garden is essential. That is what people want

to see when they stay. Surrounded by beauty. How good is your gardening

knowledge. We are having fun with all our guests this week. It's

called Pot Luck. In front of us we have selected six beautiful plants.

We are wondering if you are good at Latin and could name them for us.

Are you feeling confident? No. I'm liking your honesty. I will do my

best. This one is that. Can you pronounce

it? Calor fear. There is lavender here. This is cosmos. This is

beautiful. I think you are doing quite well, Alec 's. That is that

one. I am just going on the colour for this one. In actual fact, you

haven't done badly, four out of six if we swap those two round. Well

done, indeed. We are looking forward to you chatting to Monty Don tonight

on BBC Two. Enjoyed your time here at Chelsea. I do intend to, thank

you. Our instant Gardener Danny Clarke

is on the loose again with great ideas to enhance your

garden at home. Today, he's out to prove you don't

even need to have a garden - there's a lot you can achieve

with just a pot and some I want to make gardening accessible.

All week I have been looking for ideas for you at home. The designers

here are fantastic. I want to transmit some of their genius to

your plots at home. Don't worry, if you haven't got a garden, I have

ideas for you also. I feel like a boy in a sweet shop. Big nose to

prove you can plant anything of any size in parts. These large trees

give this space majority. It is fantastic. What is great, you can

change a landscape. All you need to do is move these pots around, all

you need to do is move them like your furniture indoors. We have

vegetables growing in this. It goes to show, when it comes to pots,

anything grows. Anne-Marie Powell is so clever. It is not all about using

the same plants, she has used different one, different heights and

different materials. On the roof, she has utilised that as well. It is

a great place for the plants to get the sunshine. Look at these, all

these lovely colours. Although they will not see the winter through, you

can move this indoors and give it lots of protection. If you bring it

indoors, look at this. It is an old crate. My favourite, the bottler

sink. Having this array of choices is such a great thing. Let's talk

about size. Chelsea is all about big, bold designs. That is what we

have got here. Why not buy one big pots instead of several small ones.

They work on all sorts of levels and these beauties are fantastic.

Most of the plants and flowers on display here at Chelsea have been

through an almost scientific routine of temperature control to be

at their absolute peak this week, but Graham Blunt believes his

exhibit is best left to mother nature.

It's a brave approach, so we went along to find out

more about from the no nonsense nurseryman.

We are in the south-east of England on the Sussex border. We have been

looking for a plot of land to develop and turn into a nursery. We

found this in 1995. It was a field full of cat. We have built the

nursery, the office and created this out of nothing. -- cattle. We are

totally off grid, the power, we create ourselves. We have put in

solar panels, which is how we survived. We are short in winter,

but we never have power cuts. The only things we are missing is a

fridge and freezer. We eat fresh all the time, but I do miss having a

freezer, because when we have a lot of vegetables, it gets boring eating

loads of courgettes, so it would be nice to freeze them. I hope in the

future we can bypass that problem. We don't have cooling or heating

units, but as I never went to horticultural college, I wouldn't

know how they work anyway. I grow things and if they are ready, they

are ready, if they are not, they are not. We want to grow the plants

tough. My plants may look British and rugged, but they will grow. Dig

a hole. If it is going to rain that night, don't rather watering it.

They will just grow. This comes all the way from Madagascar. It is a

lovely plant, it will flower through to early November. Easy to grow,

should it in a pots. In the winter, bring it in. The leaves will fall

off and in the spring, start watering it again and it will start

to shoot. They have tiny little seeds, but don't eat them because

they are poisonous. And this one, it is as hard as nails, coming from

North America in the Rocky Mountains. As tough as old boots.

You can snow and rain on it, it doesn't care. Really beautiful. Like

everything in the nursery, we have grown this ourselves, it was born

here seven or eight years ago from seeds. Everything is grown from

scratch and read propagate everything ourselves. My record

isn't brilliant, I would love to have loads of gold medals, but I

stick to my principles. This is how, if you grew the plans, this is how

they would look. They are not perfect, so when it comes to judging

I get slightly critiqued and the judges are the first two at made it

-- the first to admit it. It has been a struggle, myself and my wife

lived in a mobile home for five or six years. I don't know how she put

up with it will stop to finally have the house makes everything tastier.

I love it. I would not swap it for the world. This is the life? Yes,

growing the plants that we love, and working with the person I love. I am

here with his apprentices who designed this, Will Williamson and

Gemma Nannery. You must be the youngest designers this year? Quite

possibly. I am 22. I am 20. Congratulations. Tell me about the

exhibit? We wanted to try and show life as we go round the exhibit,

starting as a kid, then the proposal and then she is pregnant. This has

been a leap year and she is asking the gentleman to marry her? We

thought as it is leap year, why not? How easy was it to design? It took

awhile, but we knew it was the right thing to do. These are very unusual,

where did they come from? Mike Aunty made them. She has done an amazing

job. Has it been a fantastic experience, nerve wracking? It has

been unreal, but we can now relax a little bit, it is amazing. Enjoy it.

It isn't over for you, you are designing a garden at Hampton Court

this year? I am indeed. The theme is around Sussex, so it will be a good

experience. What are we, six weeks away? Yes. Thank you very much. Hope

it goes well. All this week, Carol Klein has been

taking us on a journey around the globe to reveal how plants have

transformed our lives. Today, it's the turn of the humble

pea to take centre stage in, We live in a world that is full of a

seemingly infinite variety of colour, form and texture. The

diversity of nature is staggering. We take it for granted that trades

like red petals, blonde hair, brown eyes are passed on from one

generation to another. We even know how. It is a story that started in

Austria. It is the story of one man and one plans, you could say,

unlocked the secrets of life itself. What am I doing here? The planned in

question is the humble pea. It is thanks to the pea we now know all

about the laws of inheritance. I am not talking about how much your

great grandma left in her will. I am talking about the way in which

children resemble their parents, whether they be pea or people. And

the man who discovered how was a pioneering Austrian monk who went by

the name of Gregor. He was a very patient man. He spent eight years

carefully crossbreeding peas. He chose them for their different

touristic. Some had purple peas, some Paul Weitz, some were green,

Sunway yellow. Some were short, somewhere big. But he made careful

notes of all his experiments. These are sweet peas, but you get the

idea. He revealed the basic instruction sheet for all living

things. Nowadays, we have all heard of dominant and recessive genes, but

without Gregor, we might not have the modern science of genetics at

all. Here at Chelsea, plant breeders use knowledge of genetics, to

introduce a new varieties every year. We may be able to use it to

improve human health. And it is thanks to the pea, we can all look

forward to a healthier, brighter and more colourful future. From the

familiar pea to the new kids on the block. This has been the perfect

place to launch new varieties of flowers. Let me introduce you to a

brand-new shrub rose. It is Sandringham, chose by the Duchess of

Cornwall when she attended the Sandringham flower show at the years

ago. They have these wonderful double petals, it smells divine.

Good resistance to disease and where it is different from others,

hopefully it will flower all summer long.

The British love affair with another flowering beauty, clematis,

One first-time exhibitor of this climbing beauty hoping to give

the crowds what they want is Marcel Floyd.

We caught up with him to discover the pressures of bringing a firm

I'm a clematis grower, and I love them. My name is Marcel Floyd. Back

in the early 1980s I had no other work on at all, so someone said -

would you like to work in the garden centre? I thought, I'll give it a

whirl. I was playing football, going to see bands. That was my life.

Wasn't fussed with anything to do with gardening at the time. In 1984

I decided, oh, Chelsea Flower Show's on. Let's see what it's about.

Nothing took my centre that much until I saw this, my bug started

ford clematis. I bought 40 and planted them around my parents

garden. They thought I was going through a phase. I had 90 clematis

in that garden. Abit addicted to them was an under statement.

Obsession, yeah, to a certain extent. My first daughter is called

Albany. My second daughter is named Jasmine. We were going to call Jake,

our little boy, the Potato Vine, but we thought that would be cruel on

him. He is stuck with the name Jake. We named a clematis after him. That

was Jolly Jake. I love clematis because they give you so much.

December it can be snowing. I would have Winter Beauty in flower. A

couple of months later, armandii, scented flowers. Then in April we

have koreana. They thrive on neglect. This will flower in April,

May and again in August, September time. Any aspect. They're tough.

Then you come on to the big flowering ones, the showstoppers.

How the hell has that flowered that big? You think, it's a dinner plate

much you can't eat off it, no, about about but you can look at it and

appreciate it. It's brilliant. All year round they will give you flower

and they're just beautiful. Chelsea is the biggest show on earth in the

horticultural cadden Darryl. There is nowhere in the world that comes

close to. We are chuffed, proud, it's an under statement, to be in.

Our theme at Chelsea is Japanese. We are doing a Japanese tea house

because many of our big flowering varieties in our garden today began

in Japan. This is the roof. The first part. A lot of curves and a

lot of work has gone into this. This will be covereded in wooden

shingles. On each of the four corners, eight foot high on posts,

there will be panels on every single corner where you can look through to

the lovely polished floor. The chap working with me decides halfway

through the build he is going on holiday for three weeks - bless him.

We will get it done. We will get it done. There is a lot of work to be

done, but it will look great on the day. Gold would be lovely. It would

just be the icing on top of the cake, to be honest. Us being there

is what it's really about for us. Floyds did brilliantly. They won a

silver gilt medal. I wander around Chelsea and can't help but feel

inadequate. Everything is so unbelievable pristine. Almost 3D

printer perfect. The wonderful thing about clematis is that they are

relatively easy to grow. If you have a couple of tips you could get

something almost as beautiful as this. The first one is heads in the

sun, feet in the shade. That's about siting. Where you plant your

clematis. They like a cool root zone but sun on their leaves. That is how

climbers grow in the wild. They scramble up from the forest floor to

the top of trees. There is another one which is about pruning this can

be a hornets nest. There are different varieties, classified into

different groups, all of which require different methods of

pruning. There are tables and books about this. There is a simple way

through it. If it flowers before June, don't prune. Clematis

varieties that flower in the early summer don't require winter pruning.

Simple as. Good luck. Our next special guest is best known

as one of Britain's most But when she's not adorning

the cover of a magazine, she can be found indulging

in a hobby that may well surprise you -

she's a secret gardener! Thank you for having me. It

surprised us. I believe it surprised your friends, they have seen a

different side to you? I surprised myself, actually. I required a

property 10 years ago. It came with beautiful gardens. I didn't know a

thing about gardening. My grandfather was a keen gardener. I

remember watching him tinkering in the vegetable patch. He had aviaries

and amazing birds. I bought this property and was overwhelmed by the

maintenance. I have five acres. That isn't a usual garden? It was a fruit

farm. An apple and pear orchard connected to the house. I had to

have that with the house. I just wanted the house. Within a year the

farmer that looked after it retired. He left me with all this land to

look after. Where do you start? Exactly. It looks absolutely

beautiful. Oh, thank you. It's ongoing, isn't it? Absolutely. Well,

it started when I realised that I wasn't in the country the whole time

much I needed to make the garden less maintenance. I didn't want to

scrap out the orchard. I live in Kent. It's famous for the blossom

trails. I love the blossom in the springtime. It's gorgious. I wanted

the structure of the orchard. I removed every other tree it looked

like an old orchard and maded it into a meadow. Sprinkled wildflower,

meadow seeds, poppy seeds. Just let it kind of do its own thing. After a

while you get wild orchids, buttercups, that's great for the

wildlife. You are hands on, you do-it-yourself? Absolutely. What is

your favourite part? When you have five acres, that's a lot to look

after? My favourite garden isn't far from I live. What is the favourite

part of yours? I was inspired by seeing rooms made in the garden. I

wanted areas great for the wildlife, that weren't overly managed. I think

there's nothing more beautiful than natural beauty. Then I also wanted

things that were more conned and more for mall. My favourite at the

moment would have to be a topiary maze of roses inside. I will see how

they do this year. That is like an Alice in Wonderful land inspired

garden. Beautiful. That is my favourite. Every year it changes. Do

gardens reflect our lives, the highs and lows we go through? I think so.

I never went to a gardening school. I was never taught about gardening.

In the past 10 years I've learnt so much about plants and structures and

just - I want someone to have an experience when they come into my

garden. I'm about kind of having your eye travel through the property

and just create a journey, really. You are a natural, natural designer.

Natural gardener. You must be in your element here at Chelsea? I

think it's absolutely fantastic to be here. I'm so dreading going

shopping down that lane with all the little shops. I just saw the most

incredible plant, I planted two, they grow huge. I saw one, I thought

- is that how big mine is going to get? It's frightening. You get so

much inspiration. It's perfect and pristine. My leaves are browner than

that! There is so much beauty in the Great Pavilion and in all the

gardens. If Kelly Brook was a flower, what would you be? An

English rose. I grow different varieties of roses in my garden. An

English rose. If I could come back as anything! You will see wonderful

varieties here. Is it true you are a beekeeper as well? Yes. I have four

beehives much I keep them in the orchard. Great for the blossom, the

whole garden. What a retreat. You would have to come down. I would

love to. I'm a Kent gardener myself. Enjoy your day here. I know your'

going to love it. Thanks very much. Down here, in the artisan

gardens, you'll notice how But this hasn't hindered

a rich variety of planting If you've got an equally shady

spot in your garden, then there are plants that suit

the shadows and can still add If I was to pick one plant for a

small garden, in the shade, it would have to be the Japanese maple. They

really do have Everything Eventually. For starters in lowlight

levels it's difficult to get things which have large amounts of colour.

Few flowers will flower for a long period of time and in bright

colours. With maples they have this leaf diversity that comes in every

shade for months and months of the year. Also they have a small size.

Even at that level, they have lots of character, like the shape of a

much larger tree. You can pack in loads loads into a tiny space. This

garden is not much bigger than the living room of my tiny London flat.

There are 30maples in here. It feels like you are in a woodland Glenn in

a postage sized garden. -- glen. People often talk about

shady fwardens like they are some kind of terrible, horticultural

disadvantage. Why on earth would you want a hot, dry border when you

could have cool, calm, shade-loving ground cover like this? It's like

diving into the ocean floor. You have beautiful hostas here. When

water droplets from rain hit this they look like Mercury as they dance

around the surface. The glossy leaves here. You have apple green

foliage here. Shade is not your enemy.

Flowers in shade can look just as striking as those in full sun. From

a design point of view, it helps to know what colours to pick. Like this

wonderful californicum with yellows. It works on hard landscaping

materials. They turn into giant reflectors. Bouncing the light in

around the space making it appear to glow in the twilight. If you want to

create the atmosphere of cool, calm escapism, it's just got to be a

shady garden. I'd actively prefer one over a flot in full sun.

We are lucky today. The sunshine is back.

Earlier this week the RHS awarded their prestigious

Best Show Garden to Andy Sturgeon, but did you agree?

Or do you prefer another show garden?

Well, it's time for you to have your say.

It's an award all the designers would love to win.

There's nothing quite like getting the recognition

It's like the final endorsement. Absolutely.

You can vote right now for your favourite show garden.

Just go to our website, bbc.co.uk/chelsea, where you can

have a look at all of the amazing gardens and find out how to vote.

You've got until 9.30pm tonight to make your decision.

You can find out the winner on BBC One tomorrow evening at 7.30pm.

Monty and Joe are back tonight on BBC Two at 8.00pm

with all the action from a busy day here at Chelsea.

And remember, get voting for your People's Choice winner!

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