My RHS Chelsea 2012 Highlights

 The RHS Chelsea flower show began on Monday with the press day,celebrity's,and of course a visit from H.M the Queen.There are lots of different gardens is four main categories.These photos show some of my favourites.Starting with the M & G garden designed by Andy Sturgeon.I love the copper ring sculpture and soft planting around the hard structures of the garden.

 It has stone steps, a wide pond, and some artfully drilled walls dividing the garden into spaces,

He was inspired by the natural craftsman of the arts and crafts period.He says it is asymmetric.He has used a variety of green plants interspersed with odd pins of colour.He got a gold medal for this garden.

The allotment gardener Cleve West won a gold medal and Best in show for this Brewer Dolphin garden.The sponsors celebrated their 250th birthday.It is a celebration of 250 years of gardening with beautiful Topiary,like giant chess pieces.

Two stone pillars topped with flaming finials draw the eyes into the garden.

 The under planting is mostly herbaceous perennials with zings of colour.I love how the Ladybird Poppies stand out in the purple and green.

 Two little fountains pour water into stone rills at the base of the entrance pillars.

The main feature at the end is a 250 year old well head that was reclaimed from a stone yard in Gloucester.It has been mounted onto a wall and painted blue behind.It supplied peoples water 250 years ago.

 The heavy rains meant that one Sunday morning a small army of people descended to save the stone work and well head from the flooding river Severn.This was a garden that was almost not.

Cleve West won best in show last year for his Daily Telegraph Libyan inspired garden.He has a natural flair for combining stone,plants,water.It looks like it has been there for years.He says he will not be back next year to Chelsea.

 I love the Chris Beardshaw Furzey garden.This is a garden to celebrate the work of Furzey Gardens in Hampshire.The students who have learning difficulties helped build the garden for the first time at Chelsea.It has acid loving plants like Rhododendrons,Azaleas,and Primulas.The planting is luscious with lots of blousy colours.He said that this style of garden was old fashioned and would never win a medal...He won a gold medal for it.

 This was Sarah Prices first Chelsea show garden and was an evocation of the Dartmoor and North Wales from her childhood.A mixture of grasses,rushes,perennials,and meadow flowers have been planted around the stone paths and rills of water.

 There is a copper lined pool in the centre of the garden.Chilmark limestone forms the paths and is overlooked by a multi stemmed Birch tree.

It is a naturalistic style of planting and looks lovely.Boulders are sat at the end for sitting on and contemplating the scene.

 She has used this beautiful Lady Slippers Orchid..

I love the colour of this Pseudocorus Berlin Tiger.She won a gold medal for her very first Chelsea garden.

 The Welcome to Yorkshire garden was one of my favourites.Inspired by the wild moorland frequented by the Bronte Sisters.

It was designed by Tracy Foster and is based around the landscape of the Pennine moors.It has included little Hearts Ease Violas painted by one of the sisters in a watercolour.It is the 165th anniversary of the publishing of Jane Eyre,Wuthering Heights,and Agnes Grey.

 There are some Victorian reading glasses and two books from the time to suggest the authors may have just wandered off to look closer at a wild Viola.It won a gold medal.

 Another Artisan garden I loved is the Japanese Satakora garden.It represents the area between the mountains and lowland.People used to live simply there in harmony with nature.

 It was designed by Kazuyuki Isihara and looks amazing.The attention to detail means it looks like it has been there for years.

 He won a gold medal and the best artisan garden award.

The show also has the Great Pavilion packed full of the worlds best nurseries and plant growers.Each year they all try to have new plants bred to be unveiled for the world.The winner of the 2012 RHS Plant Of the year is this lovely Pink Foxglove called Digitalis Illuminations Pink.

 It has been bred by Thompson and Morgan from Canary Island plants to give it the most magnificent colour.It is self sterile so it will not set seeds so will flower all summer long.

The show is like the Olympics of horticulture and sets trends for the next few years with planting styles and types of plants,trees,and flowers.It is also a show business occasion with celebreties visiting the showground.I think it marks the start of the early Summer.The garden here is in full growth and i find the gardens inspiring.It will take time to digest what has gone on.