Philly and the Chelsea Factor
February 11th, 2020
We’re less than three weeks away from the 191st annual Philadelphia Flower Show, and I’m hoping I’m not disappointed with this year’s Mediterranean-themed production.
London’s Chelsea Flower Show attracts wall-to-wall crowds… and for good reason.
My misgivings have nothing to do with the theme or any peculiarities of the 2020 show.
I’m leery this year because I visited London’s Chelsea Flower Show for the first time last year.
See a photo gallery of shots from Chelsea 2019 and our England garden trip
I’ve been to about 25 Philly shows now and enjoyed them all… some more so than others. Philly has the world’s biggest, longest-running indoor flower show, while Chelsea is the world’s longest-running and most prestigious outdoor flower show.
After seeing the staggeringly impressive Chelsea show – spread over 11 acres of the Royal Hospital Chelsea grounds in downtown London – I’m afraid Philly’s gardens and exhibits are going to pale.
Brits adore plants and gardening like no other nation, and for the Chelsea Flower Show, they pull out all of the stops.
One of the many beautiful displays in the 2019 Chelsea Great Pavilion.
The central feature is the Great Pavilion, which is three acres under tent and devoted to over-the-top plant displays, educational exhibits, gardens built by growers, floral designs, and more.
One exceptional display last year was sponsored by the Swedish home-store chain IKEA, showing examples of how people can grow food in urban and other tight-spot spaces. I especially liked the recycled raised-bed vegetable garden made out of wooden shipping crates stacked on pallets.
Another pavilion display mounted thousands of cut lilies of dozens of varieties on a wall. It was a sort of living-bouquet catalog, and the fragrance was strong enough to stop a line of Army tanks.
Other displays showed huge proteas from South Africa, a garden of David Austin English roses, a judged competition of floral crowns, and samples of all the candidates for the coveted Chelsea Plant of the Year. (A new variegated creeping sedum called Atlantis, which is newly available in the U.S. as well, won 2019 Plant of the Year.)
Here’s the South African protea display.
Creating the most buzz (and drawing half-hour waits to see it) was one of the two dozen outdoor display gardens, a Back to Nature Garden co-designed by the Duchess of Cambridge, the former Kate Middleton.
The garden was a walk-through one with a stream, waterfall, large fallen tree, a campfire, and a very big nest-like tree house. The duchess based it on her garden memories as a child.
The royals usually have some sort of tie-in to add that fairy-tale-book touch to the show – something that isn’t quite the same when Philadelphia mayors participate in a preview press conference of the Philly show.
Twice before, Prince Charles helped design Chelsea gardens, and ex-Prince Harry had a hand in a couple of charity-related gardens in 2013 and 2015.
Like Philly, Chelsea’s elaborate gardens are the main draws. But Chelsea’s designers get to use plants already in peak form come show time in May, and they have weeks or more to build their gardens.
One of Chelsea’s 2019 outdoor gardens.
Philly’s designers have to force just about all of their plants into bloom for the late-winter show time, and they have only 10 days to get everything in place on what starts out as bare, flat concrete inside a warehouse-like structure. That’s tough.
Read George’s article on how the Philadelphia Flower Show is put together
The Philly show runs 10 days, and draws more than 250,000 people before they tear it all down in three days. Then only memories are left.
At Chelsea, the show runs just five days and attracts about 165,000 people visitors each year. However, many of these gardens end up being transplanted whole or in part to permanent locations.
The Bridgewater display at Chelsea will be part of the real new Bridgewater garden.
A prime example from 2019 was the Bridgewater Garden, built by the show’s producer, the Royal Horticultural Society. Bridgewater is a new 154-acre RHS garden opening this year in Manchester. Designers built a collage of gardens planned there for the Chelsea show.
After the show, the metal archworks, walkways, and most of the plants were moved to the actual site to become part of the real Bridgewater.
Other standout 2019 Chelsea gardens featured a representation of the D-Day invasion of Normandy, a Latin American garden with waterfalls and a meandering red bridge, a Dubai garden that was surprisingly lush among the stone and gravel, and an Asian-style garden with a glass outdoor shower, pond, and waterfalls.
Scores of garden/plant vendors man booths down one long main street, and more are weaved among the gardens.
Music on an outdoor stage rounds out the activities.
I liked this scene in the Great Pavilion.
What makes this show especially nice is the varied setting of the hospital grounds. Some of it is open and flat while other parts of it are shaded and park-like with paths winding through rolling mounds.
The site isn’t big enough to handle the crowds (ticket sales are limited because of that), but it’s such a nice venue that few would consider moving the show to roomier quarters.
Chelsea started in 1862 with a single tent while we were preoccupied with the Civil War. The show morphed into more elaborate display gardens by the 1930s and began letting vendors sell goods and plants in the 1970s.
Ticket prices are now to about $100 for a single-day pass, and yet the crowds still come.
I’d go back to see it again. The show lived up to its lofty reputation for me.
I just hope seeing it doesn’t dim my appreciation for the Philly show. That one may not have the queen in attendance, but it happens at a time of year when we can really use a dose of chlorophyll.