Episode 6 RHS Chelsea Flower Show

Before we start, the thoughts of everyone here at Chelsea with the

families and victims of last night's horrific attack Manchester. Over the

next hour, all we can hope to do is bring a little bit of light and calm

on such a tragic day. Welcome to the RHS Chelsea

Flower Show an event After months of planning and weeks

of painstaking work, it's no surprise that the medal

announcements brought a range of emotions to the surface -

from joy and elation, Four Gold Medal is have been

awarded, two silver-gilt medals and two Silver medals. Is that a fair

reflection? That is about right, four out of eight got gold medals,

that is 50%, last year 35%. A good standard although we have less

gardens. There are a couple of gardens that might consider

themselves lucky and another that might be unlucky. Yes, controversy

at each end. But there or thereabouts. Yes, I think it is

gritty fair. Tonight, we'll be bringing

you all the key results from the large Show Gardens,

along with indepth analysis and opinion on why they received

the medal they were awarded. We'll be catching up

with designer Chris Beardshaw, as we discover exactly how he's

brought together the worlds James Wong meets renowned

Japanese small garden designer Ishihara Kazuyuki -

or, as he's known around Chelsea, 'The Moss Man.' I'll be

chatting with fashion designer-turned-sculptor

Nicole Farhi, to find out what's caught her eye at this year's

Chelsea. And Mary Berry proves her

green-fingered credentials, as she explores the importance

of cut flowers in But first, let's turn our attention

to the main event - the medals. Earlier today, Nicki Chapman

and James Wong were up to see the tears of joy,

and those of commiseration, It is the day the designers have

been waiting for. You can just feel the tension as you walk down the

Main Avenue, but this is it and we cannot wait any longer. That

gentleman is Darren Hawkes. He built a garden here in 2015, winning a

gold medal. Congratulations! Big smile, big hug, it looks like a

gold. Just a massive relief, I have worked really hard for this in my

garden. I can hear it in your voice. Is a gold Medal going to run through

their Silk Road garden? Slightly disappointed? Very. He has done

Artisan and Fresh Gardens and this is his first large one unmake -- a

Main Avenue. I want to give you a Silver medal. Hopefully I will win a

gold -- next year. We know that you will. Chris Beardshaw has six gold

medals, more than any designers here who have had gardens here. This

year, it looks like he has got a silver-gilt. We are so thrilled with

our garden is looking forward to sharing it with everybody. Andrew

Wilson and Gavin McWilliam. They have won a gold, they were too

nervous to be here. Are they working around the corner with everything

crossed? No. It is worth coming out for this. Charlotte Harris has been

around Chelsea for years, always behind the scenes helping other

designers. Good morning. Yes! Show everybody at home, how do you feel?

Absolutely delighted. James Basson is relatively new to Chelsea and in

that time, he has got three golds, four golds! Huge congratulations.

Thank you very much. That is half the main gardens winning gold, is it

too early for champagne? Whatever medal they get, their

emotions are so finely run and they are so tired and tears are almost

inevitable. James, you have come back up here which you have done for

a number yet of years. You are a judge and you have done this eight

while, can you explain a bit about the judging process. First of all,

the medals. Gold, silver-gilt, Silver and Bronze in descending

order. As I understand it, there is no element of competition between

the gardens, anything can get -- anybody can get anything. Yes,

wonderful, we want to give people as good a medal as we can. They are not

competing against each other, they have designed gardens to comply with

the nine judging criteria we have and we have worked out. I think on

the whole, you have got it pretty good. I have seen hundreds of

Chelsea show gardens and the one controversy is Chris Beardshaw. I

said on this programme last night he was definitely getting a gold medal.

And you gave him a silver-gilt. I have been back and had a look and

his quality looks fantastic, the design is great, the construction

looks good, why did he get silver-gilt? There was a problem

with a couple of anomalies in the construction and we thought the

plants were just too densely place. This is Chelsea, everybody at the

top of their game. You are nit-picking! Yes, that is the whole

point, chopping at tiny bits. We are looking for perfection and you have

to look hard to find that. These gardens are really good, all of them

are brilliant. OK, you are nit-picking, but his is probably the

only garden that many people visiting would recognise as a garden

that they can have at home. Is it out of touch, old-fashioned? No, we

want gardens like that. We are putting on a Flower Show and we want

as much variety in every area so we want modern gardens, avant-garde,

crazy, and traditional. We're here to please the public and what we are

trying to do is to give the public what they want all the time which as

we know is impossible. We try and that every year to get it better.

Very briefly, do you talk to the designers and tell them what they

have done wrong? Absolutely, it is the most important part of judging,

feedback. Today, I have been going around and seeing every designer we

judged yesterday and saying, this is the mentally you got and this is

why, this is what you can do better. This is why he is so used to

answering questions, he gets a pummelling all the time! James,

thank you very much, it is not an easy job, it is very easy to

criticise but I think you do it pretty well. Thank you very much.

The sheer amount of effort that goes into getting a large Show Garden

ready for Chelsea is truly impressive, not to

One of the real head-turners this year and a consistent contender

at Chelsea is three-times Gold-medal winner - now four - James Basson.

He may be relaxed and happy today - having scooped another gold -

but, believe me, it was a monumental task building this year's garden,

James Basson is famous for bringing a slice of Mediterranean France to

Chelsea. Olive groves, lavender field, triggering streams. This

year, his garden could not be modern different. This is extraordinary.

What are you creating? A quarry. AMP and attic or about quarries, a bit

obsessed. It is definitely brave, it is a departure about what you have

brought to Chelsea for five or six years. We often do soft lines and

planting so we thought we would do something contest in. Very much the

wild and soft and woolly look, but a very, hard and straight and perfect

line. What will rise out of this? Describe it. It has got to feel like

a quarry and it has been repopulated and therefore become a garden. A

backfill the quarry and they plan to them with weeds and our lives and

trees and it is dwarfed by these massive pillars. But that is a small

one! Yes, that is a small one. What will be the big challenges you will

be concerned about? The biggest challenge is finishing. You always

finish! But this is a big build! It is the moment when the ball the

jigsaw puzzle is starting to link up. The stone was quarried in Malta.

It was cut in Malta. It was packed in Malta. And it has been brought

out and it has been made by the Maltese hands. The puzzle master has

been putting it together and these guys from with their serious skill

have been making it feel knitted and tight and perfect. We are always

very keen to begin planting, you probably -- probably a bit too keen.

The main client you do not want standing over you and it brings out

the nerves of everybody. This will be a cooler and, and more reserved

construction if I was not here kicking, kicking, kicking.

Well, this is what I would call extreme gardening but because I am

going up! How funny to see you at Pier, James, this is definitely an

extreme planting! It is a very tall raised bed! It is wonderful and you

have started the planting down there. We started in the woodland

and we have gone up from the lush landscape and further into the

gardens, it gets drier and hard up until we start planting. It is

looking at spectacular, extraordinary, so different to what

you have done in the past. Yes, it is a very contemporary looking

structure, it is almost like a brutalist tower block and I'm quite

attracted to that architecture. You have got a great bird's eye view of

the showground from here. Yes, you are not lucky to come up here

because loads of people have been asking get, you are the first up.

What a privilege, that is great! And here it is, in

all its golden glory! Golden stone and a Gold Medal to go

with it, well done, James. All James' 'kicking kicking

kicking' clearly paid off. And Monty will be catching up

with James later on in the show. But for now, he's gone for a wander

down the dingly dell, James is one of the four gold-medal

winners on Main Avenue this year. However, regardless of the medal won

or not won, the gardens here at Chelsea should simply be

enjoyed for what they are. And they can stir different

emotions, depending My own taste is very much drawn to

the Artisan Gardens and in particular, this is by Gary Breeze

who did that marvellous granite sarcophagus last year. This could

not be more different, but it does share the celebration and attention

to craftsmanship. It is based upon a 900-year-old boat found in the

Norfolk Broads and this is a replica made out of oak, it is beautifully

made, simple but elegant shapes. The planting around it reflects the

Norfolk Broads where it was found, which is a man-made landscape. But

they hold an astonishing amount of Flora and fauna. It looks very

simple as though it is not a garden. But you look at the attention to

detail and everything from the way the robes are tight and do your kids

been put in the grass and the nest in the corner and the water, to the

lettering, everything but is a celebration of cracking the ship.

And for me certainly as a gardener, this hands-on arts and craft of

growing things and of caring for them, of bringing them into being,

as a partnership with the material. The oak for the boat or the plans

that will blossom and be a celebration, they are all connected.

It is the link between human skill and the natural world app that I

think is a celebration of life and certainly it is exemplified in this

Gold Medal winning garden. The Artisan Gardens have really been

pulling in the crowds this And it's not just the public

they attract, some designers actively choose a smaller canvas

to work on, as they prefer the intricate nature

of their planting. Ishihara Kazuyuki, one of Chelsea's

frequent contenders, Famous for his medal-winning work

with moss, there's more to this flamboyant character

than meets the eye. James Wong went over

to Japan to discover more Bustling Tokyo is one of the biggest

cities on the planet. Then you turn down a side street, and you see

this. It is just incredible. And this is where Ishihara Kazuyuki

works. Mr Kazuyuki is a top garden designer with a background in Floris

tree. I am meeting up with him to find out what brings him to London

year after year to take on the challenge of Chelsea. We all know

about your Chelsea gardens, but we are not really that familiar with

your work in Japan. How did you come to be a garden designer?

There is so much crossover between Floris tree and garden design,

particularly at Chelsea. But what made you want to come to the other

side of the world to show off your talent?

We are so glad you did. One of the first things I noticed when I look

at York wall, I can find the characteristic lance recognise from

the styles of your previous gardens. Tell me more about them.

It is really incredible what you've been able to achieve here in such a

small footprint, and also, your gardens at Chelsea are always small

but you maximise on that. Is that a theme that runs through your work?

I love this wall. Tell me about some of your other local projects.

As well as these incredible outdoor spaces, Mr Kazuyuki also create

intimate Japanese gardens for hotels and restaurants.

He is also a master of the Japanese art form it could ikebana.

Last year you created a space that was very personal to you. What have

you got in store for us this year? So you've been at Chelsea 11 times,

you have eight gold medals and the President's award, and you still get

so excited when you get the medal. What drives you to keep coming back?

We only have a couple of months ago. I can't wait to interview again when

you get your goals. Yes, nine times gold winner! And it is a ninth gold

medal. Thank you very much! You said you wanted to create an Eden away

from the turmoil of the world. Do you feel you have been successful

doing that? I think more like 110%, because the

incredible thing is, as you walk around, even at the back of the

garden, it is immaculate. There is more attention to detail at the back

of your garden than some people put up the front.

So when I met you before, you were talking about taking this class ill

doing and bringing it from Japan, you didn't have a substitute and you

were bringing this from the other side of the world, and I felt so

nervous for you, a single crack and you don't have a spare. How has that

been? You have pulled it off again. This

is your 12th time at Chelsea. Will there be a 13th? Yes, sir!

Challenge! See you next year, same plot, another gold medal. I hope!

Mr His attention to detail

is as impressive as his And it's not just the garden

designers who have been punching the air this morning,

but the exhibitors You got gold? I did indeed. All the

hard work put in, it is good to get an award at the end of the day. We

have seen maples and the Japanese gardens, and you have a complete

exhibit. How many have you got? 59 varieties in the display today.

Myself and my aunt put it together. They don't seem to ever clash, you

have lime green and burgundy but they all seem to work nicely

together. Definitely. If you come again in a couple of months, they

will all change colour through to the autumn. This is a new one on me,

or to moon. Does it stay like that throughout the? It is red and orange

in the spring, green and yellow in the summer and then red and orange

again in the autumn. And the lovely filigree foliage one over there.

What is that one? That one is called heartstrings. It goes to a nice read

in the autumn. It looks like one of those ones that people might have

problems drying out, sometimes believes go crinkly. What is the

best tip? Keep them watered, Acer love water, they don't like the

heat. In heat and high strong winds, give the pot a good soaking, water

it until you see the water above the soil, it needs to keep the roots and

leaves healthy. Moisture is key. Congratulations.

And we'll be bringing you all the medal news

from the Great Pavilion tomorrow, as we celebrate their planting

prowess in more detail and reveal the winner of the prestigious

Diamond Jubliee award for Exhibit of the Year.

Now, many of the plants on display in the Pavilion have also been

working their magic out there on the Show Gardens.

In fact, in my opinion, they are the true superstars at Chelsea.

Carol's been to pick some of the standout plant combinations

that have been stealing the show this year.

So often when people talk about plant combinations, they talk about

brilliant, scintillating, vibrant colours. The kind of things that

leap out at you. But if you look a little further, there is such

subtlety, such beauty to be found. Just by putting the right plants

together. You could very easily walked past

this corner without noticing it, but as soon as I saw it, I was

absolutely drawn in. The basis of it is this lovely soft grass. It is

wavy hair grass, aptly named. And in the midst, this sizzling bit of

yellow that is picked up by the Aquilegia. Perfect combination, but

in contrast, these green buds. It is absolutely lovely, and it is

something that anybody could emulate.

When you look at this garden first of all, with these big bangs of

colour, for me, the piece that I love best is this gorgeous texture

contrast. First of all, the soft, fluffy

fennel, and then this cuneiform bush.

And the big, soft, silky chalice flowers.

I love the way these grey leaves surround the stems, and then these

great tall spires of the looping. The strong structure makes all the

texture really come to the fore. It is not just with herbaceous

plants that you can create the exciting combinations. There is a

real live here, these big spheres. I love these dark, dark leaves. The

subtle change of colour from copper to green, and then there is this

tremendously elegant with these lovely blades.

Whether you prefer annuals, herbaceous perennials or grasses, it

is not just about the plants, it is about the combinations.

I agree with Carol, plenty of combinations just right for stealing

out there in the showground. Still to come tonight from the RHS

Chelsea Flower Show, an event We'll be revealing the recipient

of the event's most-coveted prize - Adam Frost picks out some key hard

landscaping design elements that And Mary Berry adds some flower

power to our Chelsea experience. I'm feeling quite at home with all

these cupcakes around me. Now, in the last few years we've

seen meadow planting become increasingly popular,

returning to Chelsea And joining the fan club today

is landscape designer Mark Lane. He caught up with gold medal winners

Andrew Wilson and Gavin McWilliam to pick their brains on how best

to achieve an ornamental meadow. Andrew, this is a magnificent

garden, but first of all, congratulations on your medal. You

must be so happy. Very happy, and thank you very much for your

congratulations. Can you explain this type of planting for me? It is

known as ornamental Meadow planting, so it takes on the feel of a

naturalistic Meadow, but is actually made up of ornamental grasses and

perennials. The strong colours, from the perennials, the softness of the

strong grasses, and the whole thing feels like a Meadow.

I am trying to turn on or should in my garden into a wild meadow area.

How would I achieve this? Probably what you would do is to take the

grass away and start all over again, because most of our lawn grasses are

quite aggressive and competitive species. And can you pick out a few

of the plants we have in here? Ornamental grasses here soften the

other colours, with the tiny rice seed heads. You get the main deep

colour for the sense of depth. The tall valerian on the right-hand side

is a British native, and these are typical hawthorns that you would see

in our hedgerows. Many people might be thinking we

don't quite have the space of this Chelsea garden. Is there anything

people could take home for their smaller gardens at home? By the

entrance to the garden we have an area of planting that is about two

metres by one metre, that could sit in a border or a centrepiece to a

small garden, and I think that is the beauty of ornamental meadow

planting. Thank you very much indeed, Andrew. It is a magnificent

garden, and I have so much inspiration and I will hopefully

catch up with you later on. Send me photographs of your orchard! I will

do. Well, I wish Mark the very best

of luck achieving his meadow full But now to my first love,

growing from trowel to table. For the first ten years, I would

grow fruit and vegetables, as many as possible, eating them and sharing

them with my family is my idea of heaven. That is why I love this

garden. Jon Wheatley's Taste garden

certainly celebrates that ethos - It is the joy of it and I love that

we are here at Chelsea and it is not pretending it is anything else, it

is a vegetable plot. Yes, it is my passion and it is the colours and

the forms and the shapes and the textures and you can eat them. You

have won over 20 gold Medal is, why have you chosen this? You have

mingled your charter and your letters, I am intrigued by the

mixture of the new. We have done old-style letters and the new ones

and the texture and form and the taste is one of the things we tried

to demonstrate. An Olive was always under canvas all

good Mediterranean. We can grow these now, the climate has changed.

And a lot get grown under glass. In this lovely garden, we have looked

at the foliage and the roots and the flowers.

We have gone worldwide to research the work here. You have had a very

short time, how long? About 11 weeks. What was the toughest thing

getting this regular weeks? My colleague must take the credit for

growing bees and testing vegetables, Terry Porter, to get them to this

pristine condition. What has been interesting is the public response

and the passion people have shown it standing on the edge of the garden.

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

suppose we both an age! My passion is to get young people involved and

the 30 and 40-year-olds with small vegetable patches. They will come

here and love it and hopefully go home and grow some vegetables and

never stop for the rest of their lives, it is fantastic, thank you so

much. Thank you. The Radio 2 Feel Good gardens

are bringing a whole new element to the show this year?they provide

somewhere to relax and some They mix information and

informality. Queen of the Cakes -

Mary Berry - is the ambassador Tonight, she's indulging

in one of her other great When I was younger, there will

always cut flowers in the House and even if I am away, I dumped the

suitcase and I am out picking and cutting flowers to put on the table.

What better way to choose a tulip fantasy this magnificent display

here? Every possible variety. Dillane, you have a magnificent

display. How long have you been coming to Chelsea?

18 years and the family have been coming here since 1948.

There used to be a great tradition of cut flowers and it is getting

less and less. Yes, the wake people have displayed their stands, we have

always displayed cut flowers. They are in vases, why not put them in

pots? You could not plan to that amount of bulbs to give a display

like that. I am surrounded by tulips in every colour, how many varieties

do you have? We have 200 parts per on the stand at Chelsea Flower Show.

These have always been a great favourite of mine with a long

flowering time from June and they last in water. And in beautiful

colours. These amazing colourful spray chrysanthemum make wonderful

cut flowers from August to September. Well, I am feeling quite

at home with these cupcakes around me. We have got vanilla sorbet here.

I feel as though I want to lick it, it looks so beautifully creamy! Yes,

it is a new one, it was released five weeks ago on to the British

scene. We have got the privilege to date to show at the Chelsea Flower

Show. Next up, these are the more traditional ones I have seen in

vases, how would you keep them like that for a week? Every day, Mary, we

cut the leaves to keep them fresh in this warm weather we are having. I

have been really inspired by all the cut flowers and have seen here in

Chelsea and I am going home full of ideas!

The show is packed full of ideas and you have to stay focused because

some people cannot take it in in a date which is why we are here all

week. It's only day two of the show

and already, we've seen a whole host of inspiration from both

inside the pavilion and outside We've had 26-ft quarry cliffs,

re-constructed beaches, no-dig gardens and edible tables -

there's nothing the leading lights And thankfully, Adam Frost

is here with us to help translate the exceptional into the accessible,

as he unpacks elements from the show gardens

that we too can enjoy at home. Any of you that have ever built your

garden at home no the amount of materials available can be mind

blowing. But it is important they play a major part in the garden and

how it comes together. Concrete is immaterial I really

love. I think some people are fearful of using it and they think

brutalist architecture and it is grey and cold. But you can see how

the grey of the concrete can really bring out the green in the plans in

your own garden. He has used the same material in six different

states. He has crashed it, you can imagine that as a waste product and

that makes the gravel, and that introduces sound to the garden,

after that, he has polished it. Wonderful sleeves and reflective and

shiny surface up and light bounces around and it produces shadow. And

he has poured acid on the polished surface which eats in and it creates

a big coarseness which makes it a lot easier to walk on. Concrete is

going to be about for a long time when you think about it.

The colour and materials can really bring cohesion to a space, and what

I like he is best beautiful bird larch with this copper detail which

is picked up in the pine trees at the back. It runs up and it becomes

a ceiling. And you go back to the larch and that is used horizontally

on the floor which becomes our bridge out of the garden. And in the

seating, it is really lovely and simple. If you paint a fence at

homecoming use that same colour somewhere else in the garden, the

table and chairs or a bench, and that will bring things together.

Another point is that when you start to join materials together, wood and

stone, they are very different. Timber always contracts and expands

and if you put them to close, one will crack and chip. A tiny gap

between them and it will last for a long time.

Sometimes, it using too many materials in a space can make it go

horribly wrong. There is a lot materials here and I think it is the

colour that brings things together. We have grey steel. On the floor,

grey tiles. The walls, they are made of grey stone, totally different

materials and the colour pulls them together. The steel is picked up in

the world. Bringing the materials together. And I like for a bit of

fun the Orange which livens everything up. And we have the white

brick on the front which is used vertically with the water running

down it and horizontally. The white is clever because it brings

brightness to what could be a really dark space. Clever use of materials

can really set you up to help you create that perfect garden.

There really is something for everyone at Chelsea if you know

And if you don't, well, that's what we're here for.

Take Chris Beardshaw's Morgan Stanley Garden.

On paper, the concept behind his garden is dauntingly complex,

involving mathematics, music and gardening.

So, in order to get to the bottom of what exactly was going

on inside Chris's head, we took it upon ourselves to head

to Miserden Garden and Nursery in Gloucestershire and ask

for an explanation from the man himself.

It is extraordinary you stand on the cusp of two different styles of

design, internally you have highly classical and ordered and geometric

garden and externally you have a wide apart. We tend to associate

that with being chaotic. It has of nature. And it is relationship

between the apparent chaos and this formality, that is where the design

for me started. Trying to understand the patterns of

nature, what became apparent is it is not just evident in the

arrangement of a leaf, the patterns are found in snowflakes. The weather

systems. They conform to this rather irregular geometry and the other

area at which you find fractured geometry in is music. And so I was

interested to research some of the great composers. The likes of Mozart

to understand how did they arrange their music? They were arranging

music following beast irregular geometric fractured patterns. When

you look at how formal and structured this geometry is, the

topiary, it is very considered and very precise and a real sense of it

being mathematically perfect. It has got to be Bach, everything is just

right on the right point, topiary is just like that.

When you look at a tree like this, it is difficult not to feel the

presence of the tree. It is Mozart. It is confident and it is bold and

slightly unusual in the way it is arranged. But it is just hugely

successful. So listening to the music of Bach

and Mozart, I started to craft a garden which is essentially composed

of two parts. We had at the Central position in the garden is a

performance space. That end of the garden in is

inspired by the music of Bach, an area of Denison garden with some

glue that peeps through and sparkles in the little light. By contrast,

the front terrace, the opposite end of the garden, is much more

extravagant, picking up teams of Mozart's work. Like a herbaceous

carnival being performed before your eyes. And it occurred to me that it

would be wonderful to not only have this historic reference to the music

being the narrative of the garden, but is it possible to give a

younger, more contemporary composer the opportunity to reflect how they

feel about the garden? And so that is why the national youth Orchestra

had been involved in the project and one of their composers, a

17-year-old girl Lauren Marshall, has been selected to compose a very

contemporary piece of music and ultimately perform it in the garden.

So, a few weeks out of Chelsea, what is left to do? Lauren is finishing

her composition, I have ordered the materials and now I just have to

tend the thousands of plants sitting here in the nursery, because I

decided to grow my own plant material this year, and that is a

completely different challenge. This is where I started out, growing

plants. There is something magical about when you open the glasshouse

door first thing in the morning, the humidity and fragrance, and you

start to see the rewards of your efforts. It is what motivated me to

be a gardener. There is something just very quiet. You can catch your

breath and just think about why you are doing what you are doing. What

is this project you are embarking on. You begin to understand how they

grow. And then you can start to think about how best they will knit

together in this bizarre jigsaw that is Chelsea Flower Show.

Music is very pictorial, and what I do was a job is to paint pictures

with plants, so to bring those together, that is the exercise, and

it's a joy. I can't believe you made fractal

theory make sense even to me! It is based on the patterns of

nature and how they relate to gardens and where they occur

elsewhere, and of course music, the understanding of music, is an

integral part of that understanding. The National youth Orchestra were

here performing that piece that has been written just for this garden.

And wasn't it fantastic? It is one of those things where I believe that

there was an overlap between gardens and music, the Bakambu La Roux was,

but there must be something else, both stimulate the emotions and

massage the soul, and when you put those things together, undoubtedly

that was an amplification. This is a garden, yours is a garden, and that

is what people want, this is a garden design show. It pulls many

strands together, it is about not only getting communities and

children involved, whether it is the artwork in the roof, the school who

are the recipients of it, the planting that stimulates community

gardens. It is about talking about the beauty of community garden and

inspiring people. You have a silvergilt medal. I said

definite gold medal. Have you had feedback? How are you feeling? I

think the Garden speaks for itself, and we didn't necessarily come here

chasing medals, I think that is a lost cause. You come here presenting

what you believe has integrity and reality, and a garden that people

can connect with, and you do the best that you can, and listen to the

response of gardeners rather than the self elected, and you suddenly

realise that actually what matters is the fact that you have produced

this beauty which massages the soul in a way that is indescribable.

Gardening changes people's lives. And I love your garden. It is

fantastic. We see the arts and garden design

working together so well time So it's no surprise that people

from both worlds are drawn here. Monty is joined by

former fashion designer Most people may know

you for your fashion design but you have another string

to your bow now - tell us more! I would prefer they know me as a

sculptor. You have been sculpting for a while. For more than 30 years,

while I was a fashion designer, but fashion obviously took over, and it

is true that people recognise me as a fashion designer, but maybe one

day. I would take that as flattery, because your work when I was in

fashion in the 80s, you were a great star. Thank you for saying that. I

never realised, only one I stopped five years ago, that actually I was

really well-known as a fashion designer. But while I was doing it,

you concentrate on your work everyday and you don't think about

project outside. And your garden? I do have a garden, but it's a green

garden, I don't particularly like flowers. Only when they are coming

out from bushes. I never plant a flower. I hate seeing them dying, so

what I love about bushes is they come back every year. It seems to me

that you come to Chelsea with the particular qualities of a sculptor,

so you have form and space, and colour and texture is, but what did

you see here at Chelsea that caught your eye? My favourite garden, which

is surprising because I like natural gardens, is actually a garden which

has been thought of very cleverly. It is a Japanese garden. So this is

a garden that is peaceful. It is not a natural garden, it has been

planted carefully by the Japanese artist, but it reflects such peace

that you want to go in and sit down and just go within yourself and

think. Was there anything that particularly caught your Ayimba

pavilion? I was really struck by the cactuses. There is a stand where you

have a lot of colours, and I am not somebody who likes colour, but they

come from the tiny little flowers which emerge from those spiky

cactuses, and I do like cactuses, I have them in France in my garden,

and they are the only thing that can grow under the pine trees, because

the houses by the sea. So I have a cactus garden and I enjoy very much

the time of the year where the flowers come from. Thank you for

coming to Chelsea and sharing your views with us, it has been a joy.

Thank you, Monty. Well, it's the moment you've

all been waiting for, it's time to announce who's won

the most coveted prize of them all, the piece de

resistance on Main Avenue - the Best Large Show

Garden winner for 2017. Here's Sue Biggs,

Director General of the RHS, James, congratulations, you have won

a gold medal. This one seems to me that you have taken a landscape, but

it has become conceptualised, and it looks like a piece of modern art,

but it is true to its origins. We took the idea from the traditional

Maltese quarry techniques, the Plum line of the cliff, the graphic

quality of the cutting, and then the standing stones with a brutalist

quality, and I got very excited about that as an architect. I'm

sorry to interrupt your interview. But I have something really

important to tell James. Your beautiful garden has won the Best

Show Garden. CHEERING

Congratulations. I'm afraid it's a setup. That was a

lot of chitchat! How wonderful is that? Thank you very much. Thank you

very much indeed for breaking up the interview and this much deserved

award. I figure this fantastic. I have got so much pleasure from this

garden, but it does divide people, doesn't it? It does. Tell me the

story about it. It is a garden based on a quarry, so it is based on

something I am passionate about. I love to see how vegetation comes

back in areas of minimal resources. I am really into Mediterranean

plants for the same reasons. There is very little rainfall, high

sunshine, often high, salty winds, and to see plants surviving and not

looking perfect but natural and cranky and wonderful, for me is very

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 is the

answer? This is an edited landscape, which means, yes, the plants have

naturalised, and there are blocks of the grand naturally, not naturally

but post-quarrying. They would be more staggered in the quarry, but we

have organised them and made them into a man conceived pattern, and

organise the plants by editing, by weeding, so we have taken at plants

we don't like, added plants, and really studying the French

communities between the steppe vegetation, pavement vegetation, so

that those French communities are quite hard to maintain. And you have

put in a swimming pool? We have, it is a garden and it is for pleasure,

and in the heat of Malta, you need to cool off. And briefly,

environmentally, this is something you are passionate about,

particularly with the Maltese quarry is? Malta is on the southern tip of

Europe, and it is suffering from lack of water, rising temperatures

and overpopulation. And so it is really having to deal with all the

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

they at the moment have been slightly abusing their landscape,

and this is really a message to say, look at what you have got and please

cherish it. Well, look at what we have got, we have a wonderful

garden, you have best in show, congratulations. Thank you very

much. And don't forget, if you don't agree

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

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

judge and jury on this Tomorrow evening we'll be giving

you a rundown of all eight gardens in contention along with the details

on how you can vote Your winner will be revealed

on BBC One on Friday night. That will be interesting to see if

it matches with the judges themselves.

All week we've been asking you to join in the conversation

on the hashtag ask Monty and Joe and here are a few

John Lewis asks if we have any plans to do a show garden together. I know

what would happen if we did. You would wander around with your tablet

doing fancy designs and I'd be in the corner with the pics -- pickaxe

and a spade, digging. I am quite up for it now! Rachel asks what do we

think is the most influential Chelsea trend from the past few

years. That is an interesting one. Probably it is the way that

landscapes have been the source of inspiration for people making

gardens out of landscapes, conceptual Gardens. Yes, and I also

think people used to want perfect planting, full flower, now if

something is coming into flower or has seeded and gone over, real

planting, I think people are a lot more relaxed about that here these

days. I think that is so. Well, that brings us to the end

of what's been a muted Hardly surprising after last night's

events in Manchester. But nevertheless, congratulations to the

designers and exhibitors. Nicki Chapman and James Wong

are back tomorrow at 3.45pm on BBC One as they kick

off our floral celebration Plus Carol Vorderman

will be joining in the fun. We'll be back tomorrow night

at the same time on BBC Two. We'll be joined by legendary

plantsman Roy Lancaster and we'll have all the medal results

from the Great Pavilion. ..team them up with

a Michelin starred chef,