Who didnt win at Chelsea

Well, the Daily Telegraph Garden by Ulf not only won a gold but was voted best garden of the show. I think in the end it does catch the important elements of the way we are likely to be living within and without our gardens and nature in 2009 and 2010. Simple lines, deceptively simple colour palette.

It was quite interesting though how the cameras and discussions had a tendency to end up in what I think was a darling of a garden, the Foreign and Colonial Investments Garden designed by Thomas Hoblyn with its wooden wave and beautiful maiden. Guess they've got loadsamoney...Still I think in a way it was the unofficial best in show.

As predicted by the pundits the aquilegia was probably the most surprising star of the flower show. The photo left is another one of mine that has popped up in my Spanish cottage garden this summer.

There was more than an eye cocked at climate change and design. It is always hard to know if it was credit crunch or climate change that motivated some of the designs but from where I was sitting in my armchair in Spain I welcomed the use of water tolerant plants in such exciting ways.

Some big names weren't there. M and S for a very big one. But you could have knocked me down with a feather to see the Olive Tree Garden. These olive trees had been selected very carefully from the high northern areas of Spain so that they should already be hard for cold and wind. Well done that couple! They started with a big open field and look where they ended up.

On balance I just love the way that the show kept throwing up innovative ideas how to use or decorate or put together just about anything. The garden based on Robert Dudley's attempts to impress the first Queen Elizabeth, the perfumerie looked fun and was apparently interactive.

And who won a gold for their rose but I didnt get to see this on my tv? But nice write up at this RHS garden blog:

http://mygarden.rhs.org.uk/blogs/graham_rice/archive/2009/05/18/peter-beales-roses-new-at-chelsea-09.aspx

Well done Peter Beales!

I think I would have liked a bit more technology personally speaking. Selective editing is of course going to be a big issue but some hard work needs to be done to really go beyond the obvious imho..
Lights and water were in abundance - I would have liked to have known something about costs, mechanisms and so on for the real world. Its a bit like MPs in parliament - you dont really know about the hidden costs. Still the coverage had me glued to the old tv this week more than usual and the left hand side of the cortex was sparking with visual and creative ideas to keep me going for quite a while.