After Malta John headed off to France to sail in the French National Contender Championships.  I stayed in London with Till.  I managed to attend the David Hockney exhibition at the Tate British … a building that I particularly like (not the Tate Modern … I dislike it immensely!) The exhibition was excellent with a very good audio guide.

I also managed a day with Glenys Steer which is always a delight!

Then on the Thursday Xandy and I headed to the Chelsea Flower Show as Till had bought us both tickets for our birthdays.  We met for a very nice lunch at Sloane Square and then hit the show.  I had no idea what to expect so it was a completely different experience for me.  Luckily Xandy hadn’t been either so we were both novices.

As it turned out it was a very hot day for London with the temperature gauge hitting 28 degrees.  Very hot in the cut flower pavilion.

So basically there was loads and loads of retail in all shapes and sizes.  Obviously a lot of seed and flower sellers, but everything else to do or not to do with a garden.

The theme for this year was Malta … which was a complete fluke.  So when we viewed the winning garden we completely got it!

So there were about 20 plots spread around where guest gardeners built displays.  Everything from Maltese themed to Yorkshire.  Xandy and my stand out favourite was a display by a Japanese gardener.  It was fabulous and built around all four sides.  It is very hard to explain and even harder to take photos of it but we loved it.  It was in the Artisan section.

Then there was the cut flower pavilion which was full of huge displays of flowers.

The best way I can do this is to include loads of photos.

Till joined us at 6 pm after work and we quickly took her around to our favourite bits and then we met Hooz at The Ivy Chelsea Garden for dinner which was very swish.  Till had to book it three months ago.

The Bonzai on the left was planted in 1875!!!!!

Check out the size of the white peonies … we were trying to compare the size to things.  The begonias were giants as well.

This designer garden was interesting.  I think it was called the sound garden ?!?!?!? I can’t remember.  But the ponds vibrated and Till said when she touched the stones with her toes they vibrated.  I heard one woman comment that it looked like a vacant allotment.  She wasn’t far wrong.  Xand reckons after seeing this she won’t get hysterical about her weeds as they are obviously “in”!

These are some shots of the Japanese Garden.  It was impossible to capture it on camera but it was amazing.  We were hoping that it would have won the Peoples Choice Award but I just googled that it went to one of the plots full of weeds with a horse made out of rusted horseshoes in the middle of it!  No accounting for taste!

It was a great experience … thanks Till, and Xandy for being such a great companion!

Lovely night at The Ivy Chelsea Garden!