Floristry so often appears to be a bit of an after-thought at RHS shows, overlooked by many – particularly the TV cameras – and rarely in the spotlight. It’s likely to be different at RHS Chatsworth 2018 where a display of 5,000 orchids is stealing the show.
There are show gardens – though not as many as last year – some fabulous nursery stands by skilled growers and thought-provoking installations but it was Jonathan Moseley’s stunning exhibit of 100 varieties of Phalaenopsis orchids that everyone was talking about on press day.
Showcasing British-grown orchids from Double H Nurseries in Hampshire, it is ambitious in its size and innovative in its style. And I couldn’t help returning again and again, discovering something new each time.
This is such a simple idea
Another easy to copy display idea
Outside, dominating the show is ‘The Brewin Dolphin Installation’ by Cotswold designer Paul Hervey-Brookes.
Inspired by Chatsworth’s history and a ‘lost’ village that was cleared to make way for ‘Capability’ Brown’s landscape, it is huge in its scale.
The central timber pavilion echoes the buildings that used to be there. Around it is the biggest planting scheme the multi award-winning designer has ever undertaken that combines native plants that would have been used centuries ago with more recent cultivars.
There were some lovely mixes.
As well as some old favourites.
And the wildlife seemed to approve as well.
Stroud sculptor Ann-Margreth Bohl is exploring time in ‘Holocene’, an installation using stone from the same quarry that supplied the building material for Chatsworth House.
Working with a 3D designer, she has charted how the shadows fall like a sundial on the pieces of rock at exactly 4.30pm at Chatsworth on June 9. Then she has cut away the shadowed part.
“It’s about time, about a place and the impossibility of holding a moment,” she explained.
The nuclear disaster that hit Fukushima has inspired another Stroud sculptor, Aimee Lax, who imagines the effect of radiation on a foxglove producing a ‘gargantuan’ plant.
The sci-fi flower is made of ceramic.
Sarah Eberle put wildlife in the frame with her installation, ‘Picture This’. The gilt frame gives a view of the landscape but with some unexpected additions.
There were a lot of meadow-like planting schemes on the five show gardens. This was the CCLA: A Family Garden by Amanda Waring and Laura Arison.
I liked this planting.
And The Macmillan Cancer Support Legacy Garden by Michael Coley also had a wild feel.
These colours also caught my eye on The Great Outdoors designed by Phil Hirst.
And oak block paving was causing a lot of interest.
RHS Chatsworth has a Long Borders competition, which is a great way to bring in ideas that are more on the scale of real gardens. However, the designs failed to live up to the promise with too much bare earth in a few and unimaginative planting. Hopefully, this is a part of the show that will be kept as it has great potential.
Louisa van den Berg created a border designed to promote June-flowering plants that are good for bees.
It seemed to have worked.
There were some of my favourites among the borders, such as these lupins, peonies and geums.
The treat of an RHS show so far from my usual area is that you see some different nurseries, often those who find it too far to travel down south and I spotted at least two from Scotland.
This is a new introduction on Hopleys Plants’ stand.
D’Arcy Everest are the RHS Master Growers at this year’s RHS Chatsworth and constructed their display around some beautifully dressed glasshouses.
And I finally got to see the British Flower bus, as it wasn’t at Chelsea on the same days as me. Designed to host workshops and demonstrations, it was flower heaven.
Why can’t all buses be like that?
And Jonathan Moseley is behind it as well.
RHS Chatsworth is in only its second year and, like a newly planted garden, still needs to grow into maturity. The beautiful setting while a major attraction is also a disadvantage as everything – even Paul Hervey-Brookes’ huge garden installation – is dwarfed by the landscape. Also, while there’s room to see the gardens easily and scope for not one but two floral marquees, it needs a lot of exhibits to avoid huge areas of open ground.
The teething problems of access, at least on the preview day, seem to have been sorted and the weather, unlike last year, was kind. It will be interesting to see what the public’s perception of RHS Chatsworth 2018 is but my money’s on the orchids being the talking point.
• RHS Chatsworth 2018 runs until June 10. For more information, visit the website.