From the fynbos landscape of South Africa to the countryside of Yorkshire, the gardens at RHS Chelsea 2018 take you on a journey across the world.
Outsized sculpture appears in many, while lupins seem to have pushed out alliums and iris as the top show garden plant.
There are more gardens at Chelsea 2018 than last year’s rather low numbers but still fewer than the 20-plus of a few years ago.
The Fresh gardens category has gone, replaced by Space to Grow, urban gardens with a message.
Almost without exception these proved far more traditional than the often-puzzling Fresh entries and offered more things for gardeners to copy.
Here a few of the things I spotted.
Jonathan Snow’s garden looked like a slice of traditional English country planting.
Complete with roses and foxgloves.
Until you got to the front section where the protea were a show-stopper.
I loved these meconopsis on Chris Beardshaw’s garden.
And this beautiful sculpture.
More dramatic was this on the David Harber and Savills Garden.
John Everiss’s garden highlighting myeloma, a form of blood cancer, is built around a huge sculpted head made from layers of blue acrylic.
Stuart Charles Towner has been inspired by Cornwall for his garden. The seats reminded me of sea urchins.
Tom Massey’s garden highlights the work of the Lemon Tree Trust, which helps refugees to build gardens in camps in Northern Iraq.
The Windrush Garden is a highlight of the Great Pavilion.
David Gregory’s Welcome to Yorkshire garden was popular with those at press day.
It was good to see vegetables on Main Avenue.
Paul Hervey-Brookes used mainly green with touches of white on his Artisan garden for Viking Cruises. Inspired by a Nordic spa it is designed as somewhere to relax and there was a softness to the planting.
I liked the way the pot and planting were combined on Sarah Price’s garden for M&G.
And RHS Chelsea 2018 has lupins . . .
lupins . . .
And more lupins.
Some were brightly coloured.
Others perfect pastels.
