There may be fewer nurseries in the Great Pavilion than in years gone by but RHS Chelsea 2022 is still packed with interesting and colourful displays, and it took me the best part of my second day at the show to look at them all.
From garden-like arrangements of plants to displays that showcase individual flowers, such as delphiniums or daffodils, there is something to suit every style of garden. Here are just a few things that interested me.
Verbascums are everywhere at Chelsea this year and I’ve decided I really need to add them to my garden. The combination of V. ‘Cotswold Queen’ and Lupinus ‘Masterpiece’ on the Burncoose Nurseries stand is particularly good.
Much as I love them, I won’t be adding these beautiful primulas as my sandy soil is far too dry for them.
For sheer colour, there is little to beat the display of Zantedeschia (calla lilies) by the aptly named Brighter Blooms.
The British Iris Society, which celebrates its centenary this year, has a wonderful display of all types of iris in a wide range of colours.
There’s a history of the society, an etched glass panel from Pilkington Glass – Geoffrey Pilkington was a founder member – and botanical paintings. Gardeners’ World presenter Rachel de Thame has become the society’s new patron this year.
It wouldn’t be Chelsea without roses and the Great Pavilion has beautiful displays from some of the country’s top rose breeders.
There are several new introductions, among them ‘Jennifer Rose Sell’ and ‘Dame Deborah James’, both from Harkness Roses, and ‘Elizabeth’ from David Austin Roses, named to mark the Platinum Jubilee.
The RHS Chelsea Flower Show Plant of the Year is always hotly contested and two of the entries were among the first things I encountered in the pavilion at RHS Chelsea 2022.
The Middleton Nurseries’ salvia may have been beaten into third place with x Semponium ‘Destiny’ from Surreal Succulents taking the top honour but a pink form of the popular amistad is sure to be a hit with gardeners.
I also rather like this colourful aeonium on the Surreal Succulents’ display.
A new introduction on the Raymond Evison Clematis stand is ‘Issy’, beautiful even if the colour is difficult to capture accurately in the pavilion lighting.
Something on the Eric Young Orchid Foundation display that was interesting visitors were the Anguloa clowesii, or tulip orchids.
Curator Chris Purver told me that they are native to South America and are sometimes called cradle orchids because the cradle-shaped lip is mobile and rocks.
Definitely striking but I wasn’t sure about the faintly medicinal scent – used to attract the euglossine bee.
Now I knew about blue meconopsis but hadn’t seen a yellow one before – just one of the many interesting plants on the Kevock Garden display.
The Botanic Nursery is familiar to me for foxgloves – they hold the National Collection of Digitalis – but it was a peony that caught my eye on their stand.
Naturally, I hunted out Primrose Hall Peonies’ stand and wasn’t disappointed. I just wish I had room to add more of these beautiful flowers.
It was good to see Bloms Bulbs at the show – they were missing from the RHS Malvern Spring Festival. I’m not sure about parrot tulips but ‘Caribbean Parrot’ was the closest any of us got to sunshine on what turned out to be a day of torrential downpours. The Great Pavilion was definitely the place to be.
RHS Chelsea 2022 runs until Saturday May 28. More information here.
You can read my round-up of the gardens at this year’s show here.
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