RHS Chatsworth

In orchid heaven at RHS Chatsworth 2018

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.

RHS Chatsworth

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.

RHS Chelsea

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.

RHS Chatsworth

This is such a simple idea

RHS Chatsworth

Another easy to copy display idea

RHS Chatsworth

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.

RHS Chatsworth

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.

RHS Chatsworth
Erigeron karvinskianus with Achillea tomentosa ‘King Edward’.

There were some lovely mixes.

RHS Chatsworth

As well as some old favourites.

RHS Chatsworth

And the wildlife seemed to approve as well.

RHS Chatsworth
Ann-Margreth Bohl.

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.

RHS Chatsworth

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.

RHS Chatsworth
Aimee Lax.

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.

RHS Chatsworth

The sci-fi flower is made of ceramic.

RHS Chatsworth

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.

RHS Chatsworth
‘CCLA: A Family Garden’.

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.

RHS Chatsworth

I liked this planting.

RHS Chatsworth
‘The Macmillan Cancer Support Legacy Garden’.

And The Macmillan Cancer Support Legacy Garden by Michael Coley also had a wild feel.

RHS Chatsworth
‘The Great Outdoors’.

These colours also caught my eye on The Great Outdoors designed by Phil Hirst.

RHS Chelsea

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.

RHS Chatsworth
Louisa’s border for bees.

Louisa van den Berg created a border designed to promote June-flowering plants that are good for bees.

RHS Chatsworth

It seemed to have worked.

RHS Chatsworth

There were some of my favourites among the borders, such as these lupins, peonies and geums.

RHS Chatsworth

RHS Chatsworth

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.

RHS Chatsworth
Diascia ‘Monhop Apricot’.

This is a new introduction on Hopleys Plants’ stand.

RHS Chatsworth
Part of the D’Arcy Everest display.

D’Arcy Everest are the RHS Master Growers at this year’s RHS Chatsworth and constructed their display around some beautifully dressed glasshouses.

RHS Chatsworth

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.

RHS Chatsworth

RHS Chatsworth

Why can’t all buses be like that?

RHS Chatsworth

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.

RHS Chatsworth

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

RHS Chatsworth 2018 runs until June 10. For more information, visit the website.

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