Episode 14 RHS Chelsea Flower Show

We've had a week of suspense, exhilaration and a few tears. But

now, we've come to the end of the world's most famous flower show.

Chelsea is over for another year but before we say goodbye, here's a

chance to enjoy some of this year's greatest hits. Sit back, put your

feet up and settle down for our floral finale.

Welcome back to the RHS Chelsea Flower Show, an event supported by

M Investments. Over the last six days thousands of visitors have

flooded in to the grounds of the Royal Hospital in Chelsea to enjoy

the breathtaking work of some of the world's best garden designers, and

CB horticultural skills from across the world. Chelsea is the

culmination of months of work to produce plants and show gardens just

at their peak of perfection. Now is your chance to catch up with some of

the highlights from this very special week in the gardening

calendar. Will be visiting some of our favourite show gardens,

celebrating with medal winners and meeting some of the exhibitors and

designers who make the show such a great experience. To get a show

garden ready for Chelsea takes an extraordinary amount of effort. That

can test even the most experienced designer. No one knows this better

than four times gold medal winner, James Basson. He faced a Herculean

task finishing his garden, as Sophie Raworth found out. James Basson is

famous for bringing a slice of Mediterranean France to Chelsea over

the past few years. Olive groves, lavender fields, trickling streams.

This year his garden couldn't be more different. This is

extraordinary, what are you creating? A quarry. I'm fanatical

about quarries, a little bit obsessed. It is a complete departure

from what you've brought to Chelsea for the past five or six years. We

often do quite soft lines and planting so we thought we would do

something contrast in. We've got our wild, soft, Willie look. But against

the hard straight lines of a quarry. What is going to rise out of this?

Describe it to us. The whole thing has got to feel like a quarry and

that it has been tweaked into a garden. They backfill quarries and

plant them with weeds and olives and trees and everything is slightly

dwarfed by the massive pillars on the left. Use a massive, that is the

smaller one, isn't it? Yes, that's the smaller one. What will be the

big challenges? The biggest challenge is finishing. You always

finish! But this is a big, big builds.

It's the moment when all the jigsaw puzzle starts to link up. The stone

is quarried in Malta. Cut in Malta, packed in Malta, and brought out and

laid by the Maltese hands. They've been putting it together and these

guys with their serious skill have been making it feel knitted, tight

and perfect. We are always very keen to start planting. Probably a bit

too keen to start planting. I've probably been a paying client you

don't want standing over you. I think this would be a much cooler,,,

reserved construction if I wasn't here. Just kicking, kicking,

kicking. This is what I would call extreme

gardening, because I'm going up. How funny to see you up here, James!

This is definitely extreme planting. It's a very tall, raised bed,

really! You started the planting down there. We started in the

woodland and we've gone from the lush landscape. As we get further

around the garden it gets drier and harder, until we start planting dead

things. It's looking spectacular, it's so different to what you've

done in the past. I think because it's a very contemporary looking

structure. It looks like a brutalist tower block. I'm quite attracted to

that architecture. You've got a great bird's eye view of the

showground up here. Yes, you are lucky to be up here, loads of people

have been asking to come up, you are the first one up here. What a

privilege! It's great! All James' hard work paid off. The result was

an inspired and beautifully executed garden. The judges thought so too.

It went on to receive not only a gold medal, but the Best Show Garden

award. I have got so much pleasure from this garden but it has been

slightly controversial. It does divide people, doesn't it. Tell me

the story about it. I love to see how vegetation comes back in areas

of minimal resources. I'm really into Mediterranean plants, for the

same reasons. There's very little rainfall, very high sunshine, often

high winds, salty winds. To see plants surviving and not looking

perfect but natural and cranky and wonderful, for me, is exciting. I

suppose for a lot of people, when they come to Chelsea, they say, is

this a garden? Yes. Or is it a stage set? What's the answer? This is an

edited landscape. Yes, the plants have naturalised and there are blogs

in the ground naturally, well, not naturally but post-quarrying. So

these are as if they were in the quarry? They would be more staggered

and irregular. We've made them into a man conceived pattern, and

organise the plants. Not by planting, more by editing, weeding.

We might have added plants. We are really studying the fringe

communities between steppe vegetation, pavement vegetation.

Those fringe communities are quite hard to maintain. And you put in a

swimming pool. We have. It's a garden, therefore it is for

pleasure. In the heat of Malta you need to cool off. Briefly,

environmentally, this is something you're passionate about,

particularly with the Maltese quarries. Malta is on the southern

tip of Europe, and its suffering from lack of water, rising

temperatures and overpopulation. It's having to deal with all the

things we potentially would be dealing with in years to come. And,

at the moment, they have been slightly abusing their landscape.

This is really a message to say, look at what you've got and please

cherish it. Look what we've got, we've got a wonderful garden, you've

got Best In Show, congratulations. Thank you. I think that really was a

standout garden this year. Quite a difficult subject to get across in a

garden but he did it beautifully. This year there were eight show

gardens. Sophie and I checked them out. This is quite a build, isn't

it? You've really had to build up this site. Yes, it was quite an

ambitious builds. We brought in a lot of soil and had to Brill 's

strong retaining walls. Yes cars you've got a neighbour next job. How

have you found the experience? I've really enjoyed it. It's quite hectic

with a lot of coming and going on Main Avenue but on balance it's been

really good fun. The thing I think people will ask, is this a garden or

a landscape? What have you created here? It is a garden, not in the

conventional sense of the garden you'd have round the back of your

town house, where you'd have a table and chairs and a barbecue. But it is

a garden in the way you might have a late and a Himalayan planting. Maybe

as part of a larger garden. I'm sure it would be fun to own and sit in

and enjoy. The Yorkshire landscape, that's what this is all about. It's

here to give a message and show people there is something beautiful

up there and it's worth going to have a look. All the plants and

materials have been sourced locally, and would grow locally? All the

materials were sourced locally right down to the pebbles and sound. Where

are they from? The pebbles are on loan from the beach and they are

going back. The plants are all plants that would grow there because

it is quite unique conditions. They aren't all growing there. The

hedgerow is absolutely beautiful. I love the hedge row, it's one of the

first things to go in. The planting team did an amazing job on that. You

sourced the stone as well from the Abbey, is that right? The stone from

the Abbey is the same sort of stone that would have been used for Whitby

Abbey. We didn't actually take Whitby Abbey apart! I'm glad to

hear! It's very then tick. I can hear the seagulls in the background,

you've got a soundscape. I can smell the salt coming off the seaweed.

Yes, that's been driving in my greenhouse for a few weeks. Thank

you for bringing it here. Here we are, is it finished, are you happy?

It is finished and we are very happy. It's been quite a journey but

we are there. Where you up into the early hours this morning? We had a

few, we were up late last night until about 10pm. We had all the

cars with the headlights shining on the garden. But we got there. Which

isn't what you want to be doing at Chelsea. Not quite but we had a few

hours to spare as we did quite well. Tell us the story of this garden. We

are standing on the Silk Road. Right at the centre of it is the legend,

the city of Chengdu lost the Sun so they sent out four elders to find

the sun. They were immortalised as four birds who now circle the sun.

One of the challenges is it's not just a huge site but you get a 306

degrees view which is the only garden in the showground. That's

right and you can't hide anything behind a boundary, everything is on

view. What we've tried to do here is very the experience as you walk

around. At the back it's quite calm and green. As you approached the

front the colour hits you and we've related the colour to the Silk Road

to give that impact and vibrancy. And flatpack gardens, this is a

flatpack garden, it's supposed to be easy but it's the stuff of divorces,

isn't it? Exactly. It sounded good when we were talking about it but it

actually has been quite difficult. To drop this side of object as a

flatpack garden into place was a challenge but it's worked out.

Almost divorced territory there at any point? No! They were hammering

it in! You both need a well-deserved rest, I think. It's been a long road

to Chengdu. Well, Chris, you've made fractal theory clear. Even I can

understand it now. The whole garden is based on that concept. It's based

on the natural patterns of nature and trying to understand the way

natural patterns relate to gardens, and also where they occur elsewhere.

The understanding of music is an integral part of that. Earlier this

week the National youth Orchestra were performing that peace that has

been written just for this garden. Wasn't it fantastic. I believed

there was an overlap between gardens and music and the vocabulary was

common but there must be something else. Both stimulate the emotions

and Massad the soul. When you put those two things together I wanted

to know if there was an amplification of that effect. If you

are standing here when the orchestra were playing, undoubtedly there was

an amplification. It was wonderful. We've got landscapes, replications

of landscapes but yours is a garden and that's what people want. It's a

garden design show, isn't it? It's a garden which pulls many strands

together. It's about not only getting community and children

involved, whether it's in the artwork or the roof or the school

who are the recipients of the musical stage, the planting goes on

to communities and stimulates community gardens, to particular

gardens in east London. It's about talking about the beauty of

gardening and inspiring people. I love your garden, it's fantastic

this year. As well as James Basson's garden

three others won gold medals. Royal bank of Canada garden with a forest

with mature pine trees, boulders and a burned pavilion. Breaking Ground

garden took inspiration from Heathen planting. Themes of breaking down

barriers to education. The Linklaters garden for Maggies

created a private space behind a hedge to offer relief and beauty to

those offering from cancer. The ultimate for any plant lover at

Chelsea is the Great Pavilion. Every year it sets the gold standard for

horticultural quality. Yes, it's truly one of the wonders of the

gardening world. It has over 100 exhibitors under one roof. That's a

lot of class acts. Who better to be mistress of ceremonies than our very

own Carole Klein. Roll up, roll up. Welcome to the

greatest floral carnival on earth. It's time to perk up your petals,

pump out that perfume, and turn your very best side to the cameras.

It's time to dive into this oceanic display of clematis. Here are wave

after wave of pastal perfection. You can almost hear the sound of the

sea. If you plunge under the surface, you

are swimming alongside a shoal of silvery fish. The creativity in here

is breathtaking. It's out of this world.

Some of the stands in here are on such a scale and they have so much

penache. Rather than walking through a floral display, you feel as though

you are immersed in a fantasy garden.

Just look at this stand. Form, texture, colour. Pure beauty.

It's sublime. No gala performance would be

complete without its superstars. And these aren't just any old orchids.

These are amongst the best in the world from the Eric Young Foundation

inIersy. How lucky we are they've graced us with their presence.

-- Jersey. David objects tin's roses are pure

romance. It's not just their colour that enchants, but these waves of

perfume that waft through the air bringing a whole new dimension to

our experience in the Great Pavilion.

When all the hard work is over and the medals are handed out, it's a

moment of pure magic. It's not all about the gardens. In

the Great Pavilion, all the exhibitors have come in this morning

fighting - biting their nails, they've had a sleepless night

waiting to see what the judges have given them. It's brilliant!

Yeah, got gold. That's the star of the show, isn't it? Have you told

her? I have told her this morning, yes. I talked to them all this

morning. Very happy. We are overjoyed.

Gold! We can breathe now. Yeah. There we

go. Yes, a gold. Well done.

Well done! Thank you, thank you very much.

What have you got? We have got... We have got a silver!

We are over the moon. Oh! I am so excited. I am so happy. You

got a gold? ? I got a gold. So happy! I mean, beyond happy.

Now with 61 gold medals awarded there is a golden glow inside the

pavilion this year. But there is still one very important award yet

to be revealed, the Diamond Jubilee Award given to the best exhibit in

the whole of the pavilion. This year it went to Penwirt plants.

Congratulations, it's a big thing. Biggest of the big. How does it

feel? Over the moon. Fantastic. Lots of tears yesterday morning and every

time people talk about it you think I am going to cry again but I have

been told I am not allowed to again. Any inkling it might come your way?

None whatsoever. You always like to think you have a chance of having to

win a gold. You had to get a gold to get the award? You have to have a

12-point gold, you are not allowed to drop any marks. You are put up on

your panel which were the ornamentals, we were the best of

that. This is perfection in itself? Yeah, well I like to think we are in

the best in the world now. It's tricky because you have a huge range

of plants. . How come you got a wide range of plants? We are representing

the garden we work from in Penberth and we grow all those there, we

specialise in South African plants. Why South African plants? We have

similar conditions. We are in Cornwall, we are at Land's End.

Granite bed rock. We have the air quality. Reflections from the sea.

We can really go for it with South African stuff. Plenty of rain as

well. Yeah. So it's quite wet. Wet and free drainage. As far as the

exhibit it's stunning and you have three different areas and the

visitors can walk through and really get up close to the plants. How does

that work with the two of you? We do a mock-up before the show, this year

it was the main section. When we were trying it, it was too windy to

even do it. Too windy down there. You can only do it, you had to play

it by ear on site? ? We had to wing it really. I didn't want to say

that. Because we know the plants, we propagate everything and we know how

they're going to react together. It's not that it's easy, but we just

know what we are doing with those plants. Yeah. You certainly do.

Congratulations. Thank you. It's absolutely stunning. Thank you.

Thank you. Nice to meet you both. One of the best things about Chelsea

is the passion and enthusiasm you find here. There are hundreds of

expert growers, all of them generous with their advice and thousands of

devoted gardeners from all walks of life. One of them is the actress

Joanna Lumley. It's lovely to see you here. Hello,

thank you. Are you a regular to Chelsea? I am lucky enough to come

most years and most years on a Monday and I love that. The first

time I came I was about 18 and I was staying with my aunt in Earl's

Court. And it was Friday when they sold off the plants in those days,

that was the end of the Chelsea Flower Show and I remember buying a

lily that high in a pot. And not realising I didn't know how to get

back to Earl's Court and I got a lift in an ice-cream van and the

fare he exacted was a kiss. That's the 60s for you! Are you a gardener?

Presumably you wouldn't have been buying plants. And I am a gardener.

We have a long thin garden in Stockwell, the kind people who sold

us the house had divided into three rooms. The first bit people go how

lovely, and my gosh you can go through here and you come to fish

ponds and a pear tree and they go but it goes on and you go down to

the end and there is a walnut tree I planted and I adore it because we

pick our own pears, apples, plums, we have walnuts, I never managed to

get one because the squirrels get there first. Figures. Lemons. I

brought a picture of the lemon crop yesterday. About two kilos of lemon.

Do you keep them outside winter? All winter. I couldn't do that. This is

the heat of London. It's divine, I love it. I should put in here that

it's what I would call a wild garden. It's how I love it. A little

bit, maybe too wild for me. An abandoned garden. Do you love it

because of the way it looks or because of the wildlife it attracts

or what is it? I am very keen on wildlife. Butterflies and insects

and bees. I adore the foxes, I whistle them in if they want to have

supper. We have squirrels, I know, but they are adorably funny to watch

acrobats, birds, birds. So those are all important for me. Rain is

important, when people say it's going to be a bad day, but is it

going to rain, sweet rain. Weather is such an integral part of

gardening. Rather than seeing it as an enemy it is, what is. We were

chatting earlier about, not being old but having more time and more

age and one of the things I have learned is to embrace weather. Yeah.

Not to see it as an enemy. Not to predict how it ought to be be. Take

what comes. And bring with you something so that you are not angry

and cross. If you are going to be frozen, take something in your bag

you can wrap around you or take off. What do you take from Chelsea? Oh...

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

came to Chelsea and looked at what's here, you would end up believing in

a new God which is nature, the oldest God of all. Thank you very

much indeed. Thanks, Monty. Now Chelsea isn't all about grand

show gardens and vast statement spaces, there is also plenty of

inspiration for the smaller garden as Adam Frost found out.

Gardens seem to be shrinking by the day. For me that doesn't mean you

can't have a beautiful garden. I think there are a load of ideas out

there to make a small space fill a lot bigger.

This really is a small garden. It's actually five metres by seven

metres. There is so much going on. You might look and think I couldn't

do that. And I am not sure I could even do some of the detail in this

garden but there's so many ideas in here that can really help you make

your space feel much bigger. In smaller gardens we tend to forget

that actually we have more space around the garden than we have on

the surface. We accept we have a fence or a wall and if you think

about those boundaries they're partly a design process, point one,

you can make the space feel bigger. Here, the back wall is sort of

wall-to-wall meets green. Here, if you imagine if you wanted an office

at home, by lifting this building up and carrying the garden straight

under all of a sudden proportions feel beautiful. Borrowed landscape.

There is a lovely tree outside of this garden, so if you imagine a

tree in a neighbour's garden, maybe using that colour of that tree or

the leaf of that tree and bringing it into your garden, and you start

to lose your boundaries which makes your garden feel bigger.

I think it's absolutely exquisite. Ultimately this is really a hole in

the ground, a few steps down. Some nice seating. Surrounded by

planting. All of a sudden it changes the atmosphere totally. I am engaged

with the garden, it feels comfortable. My eye at the same

level as plants, grasses are moving and flowers look beautiful. It's a

simple thing to do. This garden plays well with perspective, you

imagine the path closer to the house starts wide and as it comes out into

the garden it gets thinner and thinner. It makes the back wall feel

much further away. Sometimes actually being brave

enough to use a large area of water in a small space can work really

well. It's reflective, it bounces light around the garden. On top of

that, it really gives the sort of garden space to breathe.

What I really love about this space is actually it's really simple. If

you think about it in plant form - planned form it's rectangles and

this change of level slow movement into the space. And it brings you up

on to this big slab that goes out over the water and the water pushes

the planting away and it leaves you with this feeling you have this

really lovely useable space. However small your garden is, there really

is some ideas out there that can make the space feel so much bigger.

There are two competition categories for the smaller gardens at Chelsea,

you have the concept actual fresh gardens that deliver a message for

design and the more traditional art is San gardens. Now, I was lucky

enough to get the opportunity to explore some of these gardens as the

sun set on an empty showground. As the light is falling at us, I am

able to roam around, free. This is where the Artisan gardens are.

They're small but they are 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 is made from new, it looks like nothing you will find in

the countryside. And this is one of the latter, it's by Sarah Ebberley.

It immediately sums up the sun and vitality and colour of Spain.

Despite being the designer's first-ever show garden, the Poetry

Lover's Garden is incredibly confident and strong. It does

nothing particularly original, the planting, the stonework, the way it

set out reminds me of lots of show gardens I've seen. But what it does,

it does so well. The idea is it's a place to come and find inspiration

and retreat, either to read a poem or perhaps even right one. Now, as

the light falls around me, and although the city still baffles

beyond the Park, Chelsea slips into night and I'm just going to have a

few moments to enjoy it to myself. Well, as you can see the Artisan

gardens give designers a chance to create their vision in a tiny space,

often with breathtaking attention to detail. We took a closer look at

some gold winning gardens. Is it a night gold-medal? Thank you very

much! This garden is incredible. You said you wanted to create an Eden

away from the turmoil of the world. Do you think you've been successful?

I'm thinking more like 110%. The incredible thing is, as you walk

around this garden, even at the back of your garden, it's immaculate.

There's more attention to detail at the back of your garden and some

people put at the front. So when I met you before, you were talking

about taking this glass building and shipping it from Japan. You didn't

have a substitute and you were bringing it from the other side of

the world here and I felt so nervous. A single crack and you

don't have a spare. How has that been? You've pulled it off again. I

need to know, this is your 12th time at Chelsea, is there going to be a

13th? Yes Sir! Challenge! LAUGHTER See you next year, with another gold

medal! I hope! I no! This is the seat lip garden designed by

Catherine MacDonald. What a stunning garden it is. I'm especially drawn

to the planting. It's got a perfect balance between lights, ephemeral,

fluffy plants and slightly heavier plants, to balance it together. Two

of my particular favourites are down here. This is totally tangerine. It

has only arrived in the last few years and it such a reliable border

plant. It goes on for about six months and it's really easy to look

after. Of course, it has that beautiful, coppery, orange quality

to the flowers. It pairs fantastically with this fern. Copper

is a binding theme that pulls the whole garden together, not just in

the planting but the hard landscape as well. These copper pipes run all

the way around the garden and create a visual flow. The copper links

these benches at the front and the back of the garden. The idea is they

represent traditional alchemy and modern alchemy. Running through the

top of the two benches are copper rills carrying water which creates

this unity through the whole garden. I think the Seedlip Garden has to be

one of my favourites at Chelsea 2017. Fabulous garden. It looks

great. There are lots of and weeds in here, we do at Chelsea, are you

serious? We are serious. Weeds or wild flowers can be really stunning.

There is an irony as well because you think a lot of weeds are really

difficult to get rid of like docks and dandelions. When you try to get

rid of they persist and went disappear. When you give them a bit

of love and TLC, they show off. They aren't as easy to grow. They will

show off. The horse, he looks good. He's slightly rusted... Absolutely.

The horse has only recently been finished. We are really chuffed with

it, it's taken on that really nice rusty feel. Eventually it will get a

really dark rusty colour. How many horseshoes? There are between 300

and 400 horseshoes. Some of them are donated by the Royal family. It's a

really nice piece and we are chuffed with it. It looks great. What did

Clippy think this garden? He over liked this garden, started munching

around. At one point they said, can we bring Clippy onto the garden,

that can't happen! It looks stunning in this dappled shade. You got a

gold medal, I'm not surprised. I bet the visitors really loved this

garden. Congratulations chaps. Six Artisan gardens got gold this year

but only one of them could be awarded Best Artisan design. I

caught up with the winner. Graham, congratulations. It's the big yet

again, you won it. Two years ago, you got gold and Best In Show but

before that you got a few silver than silvergilt. You've nailed it

now and you know what it takes to get there. Yes, got there in the

end, really pleased with it. You aren't here every year are you? I'm

a biannual Chelsea garden designer. The way you conjure up the

industrial landscape, have you sourced all the bits and pieces in

here? I was fortunate enough to be able to get the crane. My

grandfather bought the crane 40 or 50 years ago. When I went to look at

it it was immersed in nature, branches had grown through it and it

kind of planted the seed of the garden and I germinated it over 18

months. I used the crane throughout the garden. This was all in the

nursery? Yes, in an old swamp area. We used to go down there as kids, I

managed to salvage it in the winter months. It was a bit of a mission.

It's the industrial landscape, it's not just where nature has taken

over, someone has God and displays, haven't they? The brief was that

people are living in warehouse accommodation and have commissioned

a design to build a garden for relaxation. You are celebrating the

heritage because a lot of these wharfs and warehouse blocks have

been converted and often just completely get rid of that landscape

outside. 100%. It would be great to incorporate this sort of thing.

Instead of paving it, to create an atmosphere with this curiosity and

industrial heritage really fits in with the Artisan category, I think.

And you are celebrating conifers, not many people here are. You put

them together so beautifully. Our heritage at the nurseries is growing

pines and conifers. I picked the textural ones that relate to the

material colour, also some are a bit windswept with the prevailing wind

going down the river. They give the garden a bit more depth and height.

You borrowed that landscape beyond, you haven't put a boundary in, it

feels like it goes on. The location was perfect for the garden, because

there is no boundaries. It's like a section of a larger garden so it

works really well. Great to see you and congratulations again. Thank

you. The Fresh Garden category reflects the modern side of garden

design at Chelsea, and this year there were five entries and two gold

medals. Juliette Sargent and Nicki Chapman took a look at the designs

that impressed the judges and visitors alike.

This is the Breast Cancer Now Garden, through the microscope. It's

a garden with a really strong theme. And as we walk through the garden,

we can read the details that the designer Ruth Willmott 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. But further down the garden, as you take a journey,

you come to smooth stones which represent healthy cells. In the

centre of the garden there is a black rectangular pool which

represents the microscope slides that scientists use to study the

cells. These circles represent the microscope that scientists use every

day to research into the cheers 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 the leaves

are big. A good example would be this little flower is mirrored by

the large, bold peonies at that end. But the question on everybody's lips

is why didn't it get a gold. Of course, I don't know for certain,

but I have a theory. Ruth Willmott loves to design conceptual gardens.

Most gardens are either purely conceptual or they are very garden

knee. Whereas Reeve has set herself a challenge in designing something

that falls between, and 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. A splash of the Americas has spilled out of the

Great Pavilion and into the gardens this year. With this Fresh Garden

beneath a Mexican sky. Today I think is the perfect date to be viewing

your garden. It absolutely is. When I started designing this garden I

said if the sun shines in its full glory it will be perfect. And what a

day to be standing here with you just admiring it. When you start the

whole process, what were you influenced by? Was it the Mexican

design, or somewhere you've been on holiday? I was actually influenced

by the modernist Mexican architect Louis Barragan. I have Indian

ancestry, born in Kenya, surrounded by beautiful women in gorgeous

saris. Subconsciously it was the colour I was attracted to. That is a

very, very dramatic backdrop. So he was your influence? Absolutely. When

you were designing the garden, what did you have in mind? The blue sky

today shows of the colours so well. How difficult is it to recreate that

planting or did you just take elements of it? Part of the planting

scheme was to show Louis Barragan's life. He struggled to become a

recognised architect. I also wanted to introduce plants that people can

take home and grow themselves as well. There are a number of plants

in the garden that people can take home, and actually using their own

gardens. I have an enormous agave in my garden, I didn't think it would

grow that large but it is huge. They are pinpointed around the garden.

What is that tree behind us? That tree is commonly known as the

strawberry tree. It's gorgeous because when the first layer of skin

peels off you get this lovely orange streaking on the branches and it's

absolutely gorgeous and will survive in this country. The architectural

structures and the cacti really works, doesn't it? It definitely

does. There's a whole hierarchy in this garden where you've got the

trees, the specimen plants, then you've got this lovely, soft

planting that weaves through all the lovely structure. It works perfectly

well. The bursts of colour through the Greens and the greys. It

certainly works and congratulations on your silvergilt medal yesterday.

Your face said it all. The sun is shining, it's going to be a trend is

weak. We are loving your garden. Whilst the Main Avenue show gardens

gather all the attention, most of it, the smaller gardens of all the

different types are just as interesting for me, both in the way

that they use their plants and in the details of design.

This is a great example. It's only a small footprint but it's a

combination of architecture and garden that I really love. Upstairs

we have a high rise garden and down here a low rise garden in the shade.

All the materials have been beautifully thought about. The views

have been framed. It really feels like a very cohesive design and a

great example of what you can do in your own space. Here is a nice crisp

boxed hedging and yew hedging and into this lush shady environment.

These plants don't get much sun, they don't get much rain. We still

have this wonderful textural foliage of plants like the tree ferns and

the gingers. I like this rusty metal work that ties in with the detailing

on the steps and it shows you can grow plants in the city in an urban

environment, plants should always come first. Don't you think? They

should. The way they're worked together with the design should be

seamless and it works here. It's a lovely garden. I think it's going to

be one of those gardens, there are always a handful at Chelsea, that

gets better and better every time you look at it.

This year, the RHS introduced a new type of garden at Chelsea. These

weren't judged but were created to inspire visitors and to celebrate

Radio 2's 50th birthday. Each of these five feel-good gardens had a

presenter as its champion and focussed on one of the five senses.

This garden is for your eyes and boy is it a celebration. The colour is

just exploding out. But not in a chaotic random way, in the most

extraordinary controlled celebration and triumph and march of every

colour. It's wonderful. Thank you. I love it. Everybody else is loving

it. It's a good job you do too. One of the things that's interesting is

everybody is saying, not just it looks nice, but it's a garden. It's

a garden they feel they could have at home, could you? It really is a

garden. I have noticed today is that we planted ten days ago, it was at

the height of the Silver Birch frame and all those poppies and sunflowers

have crowded it now. Things are really growing. Are they planted in

the ground or in pots? A lot are in pots. But still growing. Obviously

it's incredibly carefully constructed. But could people do

this at home, is it possible or do you take the idea and a couple of

colour combinations or could you create something as rich as this

that's sustainable? You can. A lot are self-seeding. There is a

structure. And some roses. There are bedding areas that will be changed

every year. You can bed out. I have beds like this at home. They will

give you a succession because if you cut them it's like dead heading.

It's live heading. You have colour outside and you are replenishing it

by bringing it inside. That's the key difference to most perennials.

You can't really do much in shade, can you, you are limited? You

definitely are. There are some things, we have a shady zone here.

You are more restricted because annuals make food from the sun and

it's like putting them on a starvation diet if you put them in

the shade. One thing I know some people have raised is that annuals

and particularly some of the most popular ones have flower heads that

are very busy and not so good for pollenators, is it possible to

balance having lots of wildlife and this amount of colour? It genuinely

is. You want to look for ones that you can see the centre of the

flower. This is perfect, it's why they're so busy. The poppies, they

go for the pollen, the bees, not the nectar there. Things like this

beautiful single dahlia which is elaborate, but if you watch the bees

are feasting on the centre of the flower. They aren't contradictory at

all. We are all feasting on the colour. It's lovely. It's a triumph.

Thank you very much for bringing it to Chelsea. Well, it's been really

good fun. Good. James, welcome back to Chelsea. How

long has it been? It's been 18 years. Probably when you were still

at school. I remember some of the gardens you have done in the past,

it's wonderful to see you back. This is so brave and different. Tell me

about it. Well, the idea is it's a science garden. How do you get sound

into gardens and either you play loud music which we can't do at

Chelsea because it will scare the horses or you have whispering

grasses that nobody will hear. So the idea was to bring in something

new. The other thing about Chelsea is it's there to do new and exciting

things. We are standing in a woodland glade with rather soft

lovely wavy wood land planting around it. Then you start to look

closer and it's actually in the quite what you expected. I love

that. There's so much more to this garden than initially meets the eye.

I describe them as Easter eggs in design terms, you think you get it

and you suddenly notice something. Tell me about the ripples through

the water. There are speakers in them. That's where the sound comes

from. If you play certain frequents of sound through water it makes

different patterns. It's all been programmed by some very clever young

sound artists, so each speaker does a different thing. Some are

flickering across the surface and some are booming and loud. It's

about taking the bass out. Now it's playing... It's doing weird things.

I notice there is bits that look almost like Jack Frost painting live

over the surface and some look like fish jumping up and down, it's

dramatic. To turn sound into a visual form is something I have

never seen before. It's fun. It's the only way you can do it, because

essentially what we are doing here creating a show is it's a visual

spectacle. We have to try and make sound something you can see and we

have a strip of gravel on the front the visitor will be able to put

their foot on and there is a vibration that travels up your leg.

The idea is if you go to a concert and stand too close to a speaker you

feel the music. My misspent youth, I remember that. Here you are feeling

it and seeing it but you can't hear it. But it's there. You can roughly

hear it, just, it's quite low. Then you see it and on top of that the

planting is spectacular. Talk about a study in the calming effect of

green. I have an amazing planting team that were helping me. As you

know with Chelsea, it's not just one person. It's a whole load of people.

I had very talented sound artists who helped with the speakers and

amazing planting team who helped to put this vision together. The brief

was create a slightly sinister woodland. The time you have been

able to do it, it's spectacular. The one garden I would see at Chelsea,

it's this one. Thank you very much, that's sweet of you. With Jon

Wheatley in his taste garden. This celebrates everything I love about

gardening, it's something about the joy of it. I love the way that here

we are at Chelsea, it's not trying to pretend it is anything else, it's

a veg plot. That's right. It's my passion, as well. What is lovely is

the colours and forms and shapes and textures of of these plants and you

can eat them. You are a master, you were telling me you won over 20 gold

medals. Why have you chosen the pattern you have, a lot of brassicas

on that side. What I am intrigued by is that there is a mixture of old

and new here. There is some very new, some interesting plants from

China. The pak-choi and Chinese cabbage. We have done traditional

old style lettuce and new ones and the texture and form as well as the

taste of these plants is one of the things that we tried to demonstrate

in the garden. I was thinking that olives, 20, 30 years ago if you saw

an olive at Chelsea it was under canvas, or exotic thing, a

Mediterranean plant. Yes, it was. We can grow these now. Climate has

changed. I know that a lot are grown under glass, as well. One of the

other things we have tried to do is not only look at the foliage and the

root but also at the flowers. The pea flowers, and we have gone

worldwide to research most of the work in here. Well, I know you have

only had a short time, how long did you have to prepare? About 11 weeks.

What was the toughest thing getting this ready in 11 weeks? Toughest

thing was for my colleague who must take the credit for growing these

fantastic vegetables, Terry Porter, to get them all to this pristine

condition. What's been interesting is the public response and the

passion that people have shown standing out on the edge of the

garden. Is that young and old or old people like me who are used to it? I

suppose both of us are of an age. But my passion is to get young

people involved. Also the 30 and 40-year-olds that have small

patches. They're going to come here and are going to love it and

hopefully they'll go home and will grow some veg and will never stop.

It's a brilliant garden, thank you so much. Thank you.

The feel-good gardens were a great success. And a welcome addition to

this year's Chelsea because there were only eight show gardens,

instead of last year's 17. I caught up with Sue Biggs to find out how

the week had gone and what she's planning next.

Now, Sue, we are coming to the end of the week, which to be honest at

the beginning some of us were feeling, not anxious about, but we

knew it was going to shall a different week because the show is

different. Yes, it is. How has it gone? It's gone brilliantly. The

atmosphere on the show this year has been absolutely extraordinary. The

weather, of course, has helped massively. Yeah. Couldn't have been

better really. No, couldn't. But all the energy and the passion and the

innovation here at this show, whether in the pavilion with the

nurserymen or the gardens outside, all the different categories,

especially the feel-good gardens and the beautiful artisan and one of the

gorgeous Main Avenue gardens. Why do you think that is? What's great

sometimes when you have a problem that you have to overcome it does

spur on an innovation and new way of thinking about things and there's

new categories as a result of this, more space has arisen in the ground

that is easier for people to sit down and just stand and stare. It's

great with horticultural too, rather than constantly on the move. Now

what's next up? On 7th June this year we have the first ever

Chatsworth flower Show, up in the East Midlands in Derbyshire, it's

going to be the most amazing show, I think. What will make that show

special other than the location? The location of course on the day, the

house in the background, it couldn't be a better setting but the real

theme of the show is design revolutionaries and what we have

tried to do is take a step away from all the other shows, they're all

different in their own wonderful ways, and there are gardens for

example lieshg the free form gardens where there are no rules. We have

show gardens up there, so some from here, but some is the most

beautiful, the conservatory there, collapsed 100 years ago, we rebuilt

it for the show. It sounds intriguing. We have had a great week

at Chelsea. Thank you very much. Thank you very much.

Well, it has certainly been an extraordinary week. I think it's

been a very good show, don't you? It's been a strong year, no doubt.

What did you like best? I liked the feel-good gardens. Great quality,

great range. I think Sarah's stunning. They have been 100%

success. One thing I could take it would be Darren's gate. I agree. I

love that gate. It's got my name on it, you can't have it! Really. He

can make another one maybe. What about you? I got great pleasure from

the boat garden. That's just about it from us at Chelsea. I will be

back on Gardens World next Friday in the usual slot and I have a preview

of RHS Chatsworth and Joe will be there and we will be at Hampton

Court in July. Until then, goodbye.