Bloomin' Good Show (Chelsea Flower Show)

Member Name: deehuff

Product:	Chelsea Flower Show
Date:	23/05/08 (98 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Wonderful show gardens and displays

Disadvantages: It is crowded

The Chelsea Flower Show is one of the Rituals of Summer, like Wimbledon and Henley Regatta. These are all high profile events that draw huge crowds each year, and this year's Chelsea Flower Show is no exception.

The gardens are fabulous. The months of preparation and the hours of toil leading up to the opening must have been exhausting. The judges make their decisions and awards are handed out before the doors are opened to visitors. Walking around I saw gold, silver-gilt, silver and bronze awards in front of some of the gardens, but to tell you the truth every single garden I saw deserved an award. They were all imaginatively and meticulously put together.

It's a very enjoyable event, and quintessentially English. Pimms and Champagne were in great evidence alongside the extravagant displays of floral and water features.

My favourite was the Garden for George, which was dedicated to George Harrison, and had nice little touches like a spade left in the ground, a bicycle leaning on a wall, a mosaic sun with the words "Sun, sun, sun, here it comes" on it. At the opposite end of the garden was a domed pagoda with a water feature in front. The water feature started with a waterfall over a larger than life picture of George Harrison sitting under an umbrella, and was crossed by a psychedelic mosaic path which wound its way back to the other end of the garden.

There were other stunning gardens, all having different themes, and inside the covered area your senses were assaulted by the sight and smell of huge displays of every type of flower and plant. The rose display was quite breathtaking because of the sumptuous variety and quantity on show as well as the fabulous scent of the flowers. The lavender display was beautiful and contained some of the most unusual flowers I've ever seen, but since it was sited right next to a large lily display, it was impossible to smell the lavender at all since the scent of the lilies drowned out everything else.

There were some truly exotic displays, and some rather bizarre ones. Time flies at the Chelsea Flower Show, and no matter how hard I try I never seem to be able to see absolutely everything. Between the Gardens, large and small, and the flower displays, and the stalls and garden equipment displays, there's something new to see whichever way you turn.

If you'd like to see some photos, I posted them on my blog at http://dabrah.blogspot.com/2008/05/flowers-everywh ere.html

Summary: A great day out