Episode 12 RHS Chelsea Flower Show

The crowds are flocking to Chelsea for their chance

to soak up the spectacle of this floral fantasia.

Stay with us as we shower you with the finest flora,

breathtaking gardens and green-fingered celebrities.

What better way to start the weekend?

Hello and welcome to the Chelsea Flower Show 2017,

an event supported by M Investments.

Today we find out who you picked as your favourite Fresh

And the big one - we reveal the winner of the BBC RHS

People's Choice Award for the large show gardens.

Winning that means a lot to the designer. It is massive, it means

that visitors and the viewers, they are really behind you and they

understand the story and they find that garden accessible and very

rarely the Best Show Garden and the People's Choice Award: side, I

cannot remember when it was the same. Fewer Show Garden is this year

and that means the spotlight is on the smaller gardens, Fresh and

Artisan and the Feel Good Gardens. And across the board, a great spread

of quality and variety, some conceptual gardens but wonderful

gardens that people can relate to. Exactly what you want. And the Great

Pavilion. As wonderful as ever. Always good, every year, and the

weather is fabulous, everybody having a great time, huge success.

We are joined by one of the UK's finest tenors, Alfie Boe,

as he reveals the challenges of gardening at his home in Utah.

The queen of the kitchen, Mary Berry, combines

her culinary creativity with her passion for flowers.

And Adam Frost goes in search of the weird and wonderful

But first, Chelsea's Main Avenue has always set the trend for our own

So to discover what's hot in horticulture,

Toby Buckland has been scouting the show gardens.

The Chelsea Flower Show has always been a trendsetter, fashion for

mature pot grown plants starting right here and now the plants used

in all of the designs are very large indeed. Look at this tree, huge.

Pine trees are back in a big way on Main Avenue, ignored for years but

the architectural qualities and evergreen foliage means you can see

why. And we have the new Mediterranean style, the ground

underneath is covered with gravel and purples and big builders. And

when I say big, I mean really big! It is as if the Sunday ravers came

back from Ibiza, grew up and built gardens, the usual features with

gardens and patios at the most on trend are set in a Mediterranean

environment. September is out and stone is in,

but these troubled times we like some permanence. And not any old --

any old stone, the edges are left rough and ragged and perhaps even

with the marks from the blade of a quarry man. This transforms what

otherwise would be a cold material into something warm and human and

films banned and give that authenticity. And topped off with

that soft edge of wild seeds. -- seed-sown flowers. I know what you

are thinking. Some of those designs, like walking into wilderness and

waste ground, these gardens are miracle because they were only

finished a few days ago and they look like they have been here four

years. Maybe we have that Concorde moment for those worried weeds that

none of us know, that hybrid between bubble and boulders with flowers we

recognise in our own gardens. That is what I love about Chelsea. The

future of gardening here today. The Chelsea Flower Show attracts

people from across the globe. Early this morning, one

of the world's most celebrated tenors stepped off a plane

from New York to join us. Straight off the plane and into the

Chelsea Flower Show? Such an honour to be here on my first visit. Never

here before? My first time and I am blown away. First impressions?

Incredible, the amount of devotion but all of the gardeners are put

into these individual plots and this big tent, inside it is mind blowing!

That big old tent! You mean the Great Pavilion! Three beggars! What

connects all of these gardens is the natural nature of them, when I was a

kid in the early 80s, everything was very ordered, every plant was in the

right place, gardens had borders, there was a rockery. Very

structured. Now everything seems so natural. The natural landscape has

been incorporated and it is the inspiration for a lot of the gardens

and you live in Utah? What is it like? Very dry so we get a lot of

desert plants, wild flowers, absolutely amazing and they will be

blooming right now. We get cacti, not big ones like the movies, but

his Arizona, but we get beautiful... Succulent? Yes, and it is also quite

alpine. Being dry, even during the winter, the winters are dry and you

get the salt from the salt lake, and it adds that alpine field to the

environment. Do you garden? I would like to say so but my wife does it

all. And she is from Alaska. Living in Utah she has taken the time to

find out the correct plants and natural plans for the environment

and we have done that to the garden and kept things very natural with

the regional group. That is the way to succeed. What has caught I at the

show? The Yorkshire garden? You are from Lancashire? I walked past very

quickly! It was beautiful. It brought back a lot of memories of

home. Really hitting the mark. The flowers that seem to be linked with

every garden are the Lib Dems and Salvias. They are in the zeitgeist.

And you're into the Roses? Yes, the Roses, inside that big, old tent,

the pavilion, I took pictures of the rose gardens. My phone is full!

There is so much to see, you could spend a very long time. You are

onto? I am and it is good to see the BBC garden. They are huge hit.

Beautifully finished. Incredible. Yes, I hit the road in a couple of

weeks with Michael Ball. Wonderful to be here. And get some peace and

serenity in this place. Thank you so much for inviting me. Thank you for

taking time out. Great to meet you. Cheers.

While Alfie is out enjoying the show gardens, Carol Klein is discovering

the plants that are set to become the "must have" stars of 2017.

-- James Wong is discovering. One of the plans that is causing a stir

this year is this beautiful white clown at us, called Kitty, it is

really to walk. And it is the shortest of all of the white

clematis. You can treat this in a different way, plant this in a

hanging basket or even a window box in a tiny studio flat. If you don't

have space for clematis, think again. If you ask people to create a

dream plant, it would have to have beautiful flowers, it would be

scented and we can make it edible also. You would think that is a

fantasy but the breeders of this new strawberry, just add cream, have

done this. Beautiful pink flowers, the constant drip feed of fruit from

me until the first frost and you would think they don't taste good

but I can tell you, that is not the case. They have an incredible,

almost floral flavour. At the flavour of wild strawberries in a

conventional variety. This is a plant that has it all. I will have

another one. People tend to talk a lot about trends at Chelsea and what

I think is it tends to be the flowers that are in season that just

happen to be used by the designers and lupins are classic, but lots of

people have said it is a new trend and on Main Avenue I could see quite

a few of them so you never know, you might call this the big new thing of

2017. God loves a horticultural magic trick. Shine a light on these

fern like France and they revealed their hidden power, but the feathers

of a peacock. Iridescent. All sorts of colours. This is a native of the

rainforest in Malaysia. Look at this, the same superpower. Shining

in all sorts of different colours. Normally you don't even need the

torch to do this, it is just very bright in here and these plants have

been grown in a very bright environment. They have little

cellular fragments on the inside of those cells that act like tiny

pieces of glitter. Greater inside the cell that reflects everything

back. Once upon a time these were impossible to get hold of in the UK

but I asked and they said online, you can even get them in an aquarium

shops. Astounding how horticulture is moving forward.

Later in the show we will be announcing the BBC RHS Peoples'

Choice Award for the large show gardens, but that's not the only

The RHS also run a Peoples' Choice Award for the Fresh

Earlier, Sophie was in place to capture the Artisan

Thank you for having me. I am not here to chat, we have a surprise. On

behalf on the RHS, I wanted more due the People's Choice Award for the

Artisan Gardens. APPLAUSE

-- I want to award you. Congratulations. What does this

mean? This is incredible, such a wonderful week and wonderful

comments, they love the garden and the idea behind it and the story of

rescuing horses. And keeping them happy and safe. It means more than

the gold medal, this is the affirmation from everybody who has

come here and who has seen this garden online. The message has got

through. In that sense, it has been a success. I am just a little bit

dazed! Not quite with it! It is all about the welfare of the horse? If

we can make a difference, it will be worth it, fantastic. And Clippy was

the inspiration, when we saw the terrible conditions he was left in,

and then brought somewhere where he was so well looked after, we have

the idea of how to convey that in the garden. Such a beautiful job, I

watched this being built, wonderful to see, you will not actually going

to be here this evening? We were not, we did this before and we

thought it was a lot of pressure and work and we were not sure the nerves

could take it! But the charity contacted us and we went to see them

and we saw the horses and we thought, yes. It might be the last

one, who knows? If you keep doing this to us, how can we stop? ! Very

many congratulations! Well done. APPLAUSE

. Kate, gardening at Mary Berry, you

can't get better than that. You are going to do a demo, I believe. I am,

and is this a first for you, decorating cake with fresh flowers?

How do you do it? I've got some beautiful violins there, and in the

bowl is one egg white. Can you whisk that? Imagine you are making

meringues scrambled egg. On bake off, you add Paul said my meringues

were superb. Not that I've ever forgotten. Here is your opportunity

to show it. You won't get any peaks without the sugar. I knew that. I've

got some filers. I love to do primroses in the spring. Just take

those in. Just the job. Perfect, almost superb. You are into round

two. These are lovely little violets. You can have them as big or

as little as you like. And then you brush them over with a nice, clean

paintbrush, and you brush them like that. You don't just chuck them in?

No, you've got to make them wet. Brush them all over. And on the

other side as well. And I've taken off the long stalk. You've got quite

a few flowers, you could use nasturtiums and failures. Mint... --

dahlias. It is wet all over. I have missed a bit there. And then you

just put it in sugar like that. That is caster sugar. And you sprinkle it

with the caster sugar like that. And then make sure it is well covered.

Then lift it out. And put it there. Let it dry out. It doesn't want to

be too hot. If it is too hot, it will go syrupy. You just put it well

above a radiator and overnight, or even in the sun like this, what a

day... They will crystallised like these. Fantastic. And then I've made

a lemon cake. In the filling, I've put some lemon balm, finely chopped,

and it gives a lovely lemon flavour and extra lemon. Shall we decorate

it? OK, let's lift those carefully. We can put them straight onto the

cake. You don't need any glue. They just sit on their like that. You can

do them all the way round and not drop them in the middle. It looks

gorgeous. I can't wait. Are we going to be taking that with us and

sharing it with all of the presenters? If you are very good! If

you don't have enough time to do this, you could put fresh flowers on

it just before you serve it, and there are lots of edible flowers in

the taste garden. You could put these lovely little borage leaves,

borage flowers. They are so pretty and delicate. You just pull off the

green at the back. You could use nasturtiums. They are good. That's

it. Fantastic. In savoury things, you could use garlic or thyme

flowers. That is gardening meat baking. A round of applause for

Mary! APPLAUSE

-- gardening meat baking. It's beautiful. I'm definitely going to

get my hands on that. You just want a piece of cake! If you keep them in

a box once they have dried out, they will last, and you can use them for

decorating cakes and understand things. And all the others can go in

salads and things like that. Edible flowers at colour and flavour. As

well as being glamorous, Chelsea can be a rather eclectic affair. Earlier

today, Adam Frost went out onto the showground in search of this year's

weird and wonderful. Look at this. Could you think of a

better way to start the day? Into the shower, surrounded by a shower

curtain. You might think that's a bit weird, but actually it's quite

wonderful. What these plants need? Moisture and those conditions that

showering can create. Now this is proper weird. It's a plant from

Madagascar. It looks beautiful, doesn't it? And then it looks like

it's bleeding. That is nectar. It's pollinated by the gecko. The little

lizard goes in, attracted by the colour and the sweetness, and

pollinate it. Weird! Now, this is wonderful. Thousands of

people have had their picture taken this week. Also it's a great way of

making a few quid. Anybody want their photo taken? How do you think

you are going to get one of these home? Put it in the trunk. It's that

time of the day. I could do with a banana.

This is absolutely incredible. You have to see it to believe it, but

Adrian here balances stones. What amazes me is, when do you ever get

out of bed in the morning and think, you know what, today I'm going to

balance stones. And, for me, that's truly wonderful.

Earlier, the RHS People's Choice Award in the fresh garden category

was presented. Arit Anderson, the gold medal winning designer, went to

help celebrate. Ruth speaking. Hi, it's Tom from the

RHS. I'm calling to let you know that you have won the People's

Choice Award for fresh. That's fantastic news! Oh, my God! Thank

you so much! Congratulations, David. You must be

overwhelmed. You built the garden. What a shock, and then to be called

over and get the People's Choice Award, I am overwhelmed. Ruth can't

be sadly. So pleased for her. You entity must have worked so hard to

achieve this. -- you and the team. This one has so much emotion and

feeling and I love that the public love it. What have the reactions

been? Breast cancer is very emotive with a lot of people, and people

going through treatment, so I think it really touches a nerve with a lot

of people. I think the concept of looking through the microscope at

the healthy cells is a wonderful thing. And then the passion that

Ruth put into it is just phenomenal. When you understand the background

story to it, it really... Oh, it gets you! It's beautiful. The

planting is amazing. It's really sort of sensitive. What is your

favourite part? I love the circles and the physics of it. They are all

exactly the same size but, when you stand out of the garden and look

through, it looks like they are going down, like it would through a

microscope. It's that attention to detail. Congratulations. Thank you

to everybody who voted. It means the world. It's been a stellar week at

the RHS Chelsea Flower Show this year. I'm not sure which my

favourite bit has been, meeting Kelly Brook or perhaps hanging out

with Mary Berry, or just working with head girl, the lovely Sophie

Raworth. Let's take a look at some of our guests from across the week.

When you were a boy, did you have a garden? We had a hedge. Mum has a

nice garden in her bungalow. Right, I'll put that down dot-macro

was that the only when you planted? Yes, it was. What your hands are

like my grandfather's. My mother would call them jamjar hands. Hello,

sir. Saying you had something of a royal traffic jam. It was amazing!

Queen was very interested. She said she listened to you this morning.

... I adore it here. I feel that, if you didn't have a face and you came

to Chelsea and looked at what is here, you would end up believing in

a new God, with its nature. I think it's a mash up garden. Can I get

away with that? I think it's a great garden for the space. I had a rose

named after me once. What's happened to it? This is a cork oak, normally

grown in the Mediterranean, and massive trunks and it's gorgeous.

When I look at it, I just feel like I want a glass of wine. Chilled, I

think, and white. Chilled, chilled! Well, you just can't fail to be

impressed by the range and variety of trees across the showground.

Designer Chris Beardshaw has some fabulous specimens. There's a

beautiful pine in the front corner but it is the yews I'm interested

in. You have used pine Daly yew in different forms in the garden. ...

All week, you have been voting for the People's Choice Award but we can

now announce the winner. The winning garden is, of course, the Morgan

Stanley Garden, but the designer, Chris Beardshaw, has no idea that he

won your vote. He is about to find out. They are both statement pieces.

You have got bounced between one plant at another. Can I interrupt

you? We're actually not here to talk about trees. We can tell you that

you are the winner of the BBC RHS People's Choice Award.

Congratulations! APPLAUSE

I am so pleased that you have won it. You deserve it so much.

Beautiful garden. Well done. Thank you very much. It means a lot to

you, doesn't it? CHEERING

I'm not sure what's in that one. It's always a joy, producing a

garden at Chelsea. You come and you do what you can. You do you believe

in. This was always a garden about the primary school getting the

building here and the communities that are recipients of this project.

Fantastic that those gardeners, all of those gardeners who voted for us

and saw its beauty and integrity. The public voted for you and he won

again! Not your first time. I think it's about the sixth time! You know,

I love using plants. I love the fact that, when you combine and

choreographed plant and you orchestrate them in a way that

touches peoples emotions, that's what I love doing. It's unashamedly

a garden's and a plant's man's garden. You have seen horticulture

reach out to the community. It's not just about the showmanship here but

it's about demonstrating what designers can do, which genuinely

reaches out, and it changes people's lives. These gardens go on. This one

is destined for a school. I hope they have as much joy with it as we

did. We will leave you to celebrate. Well done.

CHEERING well, it's been an amazing year. It

has. The weather has been incredible. The people make it, the

people who built these gardens, the gardeners, and everybody. Fabulous.

Monty and I will continue coverage in a moment on BBC Two, as we look

to the future and celebrate our wildlife. From us, it is goodbye.

Hello, I'm Alice Bhandhukravi with your 90 second update.

More raids, significant arrests and finds following Monday's attack.

Police say they have got hold of a large part of the terror

network surrounding the Manchester bomber.

In the last hour, US pop star Ariana Grande,

who was singing at the MEN arena, said she will return to the city

and hold a benefit concert for the victims of the bombing.