On Display: Four Trends From The RHS Tatton Park Flower Show

The Balanced Garden, Tatton Park Flower Show
Soft, romantic planting in The Balanced Garden

Usually, my posts about flower shows focus on the plants, gardens and planting combinations I enjoyed best, or trends I picked out. Today, I’m taking a step back and illustrating the official trends from this year’s Tatton Park Flower Show.

To be honest, I’d not have guessed all four trends that the Royal Horticulture Society highlighted, but I didn’t have to as the RHS helpfully listed them online.

Trend one: Soft planting

Billowing clouds of grasses and soft pink colour palettes gave the show a romantic feel with plants spilling onto paths and tumbling over the edges of containers.

Continue reading “On Display: Four Trends From The RHS Tatton Park Flower Show”

Cottage Garden Plant Combinations From The Hampton Court Palace Show

Echinacea and Salvia
Echinacea and Salvia

At the Royal Horticulture Society’s Hampton Court Flower Show earlier this year, I had chance to indulge in one of my favourite pastimes – looking out for flowering plants that are companionable minglers. 

Catanache caerulea and Lychnis coronaria
Catanache caerulea and Lychnis coronaria

Floral threads included various colours and forms of Achillea, Campanula, Catanache, Digitalis (foxglove), Echinacea, Geranium, Knautia, Lychnis, Nepeta, Salvia, Scabious, Stachys and Verbena. Continue reading “Cottage Garden Plant Combinations From The Hampton Court Palace Show”

Santa Rita Garden, Painting With Wine and Just Asking

Santa Rita Living La Vida 120 Garden
Award-winning drought resistant garden

Some of you may remember seeing the Santa Rita ‘Living La Vida 120’ Garden at RHS Hampton Court Flower Show a few years ago. Alan Rudden’s design won a Gold medal and Best World Garden. Boldly coloured burnt-yellow steel feature walls, chunky gabion walls of bright rough stone and seven pollarded strawberry trees (Arbutus unedo) were memorable features. Continue reading “Santa Rita Garden, Painting With Wine and Just Asking”

What is Virtual Chelsea? A Guide to THE Gardening Event of 2020

Flowers and foliage

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”