What is Virtual Chelsea? A Guide to THE Gardening Event of 2020
Update: although the week is over, you can catch up with the highlights of Virtual Chelsea online.
As The RHS Chelsea Flower Show had to be cancelled this year, Virtual Chelsea is the Royal Horticulture Societies’ morale boosting invitation to every gardener to immerse themselves in gardening online instead.
So, to ‘visit’ the Chelsea Flower Show in 2020, you don’t need a ticket, your most comfy shoes, to book a hotel or fly to England, and you won’t need to jostle with the crowds for the best view. RHS experts have curated a wide variety of special gardening features to share online during the week when the Chelsea Flower Show would normally be taking place.
If you love gardening, you’ll love Virtual Chelsea, whether your garden is massive, small or just few houseplants indoors or on a windowsill. We can look forward to demonstrations from the potting bench, to insights from award winning designers and celebrity florists, to virtual tours of private gardens and leading nurseries, and to spending time with plants people who specialise in many of our favourite plants. Horticulture experts will host daily lunchtime Q&A sessions to help us navigate some of the many gardening pitfalls so our fingers can get a little greener. Continue reading “What is Virtual Chelsea? A Guide to THE Gardening Event of 2020”
Flower Friends
If you have a little time on your hands, you might enjoy my earlier posts on two of my favourite companion plants, Astrantia and Hardy Geranium.
Lunaria (Honesty)
I’m not 100% sure if this is perennial honesty or the transitory kind, but I’d guess the former. Giveaways would include the seed heads which are pointed ovals rather than the classic coin shape, and the lower leaves which are heart shaped. Continue reading “Lunaria (Honesty)”
Wordless Wednesday: Light And Shadow
Omphalodes cappadocica ‘Starry Eyes’
All flowers are miraculous but some more than others. Omphalodes cappadocica ‘Starry Eyes’ is one you’ll recognise next time you see it, even if, like me, you have to look up its name. Continue reading “Omphalodes cappadocica ‘Starry Eyes’”
Variations on a Theme: Forget-me-not, Heartleaf or Green Alkanet?
Why is it that we like to identify plants? To check whether it is safe or to eat or not, perhaps, or as a first step in working out how to buy one. To check if it is generally regarded by tastemakers as a weed or as a fit plant for a garden. But there’s also a great satisfaction in being able to name a plant just because we can. We feel closer to things we can name.
In April and early May, walking through fields and woods and peeking into gardens, we’ll often see plants with tiny, blue flowers that lift our spirits. They can be solitary, but more often, they are spreading.
Their pure blue flowers are classic forget-me-not style, the simplest of flower shapes with a starry look. Tiny, open flowers about as big as our smallest fingernail contain five rounded petals around a yellow, orange or white centre. But is it a forget-me-not? Perhaps it is, perhaps not.
Continue reading “Variations on a Theme: Forget-me-not, Heartleaf or Green Alkanet?”
