The Greatest Show on Earth – Chelsea Flower Show

This week is theChelsea Flower Show .

This has been bump every May in the same spot since 1913 * which do this twelvemonth the centennial year and much celebration is be after . It is a braggart thing : with over eleven hours of prime time television dedicated to coverage , yard of newsprint and a whole onus of chatter . All because of some plants and garden : is n’t that amazing ? It never fail to make me smile that as a commonwealth we can make such a fuss about flowers .

It all happen in London on the banks of the Thames in the earth ofThe Royal Hospital . This was set up in about 1680 by Charles II as a plate for sometime soldiers . It serves the same intent today and houses a act of Pensioners ( including , lately , woman ) who go out the rest of their days in puff and add together a bit of pizzazz to the surrounding street with their bright scarlet uniforms and stand of medals . But , every year , their peace is disturbed by the most famed flower show in the man .

It is form by the country ’s foremost gardens Polemonium caeruleum , The Royal Horticultural Society . work a duo if hundred years ago to advance the art , scientific discipline and drill of gardening the society does sterling work helping and cultivate the public in the joyousness of gardening . They set up a telephone number of shows throughout the year ( see my previous blog about Malvern ) but this one , as they say , is the Daddy of them all .

The pattern is that there are about twenty great show garden ( some of which can cost over quarter of a million pounds to make ) , a scattering of smaller gardens , a vast marquee full of the very best nurseries from around the country and an awful lot of multitude milling around no matter what the weather may bemuse at them . All of this has been set up in about a fortnight although it has been about eighteen months in the planning . For the retiring few weeks the commonly peaceable ground have been teeming with truck , workers , plants , cranes , shovel and many cups of tea . This depiction is fairly distinctive !

This has been much the same for the past one hundred long time although the content and price of the garden has interchange enormously since the early days . There is an fantabulous script written by Brent Elliott ( the official Royal Horticultural Society historiographer ) which is jam pack with cracking archive pictures and interesting facts . The scene reproduced here are all good manners of the RHS Lindley Library and re-emerge in an fantabulous book,“Chelsea Flower Show : A Centenary Celebration”written by the RHS Historian , Brent Elliott .

It all begin on Monday which is Press Day when the joint is flood with all sorts of celebrity guests . you could barely move a yard without tripping over Michael Caine or Ringo Starr . Later in the day the Royal Family arrive for a private visit and then there is a Brobdingnagian Polemonium caeruleum blowout involving oodles of glamorous women , besuited men and many , many gallons of champagne . Amongst all this move the Judging Panels for every garden and display is assembled along strict guidelines in rules of order that they be adjudicate by the Royal Horticultural Society . The factual unconscious process is very efficient and fair but is perhaps too complicated to go into in point here – I reverence you may divagate off in hunting of further diversion if I go on too much . Suffice to say that on Tuesday sunup the exhibitioner rouse up to the news that they have been award an RHS medal : either Gold , Silver Gilt , Silver or Bronze . Some are rapturous , some are devastated , all are exhausted .

The rest of the calendar week is a blur of action as about 160,000 people come to visit the show . They will drink thousands of specs of Pimms * * , form very longsighted queues outside the lavatories and will relish the very good there is to see in horticulture .

in person , I have a routine of duties through the week . I am help to confront the television system reportage on Monday and Tuesday ( which will include following the Queen around the show ) and then I am break various turn to potential supporters of the RHS through the rest of the workweek . It will be quite wearing but I would n’t pretermit it for the earth – it is one of the great highlights of the year .

If anybody ever offer up you a ticket , get on an airplane and come to London .

As an entity , however , the show has been going since 1827 when it was call the Great Spring Show and was maintain in Chiswick ( decently on the western side of London )
- I do n’t have it off whether you are familiar with Pimms . It is a oddly British beverage that is normally only consumed in the summertime . You mix a gollop of Pimms with lemonade and frappe , chuck in a load of chopped up fruit and mint leaves and that ’s about it . It is like fruit punch but with more punch .

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