Chelsea report
- To: "'m*@ucdavis.edu'"
- Subject: Chelsea report
- From: V* A*
- Date: Mon, 5 Jun 2000 10:11:02 -0400
Well, as you may have noticed, I've been back for one week now. Back to
summer: in London we had 15 rainy days, and it was really cold. Here the
flowering season is almost over, we are well into the draught period and
everybody keeps saying this will be the hottest summer ever.
Chelsea was a great experience, though absolutely fatiguing. What I liked
most was the setting up; it was fascinating to see all those gardens appear
in just a few days, and all that people working so hard for a mere 5 days of
display! Taking it all down was less interesting, we finished at 2:30 in the
night, cause the trucks could not get in unitl 10:00 pm.
The show was interesting as ever, and the level of the plants displayed is
astonishing. And, there were I guess about 30 gardens to look at, anyhting
between big ones and front yard ones, both outside and under the Marquee.
In terms of design though I can't say I really liked the most acclaimed
gardens, even though the plant material was superb, and some single ideas
were charming (the famous "cloud hedge" of the Gardens illustrated garden
was really wonderful). As a whole, I noticed some all-pervading trends,
such as a quest for intense colors (lots of blues, reds, yellows, quite a
change from the Chelsea's typical pale palettes) that invested not only the
structures (gazebos, walls, fountains, furniture), but also the planting
color schemes. Then there was a research for "precious" materials:
everything that glitters or sparkles had a place in the model gardens. There
were glass and tiles, objects in mirror, vitreous fragments inlaid in
walls, glass gravels, gold or brass colored bricks etc. Water was the
dominating feature: it was everywhere, and many jeaux d'eau were really
cleverly designed and skillfully implemented. So, if you don't have any,
install a water feature in your gardens, and you'll be really up to date!
Of course the proposed plant groupings were thought for a British climate,
and some were quite surprising for me: the Lennox-Boyd garden had olive
trees in planters surrounded by water, and mixed perennials planted around
cypress trees -very nice, if one could manage to grow both so closed.
I loved the gold-medal winning exhibition of the Perth botanic park, they
exhibited wonderful plants and I fell desperately in love with the rose
mallees (Euc.rodanthe), so if any of you knows of a reliable seed source
please speak now!
This ends my report; if any of you wants to know more, just write me.
Alessandra
