Travel Stories: English Gardens Tour (10)
(This is the 10th in a series of blog posts about the 2018 English Gardens Tour I led.)
On the morning of May 24, 2018, I awoke with a big smile on my face. Today we would be going to the Chelsea Flower Show! Truly a highlight of the English Gardens Tour that I was leading. This has been on my bucket list for years. And certainly on the bucket lists of many of the travelers in my group.
Just to give you a little background, the Chelsea Flower Show is held in spring each year. It has been held on the grounds of the Royal Chelsea Hospital every year since 1913 (except during WWI and WWII). The hospital is the home of retired British army soldiers over the age of 65, who would otherwise be spending their later years alone.
We arrived at the show right when it opened, which was ideal. There was a steady drizzle going on at the time — the first time it rained during the day on our trip, so we weren’t complaining. And besides, I finally got to use my cool dragonfly umbrella so that justified packing it, right?
When it started raining harder, we decided to head under the Great Pavilion (see photo above), which is an enormous white tent that houses all sorts of floral displays.
I could not believe how many different types of flowers were there. Everything was labeled and each plant in perfect condition. If you name a flower, it was probably in there! Peonies, poppies, lupines, delphiniums, roses, tropical plants, orchids, begonias, dahlias, mums, even veggies — it just went on and on.
As you can imagine, there were a LOT of people at the show but I think everyone was cheerful because they were happily immersed in all aspects of gardening.
By the time the rain stopped and we had finished looking at all of the exhibits in the tent, there were huge crowds which made it difficult to see the various display gardens. In addition to the health and wellbeing gardens, there were artisan and show gardens, along with all sorts of exhibits. How I wished I lived in England so I could take some of the things home that I saw — such as amazing garden art, lovely greenhouses and sheds, arches and trellises, and so on.
The vendor section provided every type of shopping opportunity imaginable! Seeds, garden art, “proper” tweed garden jackets (for a mere 375 pounds, ouch), tools and artwork.
There were also plenty of food vendors on hand in different areas of the show, which made it easy to grab a bite to eat. They had picnic tables and seating areas to accommodate the crowds, but due to the incredibly nice weather (once the rain stopped, that is), seating was at a premium.
Here are some photos from our visit to the show. I took a TON of them, so I really had to whittle them down for you! It was truly the highlight of the English Gardens Tour.
Lupines above
 Display of foxgloves above.
Pink poppies (above left) are a Meconopsis — wow! Peonies (above right) are ‘Coral and Gold’ — stunning, aren’t they?!
Fabulous primrose booth, above left.
There are WAY more photos to share with you, but not enough time or space to do it in. But I do hope you enjoyed this sampling of what we saw at the Chelsea Flower Show. It is so worth going to!