Episode 10 RHS Chelsea Flower Show

Hello and welcome to the RHS Chelsea Flower Show!

It's Thursday, the first day the show is open

to the general public, and it's fair to say the showground

is packed with garden enthusiasts as far as the eye can see.

They've come here to enjoy the ground-breaking design

on display, not to mention the very latest floral fads and fashions.

As well as being packed its jolly hot. It's boiling today, it is

caught sheer one. You're wearing your hat. I haven't got any hair

like you, Monty, health and safety, this is, as well as being rather

dapper. It's hot but so much better than the cold, wet Chelsea 's we've

had. The plants are slightly suffering. A lot of them are having

to water throughout the day as well as in the morning. I would much

rather summoned rain. It may be day four,

but we still have so much more to come from this year's event,

supported by M+G Investments. Tonight's show is all

about the small gardens, as we bring you in-depth analysis

of the ever-popular Artisan and Fresh gardens,

revealing who's won what. We treat you to an exclusive tour

of Mary Berry's much-loved garden at home before catching up

with her on the showground. Multi award-winning designer

Adam Frost shows us how shape, sculpture and structure can

bring our own gardens to life. I'll be catching up with journalist

Kirsty Wark as I uncover her unbridled passion

for all things floral. Plus, don't forget there's not long

left to vote for your favourite large show garden for the BBC RHS

People's Choice Award. More to come on that

later in the show. But first, we want to let

you in on something rather special. Over the week we've noticed

how the Artisan gardens on Ranelagh Avenue are touched

with a certain ethereal glow around dusk once the gates are closed

and the crowds have disappeared. I went along to give you a glimpse

of the magical spectacle The Fresh Gardens tend to shine

in the middle of the day, perfectly suited to the busy

atmosphere of the show in full flow. But as the light is falling at dusk,

I'm here able to roam around free. I've come here to Ranelagh Avenue

because this is where the Artisan gardens are. They are small, but

packed with ideas and inspiration and often just plain beauty. There

are essentially two types of gardens that you find here. One tends to be

very naturalistic and uses found objects and found landscapes. The

other is much more creative in the sense that it's made from new, it

looks like nothing you find the countryside. This is one of the

latter, it immediately summons up the sun and vitality and colour. Of

Spain. Walker's Wharf belongs to the first

category. It uses materials of an old wharf on the River Trent. You

can see it has quite literally got those materials but when you get

closer you realise it's actually an amalgam of them. The planting

doesn't fall into the trap of trying to do too much. The palate is very

simple and muted. And it's dominated by these pruned pines that exactly

get the texture, colour and feel of the industrial landscape in which

they are set. Despite being the designer Fiona

Cadwallader's first ever show garden, the poetry lovers' garden is

incredibly confident and strong. It does nothing particularly original,

the planting, the stonework, the way it set out, remind me of lots of

show gardens I've seen. But what it does it does so well, and the idea

is it's a place to and find inspiration, retreat. I've had to

read a poem or, perhaps, even right one. -- either to read a poem. As

the light falls around me, though the city still bustles beyond the

park, Chelsea slips into night, and I'm just going to have a few moments

to enjoy it to myself. That's about right, Monty

sleeping on the job again! It's his age, it's been a long week!

Those gardens are especially tranquil down there. So we'll let

him off. In fact, it's hard to believe any

of the small gardens are nestled in the busy heart of this city,

but I can assure you they haven't Earlier this week Nicki Chapman

witnessed the moment when the Small Garden medals

were handed out, and it was Oh my God! Thank you so much! I

don't believe this, this is amazing! Thank you very much. You are

shaking. I am shaking, I need a copy. Congratulations. Thank you

very much, I'm really happy with that. Congratulations. APPLAUSE

Triple double! Fantastic. Congratulations.

The small gardens may be compact compared to their big

brothers on Main Avenue, but they are by no

means less spectacular. Split into two categories,

The Artisan gardens, true to their name, take arts

and crafts as their inspiration, while the Fresh gardens tend to put

an abstract perspective on what a garden is or can be.

This year there are 14 small gardens in total,

They are good, aren't they? They are all good. I think they've had more

attention because there were fewer big gardens so there is more time

and more scope to have a really good look at them. And it's very

rewarding when you do. The Artisan especially this year is so strong.

They are tricky because it's about craftsmanship and detailing. Because

they are in a small space you've got to keep the interest within the

garden, keep the eye moving. But they are so much smaller. In fact

the Artisans are built aboveground, you can't dig into the ground. It's

almost like an installation piece and they've only got 11 days on site

to build them. The standard is amazingly high and I'm delighted

with the feel-good gardens. They were a fairly late edition but

everybody loves them, rightly so. They're fund, accessible and very

well done. Some great designers there. The fresh gardens I like this

year. I think they're more accessible than some years,

sometimes they get so conceptual and people think, what on earth is going

on? And they need an explanation. This year there are some people

could actually be create and take ideas from in their own gardens.

They're all good. Juliet Sargeant took a closer look at one of the

fresh gardens, which was awarded a silvergilt medal. She knows from her

own personal experience the effort needed to win any medal at Chelsea.

This is the breast cancer now garden. Through the microscope. It

is a garden with a really strong team. And as we walk through the

garden we can read the details the designer, Ruth Wilmot, has

incorporated in order to tell us this really important story.

This garden is all about the transformation from disease to

health. In the front of the garden, these rugged rocks represent

cancerous cells. Then further down the garden as you take a journey,

you come to smooth stones, which represents the healthy cells. In the

centre of the garden is a black rectangular pool, which represents

the microscope slide scientists use to study the cells. These circles

represent the microscopes scientists use everyday to research into the

cures and treatments for cancer. The idea of magnification follows

through into the planting itself. Here we have really fine cut leaves

and small flower heads but as you look down the garden to the

magnified end, the flowers are chunky and leaves are big. A good

example would be this little ranunculus here, mirrored by the

large, bold peonies at that end. The question on everybody's lips is, why

didn't it get gold? Of course, I don't know for certain, but I have a

theory. Ruth Wilmot loves to design conceptual gardens, most gardens are

either purely conceptual or very garden like. We can set herself a

challenge in designing something that falls between stools. In doing

so, she has just missed out on that elusive top prize. To me, this

garden is thoughtful, beautiful and atmospheric. I think the fact it is

incredibly popular with the visitors speaks for itself.

The road to designing and building a Chelsea garden is long

and at times incredibly stressful, fraught with complications

However, there's one first-time Chelsea designer who's been

For five years Ian Price suffered crippling depression.

Today he's got a show garden at Chelsea.

To find out more we went to join him on his home turf

This is Belfast on my home city. This is the heart and centre of our

country. I was born in the 70s man now 39 plus one. Yeah, just

recently. People used to say, you're from Belfast. All of those problems.

I didn't really see that. It was my home.

Any garden that you design is going to be influenced from where you came

from and the experiences you've had in life. In this instance it's the

glorious Greens. This is the Glens of Antrim. We've got the heathland

areas, scrub, vegetation, sheep grazed areas. Then it sweeps down

into the more lush are stronger Greens. That's what I'm trying to

use in this garden, green as a colour, using it instead of a

backdrop instead of the main focus and colour of the garden. This

garden isn't just influenced by the landscape that I live in, it's

mostly inspired by something that has plagued me all my life. North

Antrim coast is one of those special places. I need to come here to help

empty my head. Allow me to think about nothing. I have had depression

for the majority of my 20s upwards. Depression is one of those things

you just kind of wake up in the morning and go... I don't feel

great, I must be mentally ill. It sneaks up on you. It's like it swims

up behind you and you are in the surf and it comes and drags you by

the legs and pulls you under. At my lowest point, I just took the

pills, drove up into the forest, founder waterfall and sat there. And

just waited for them to take effect. At the lowest point I needed to make

sense of things. I was able to use garden design to tell my story about

depression. And turn my negative experience into a positive one. Some

of the best things are made in sheds, and this garden has been made

in a shared. It is always fascinating to see your design

jumping off the page and turning into 3-D reality.

This is Mind Trap, the manifestation of what I felt like at my worst, and

what I can feel like at my best, all rolled into one. The great shape is

where I imagine myself when I designed this, in the middle of

this, surrounded by these large, heavy walls. But with glimpses

through to hope beyond. There are very few flowers in the space. It is

mostly based on textures, mostly on green, with the delicate hint

towards flowers. They are not important, it is the feeling that

the plants give. People have asked me, can you do this? Can you handle

the pressure that Chelsea brings? Maybe I was just foolish enough not

to consider that at the time! I know I can, because I have so many good

people around me that want to make it happen. Whilst a medal will be

unreal, a lifetime ambition, the main thing is if one person comes up

to me and says, thank you for sharing your story. That is what it

is about for me. You said just one person would make

you happy, but all of the judges have thank you, by giving you a

gold-medal. It is surreal, unbelievable, I am still in a blur.

It will hit me just after everything has happened, but it is the reaction

of the public as well, unbelievable. I will confess, as somebody who

shares your problems with depression, I look at gardens with

great trepidation, because there is a problem of simplifying it. You

have not done that. I am impressed by that. Tell me again how that has

come through. It is not easy. It is not easy, but I found it a cathartic

struggle. 15 years of research to create this garden for Chelsea 2017,

and two days of sketching. Six months of pain and anguish and

trepidation. It is so worth it. The point about the green, limits of

hope. It strikes a chord with lots of people, rather than a riot of

colour. People forget that green is a colour. That is with the woodland

planting, in contrast to the grey blanket. A lot of people, you have

talked to the Duchess of Cambridge about it, that must have been

interesting. What you will be doing is saying to people who are also

suffering and feeling lonely and ashamed and lost that you can make

something from it. I had to do this to justify what I went through. I

needed to make my negative into a positive, and I now know why I went

through it, because the reaction from the public, I have had people

in tears, I have shared the tears with them, that is more than I could

ever have hoped for. The plants, some of them are dark, you have put

them in a difficult setting, but that can be integrated into a normal

garden. Whatever normal is! That is why I have used plants in context,

it is not what you see, it is how you see things are. You have enabled

a lot of people to see both gardens differently, themselves differently,

and to know they are not alone. Of the two gold-winning gardens

in the Fresh Garden category the RHS had to choose one standout design

as their Best Fresh Garden, and we were there to capture

the moment when the winner I have got something wonderful to

present you with. For the best Fresh Garden, congratulations. Thank you.

It is amazing. Sweet, lovely. Huge congratulations, when I first

saw it, I knew you would do well. It has been a mega build. It is huge,

even by my standards, it is borderline insanity. You have pretty

much build a house. Yes, three stories and 15 or 16 guys for 14

hours a day, it is down to them, really. The design is fantastic, the

combination of hard landscaping and plants, it is the future of

gardening, small spaces, but you can still cram plants in and make them

relevant and get closer to them, where ever you are. We have a huge

history in London of big parks and gardens, but we are now building

apartment blocks, so the smaller spaces that link them are really

important. Will this be community gardener? It could be, because the

spaces are not big and the plans are not challenging. A diverse range.

Shady downstairs, hot and sunny appeal. Trying to cater for the

environment, absolutely. I love the green of all, they are often the

flat, but do have real volume. It feels like it is growing out

horizontally. I have got my eye on that one. It is lovely, there is one

in a basement not far from here, it shows it can be done. Wonderful,

beautifully designed. Whether big or small, like this one,

there are so many inspiring ideas you can take out of a show garden

and apply to your own home. Seven-times gold-medal winner

Adam Frost is here to seek out the best when it comes to garden

design here at Chelsea. Tonight he's focusing on structure,

shape and sculpture. When I am creating a garden, I want

to take you on a journey, lead you through a space. Shtick in a garden

and focal points play a massive part to help me do that. When I am

creating a design, the first layout, understanding the space and how I

can put it together, the only plants are the trees. They start to fill

the space in the sky. After that, the next layer of structure is the

shrubs, so things like this not only work as a piece of sculpture, but

repeated through the space they create rhythm. You do not have to

spend that much money, you are looking to add three or four shrubs

that will give you the rhythm and structure and the interest

throughout the year. Once you have done that, you start to understand

the other areas, you can build the rest of your planting up in layers.

This is where sculpture and structure come together. If you look

along there, we looked like we have one wall, and a focal point. It

starts to draw me into the garden, takes me along a path. As I go

along, what is lovely is you get pulled up to the wall, you realise

there is another space and you get drawn into another part of the

garden, and then you come out into this beautiful space.

And after or pergola can add some interest and height and structure to

any garden, but what I love about this, it is simple timber, but with

copper detail, which is picked up in the sculpture that sits in planted.

You imagine this at the end of your garden, it would be a real

destination point. This is a cracking detail to the

edge of the terrace, it is so obvious to draw straight lines or

Kirsty Terris, but with this fractured line, it more or less

extends into the planting, and it lets the planting comeback in. This

structural frame, they are like see-through walls. They would in two

or three ways, they add height through the planting, which is

fantastic, but also they add rhythm, the repeated pattern all the way

through, it pulls you through this space. You might not want a big

frame sticking up, but you could use an obelisk, repeated through your

planting, it gives movement through. Creating a garden is a journey, it

is how you get drawn through. Structure and sculpture play a

massive part in taking you through a space.

Still to come at this event, supported by M+G Investments.

We discover who's won the highly-prized Best

I chat to journalist Kirsty Wark about the welcome solace her garden

But first, we invite you to sit back and relax as we bring

you an exclusive tour of Mary Berry's home garden.

I think of the garden as a sanctuary. We have been here 27

years, it seems an age. When we came here, we inherited a lovely garden,

but we have done all sorts of things to read. We did not have a plan, but

I hope we have made a lot of improvements.

The pond was here, it is a natural pond, but we enlarged it. We have

developed the meadow and put path through it. We have put in the Rose

walk. We have put in a tennis court, because we all are a bit sporty. In

that area was a magnolia and a holly tree, and they were fully grown, and

we transplanted them and let them soak in the water for a full night,

and they are here to tell the tale today.

I was brought up during the war, and times were tough, we were

self-sufficient, we had goats, chickens, so it was important to

have a vegetable garden, and I have learned to grow what you eat and

what you enjoy. Herbs are very important in my cooking, so we have

a herb garden. All the folks here are edible. We have day, lemon balm,

for puddings and things, we have thyme, Rosemary, and, of course,

Sage. Write down here, I have Good King Henry. You want to have it when

it is very young. It has a slightly bitter taste, you can cook it like

spinach. This is real French tarragon, it has a broad leaf, full

of flavour. Never to be mixed up with Russian tarragon, which is

rubbish, it grows like a weed and tastes like grass, so into the

ground it goes. There should be a good route under there. What I do is

to put water in the bottom. It seems to work for my planting, so I make a

nice puddle of water like that, because it is fairly dry. When I

come to cooking, I do not take a full sprig, I take it from the

middle, and then it will shoot out at the sides, so I will put it in

the ground and planted level with the ground.

I love going round other people's Gardens, I am very inquisitive,

there is so much to learn. I went around Sutton Place, beautiful

hedges, and came back very inspired and thought, how does that fit in

with my garden? I looked at the old tennis court and said to my husband,

I would like to do a bit of hedging, and he said, have a go, and by the

evening I had drawn it all out and he said, that sounds good, go on, do

it. Is this hedge was growing, I decided I wanted to have a go at

making that, so to get hold of a hanging basket, as it was growing

up, I put it on top like that, and this is about ten years old now, but

I put it on top and let it grow through the hedge, I cut it round,

and as it grew up, I kept it into an oval, and I began to slip

underneath, and we ended up with a lovely ball like that, so I did not

need any expensive equipment. This is my notebook and I've had it

many years. I just... Things that I want to look for. When I come to

Chelsea. This year I'm looking for smock primulas, I love primulas.

I've not had success with roses growing over how archers so I'll be

looking for some repeat flowering roses with a nice scent. So there's

no one more excited than me, I'm off to Chelsea with my notebook, money

in my back pocket. I'll be there. Mary, I'm lucky to have seen your

garden first-hand, what a gorgeous garden it is. I see you've got your

notebook. This is a recce trip? This is a recce trip, I'm looking for a

climbing rose. Everybody loves arose, what is your personal take?

Roses are such good value because they flower over a long period of

time and, of course, the scent. The variety is incredible. Climbers,

shrub roses, ground covering, there was always a place to squeeze in

another. There is, you don't need a huge garden, they grow very well in

pots, in a larger pot than you would normally see. These roses are grown

in Hertfordshire, non-imported. Shall we checksum out?

This is one of your favourites, isn't it, DeChambeau's beauty. I

love it, look at the foliage, shiny bright green. -- chandos beauty.

Smell that is that not divine? It's beauty! If you're growing a pot, you

can put it in really good side and manage it as long as it is in a

fairly sunny position and well watered, it's the perfect rose to

have. Is the climbing rose what you are

specifically looking for? It is, because we've got an arch, the rose

is dead. I made mistakes in the past by having one that goes too high. I

now know my art is eight feet and I have to find a rose that fits and

will grow to that. Exactly the right approach because these growers grow

them at certain heights, something like a Rambler will want to flower

at the top, 40 feet up, you can't necessarily see the flowers. We've

got Graham Thomas going up the front of the house and in March I take it

right down on the ground. And prune it at the bottom, so you get flowers

at the bottom, not up in the sky. Controlling where they are. At any

of these caught your eye? I rather like this one, this Cumberland, it's

got lots of lovely green foliage. It's a multiheaded, which I like.

All of these bugs coming year, even behind you've got another set of

buds, it's going to flower for ages. Also, when it's getting past its

best it isn't all faded, it holds its colour. Is this the one, Mary?

That's it, Cumberland. Mary is not the only one filling up

her notebook, everyone you look at Chelsea there are people writing

down the names of plants, taking photographs of plants.

And for the Artisan gardens it's not just the plants that inspire,

These are particularly important as the gardens tend to draw

from history or heritage, as Nick Bailey is finding out over

What I absolutely love about this garden is it the brilliant fusion

between ancient and modern. It really embraces the idea that

apothecaries of the past were looking for that great Alexia, being

able to extract the power of plants. It is represented by this apothecary

bench at the back. The garden takes you all the way through to modernity

and the fact scientists and chemists are still looking for those magical

powers and Alexia is we can draw out of plants. The planting in the

garden is absolutely beautiful, quite a modern matrix. A real sort

of fusion of different plants. There is a colour theme that pulls it all

together but it's packed with useful medicinal plants. What I know right

at the front here is used in traditional Chinese medicine, has

been for over 1000 years. Smoke is produced from it. It's often used

for chest conditions and the like. Growing just in front of it is

something you might think of as a lawn weed, a British native that

grows all over the UK, particularly in damp soil. It has medicinal

applications. Eucalypt that comes from it is used to remove dirt from

the eye in hospital. It can be used as a bulking agent, as laxative, so

really useful plants. Traditional use and much more modern use. Over

at the back digitalis, which has a long history of medicinal use.

Healers were giving it to people with heart ailments. And today, the

extract from it is still given to people. The planting has this fuzzy

matrix, meadow quality to it which brings the whole garden together. I

think it is very much deserved of the gold it's got. This really is

picture perfect. No stranger to creating an Artisan

picture-perfect postcard She currently holds gold

medals in more categories This year she's taken

on the challenge of creating two gardens, one inside

the Great Pavilion for Hilliers nursery, and an Artisan garden

here on Ranelagh Avenue. This isn't the first time you've

done two. It's the third consecutive year. This is the year I wanted to

get the treble double, so I had two gold medals in each of the previous

two years. I achieved it, so a massive year for me. You've covered

some serious mileage, between the two, any idea what you've done this

year? I checked last night, done six and a quarter consecutive marathons.

That's why you're looking so trim and fit. I have a track on my wrist,

it sets off each day and tells me how many paces and how many

marathons I've walked. You are the fittest person on-site. We've

created this wonderful garden. You're such a versatile designer,

just run us through the garden and how you had to apply your design

skills. My sponsor asked me to choose a Mediterranean city of my

choice, it had to be Barcelona. I love Barcelona, it's such a leader

in the creative world. And has been historically. Antonio Goudie, the

architect in Barcelona, is a hero of mine. -- Gaudi. This mosaic behind

me is fantastic. You've done this sort of thing before. Do you get

technicians in? I like Artisan Gardens to work with different

Artisans and craftsmen. Last year I had two, this year I have two, want

the mosaic, once the chair. I love working with craftspeople, because

you get the best out of them. I don't fully understand the material.

I know what I want to achieve. I know they'll take that perfection.

You've got some wonderful specimens. Some of them are hardy, some of them

we see in London, and down in warmer climates. There are also arid

plants. This one is cold hardy as long as you keep it dry. And we have

ones that are more robust and survive through the UK. It's all

about drainage, they get wet through the winter, they are going to

struggle. If you wrap them up through the winter, give them good

drainage, they might get through. Absolutely. Lovely to see you. Maybe

go for a little job later. You can join me.

Sarah has used a variety of tender plants which would love to live

in Parc de Guell in Barcelona, but of course this isn't Barcelona.

In good ol' Blighty a plant has to be pretty resilient

And a group who are keen to discover what is and isn't tough

enough for the UK climate is the aptly-named

I love hardy plants because there are so many different colours,

varieties, heights. Anything you can imagine, you will find, really,

within the spectrum of hardy plants. A hardy plant is defined as one that

will survive to -15 degrees. In the winter you cut them back and in

spring they come up and they're so fresh, they look like you've just

planted them. My name's John McGee, I'm leading

the team for Chelsea 2017 on behalf of Worcestershire hardy plant

society. Daesh my name is Linda Marsh, now a garden designer, but I

used to be an airline pilot, one of the first women in aviation flying

for an airline. Perhaps being in the air, away from the Earth, you have

that real connection when you come back and land. I know many pilots

who actually have smallholdings, so there is definitely some connection.

The society was formed in 1957 by four eminent Gardens to educate and

inform an increase knowledge of her basis -- herbaceous perennials. We

have over 7000 members today. There is a great community spirit in

the group. We meet up once a month. Second Saturday every month. This

gardening is quite addictive, though I've belong to the Worcestershire

grip, I belong to three other gardening societies. There is no

cure for the addiction unfortunately. Daesh we have a guest

speaker followed by Britt freshman 's and a chat so we can catch up

with what's doing well. Lots of outings through the plant society,

autumn weekends, some days. Excellent. Meeting different people

and talking plants is brilliant. We have a wide range of people in the

group. We have held, probably in her early 80s, with the vast plant

knowledge. Then we have just, who is 25 years of age. It's great to see

that they work off each other. What's your favourite, Hilda? I love

salvias. I love the smell. It really lifts you, the smell. Exhibit this

year is important to us as a society, it's our 60th year. We have

a wonderful group of people getting together to help do the stand for

Chelsea. Some members are growing plants, there are members who have

been coming up to tend the plants every week. We decided to have 60

different types of plants to represent each year of the existence

of the hardy plant society. The design for Chelsea was really to try

and show people that we are a modern society moving forward. So we

decided to use QR codes on all the plant labels so people could take

their smartphone and a zap onto it and go immediately to the website

and find out all they wanted to know about the plant. We also designed a

rotating stand, so that not only do you see the relationship between the

front plants and back plants, but you see how they relate to the other

plants. John, of course will take all responsibility for the stand and

its rotation. It's the first time within the pavilion they've used a

rotating plants display, three metres in diameter. We've had to be

aware that the motor will not overheat, because if that happens,

the table will not turn. And we will not have a display.

Look at that, amazing. Sale it's a hidden surprise when you look

underneath the leaf, because it's a wood lander. That's super, really

lovely job. Over the years the hardy plant society has won Medi medals.

However this year if we win anything beyond Silver we'll be delighted.

For us to be there is an experience of a lifetime. Chelsea's such a

special show, I'm thrilled to be part of the team. I just hope we do

very well. And hoping people will be really interested in joining the

hardy plant society and enjoy seeing our stand. I mean it's all very

exciting, isn't it? It works! We are pleased, we got a

Silver medallists, we did not expect anything above a silver. The stand

is stunning. You have some engineering in here. It is very

simple, a gearbox and a wheel with 12 casters. Has it brought more

exhibitors in? Are they drawn in by the movement? I think so. As the

wheel goes round, it shakes slightly, so the grasses show up. It

adds drama to the whole thing. It is great to see the society has got a

big spread of age. Some societies are struggling. Yes, it is a shame,

as it is the specialist societies, and we are herbaceous perennials,

and we have nine specialist societies. Others could come in with

us. We are not going cost is, but what about,? They are real doers.

They are. We have the spotty dotty and the iris in a couple of weeks.

The grasses will be here. And you see this a lot in the show gardens.

It is a good filler. The bees love it. When we were putting together

the stand, the bees were coming in, then they flew off when we turned

the table. There are none at the moment. They can take extremities,

down 2-15, but with the heat, they can cope as well, so maybe we will

use more of them. And there is a broad range for all conditions. We

will have to leave it there, but you got your hostas in!

I'm joined now by award-winning journalist/broadcaster Kirsty Wark.

I know this is your first Chelsea. Yes, but it will not be my last. It

is extraordinary in its scope. I love that there are so many people

who are clearly such passionate gardeners, they spend time coming

here, picking up tips, writing things down, I have been writing

things down. It is a very British thing. Do you have a garden of your

own? My garden is a small walled garden in Glasgow. It is at the back

of the house. The front is pleasure gardens. The back garden has these

wonderful old hoops, because the washing was hung out, it was not a

garden to be satin by the owners. But the legacy has been a beautiful

laurel tree, which we have built on. We have to drain it, because it was

damp, and we put down Caithness flags and margins stones from beside

the Clyde, which is where the wharf 's work that people left to emigrate

from Glasgow. Those footsteps are still treading in the garden.

Members of my family emigrated to what was then Rhodesia and also to

Australia. It is wonderful to have some in the garden, you know people

stepped on them going to new lives. Gardens are like onion skins, you

are just one more layer. People talk about the house when you sell it,

but you want to pass on, these flowers will come out in June... It

is nice to have a surprise, but I want people to know what is in your

garden. Did you have anything to do with gardening when you were growing

up? I was in gardens or the time, if the weather was good, fertile

territory. My family were early fruit growers in the 1800 and

before, and in 1850 my great-grandfather was -- went to a

fruit broker in Glasgow, and he said, but everything under glass. So

he put acres under glass. I grew up in tomato houses, and I remember my

great uncle 's had his coat on and they would take a poke, a paper

poke, and in it would be salt-and-pepper, and they would open

the tomato and put salt-and-pepper on it and you would eat the tomato

is a fresh. We would have tomato so much all the time. We used to have

tomato some watches. White bread, tomatoes, and the juice soaked in.

My hands are like my grandfather's. Jamjar Hans! What are you looking

for? You have resisted Chelsea for all of these years, what are you

looking for? I have a lot of white in the garden, and I have a lovely

Philadelphus, which has taken off, but I am looking for more colour. I

loved dog rose. I want to introduce more colour. This one is beautiful.

I am going to try and find one of those. There are tens of thousands

of the best plants that have ever been grown here. I will go on a

hunt. This is another dog rose? This is rambling Rector. It is beautiful.

You have a connection to this garden. I have been involved with

Maggie's for over 20 years. It is so much part of the whole firmament of

how we live and thrive with cancer. It is wonderful to be in this

garden, it has so many of the hallmarks, tranquillity, privacy,

water, and I think of gardens as healing places anyway. You are

involved in elections and all of the affairs of Government and life and

state, you have talked about the chant quality of your garden, do you

think gardens are important as places to retreat to? Particularly

in times of crisis, I know in times of bereavement I have always gone to

the garden. For people who cannot have a garden, the importance of

wide-open spaces in towns and cities that are nurtured and cared for. I

hate to think of cuts to gardening, because they bring apprentices on,

people find employment, people volunteer in gardens, I walk past a

lot and and think, this is fantastic, people can come to their

allotment and see them thrive. We will ask you to look around, enjoy

your first Chelsea and choose a cute things that are really special. What

a treat. Now out, of the six gold

medal-winning Artisan garden designs here at the Chelsea Flower Show,

only one could be chosen as the best We were there to capture the moment

the RHS handed out the award. I am delighted to announce that you

have received the best Artisan Garden in the show today, so many

congratulations, the first recipient of that beautiful box. Many

congratulations, everyone. Our best Artisan Garden. Beautiful.

Congratulations. It is the big one again. Smashed it again! Two years

ago you got gold and Best In Show, but before that you got a Q Silvers,

so you have nailed it now, you know what it takes. I got there in the

end, really pleased with it. You are not here every year. I am a biannual

designer. It is a fabulous garden, everybody is talking about it, the

industrial landscape. Have you sourced all of the bits and pieces?

I was fortunate enough to get the crane, because my grandfather had

bought it for two or 50 years ago, and when I went to look at it it was

immersed in nature, branches had grown through it, it planted the

seed of the garden, it germinated over 18 months, we used the crane

throughout. This was onside in the nursery? And old swamp area, we

would go there as kids. I salvaged it in the winter months, chopping

bits out. It was a bit of a mission. Is it the whole thing, the concept

of the industrial landscape? It is not where nature has taken over,

somebody has God and this. The brief was that people were living in

warehouse accommodation and they had commissioned a designer to build a

garden for relaxation, so it does not have weeds, it is quite plush.

You are celebrating the heritage. A lot of these warehouse blogs that

are being converted often get rid of the landscape outside. 100%. It

would be great to incorporate this. Yes, try to create an atmosphere,

curiosity, the industrial heritage. It fits in with the Artisan

category. You are celebrating conifers, not many people here are.

You put them together so beautifully. Our heritage and the

nursery is is growing pines and conifers, but I pick the textual

bonds to relate to the material colour. Some are windswept, so they

give the garden a bit more which in depth and height. You borrowed the

landscape beyond, you have not put a boundary, it look like it goes on.

The location was perfect for the garden, because there are no

boundaries, it is like a section of a larger garden. Lovely, great to

see you, and congratulations again. Before we come to the end of today's

show we just want to remind you that time is running out to vote

for your favourite large show garden in this year's BBC RHS

People's Choice Award. Details of all the gardens and how

to cast your vote are on our Voting closes tonight at 9:30pm

and the winner will be revealed tomorrow evening

on BBC One at 7:30pm. Ruth asks, usually there is a plan

that keeps popping up at the Chelsea Flower Show, what is this year's?

How about shaggy box? Four years you see box plants clipped and trained

and repeated, but this year, two or three gardens have got quite a lot

of shaggy uncut box, it is new, and good.

It looks great. We are on trend! How many lipids have you seen?

Lot. They look great, they have gone so

out of fashion, but they are back again.

Is that because there is a nursery growing lots of them and everybody

has gone there, or is it just coincidence?

That can sometimes be the reason, but this year the sources are

different, the designers are asking for them from different sources, so

there is something in the zeitgeist. And we are there! We have had a lot

of tweets asking what the tall white planned is behind us.

A fabulous plant, I grow it. Just touches with pink. It can grow up to

six feet tall, really dramatic, and it has strong square stems. It is a

perennial. A really good planned. I like this hashtag!

Well, that's it from Chelsea tonight, but we'll be back tomorrow

on BBC Two looking at what we can draw from this year's show

And we have a very special treat in store as Ellie Harrison

is going to share her thoughts on wildlife gardening.

Plus, we look at some of the fabulous fauna joining

Nicki and James are back at 3:45pm on BBC One,

so until, then it's goodbye from all the team at Chelsea.