Berkshire Garage Doors: The RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2018

The RHS Chelsea Flower Show or ‘Chelsea’, as it’s known in the gardening world, is our Fashion Week.

#RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2018 - Chris Beardshaw's beautiful garden for Morgan Stanley

Chris Beardshaw’s design for Morgan Stanley and the NSPCC – just a beautiful garden at every level with abundant planting and a calm but positive use of colour.

The celebs may dip in and out, but the trends percolate down into our gardens – it’s probably more influential than any other show in the world.

I spent yesterday morning at the Chelsea Flower Show as a roving reporter for BBC Radio Kent’s excellent Sunday Gardening programme. Exhibitors were still putting the last minute touches to their stands, and the garden designers were anxiously tweaking their creations.

BBC Radio Kent Sunday Gardening at RHS Chelsea 2018

The BBC Radio Kent Sunday Gardening team, from left: me, Phil Harrison, Jane Streitfeild of the NGS, Steve Bradley and Louise, who kept us all organised.

Designer Laura Anstiss putting the finishing touches on the Supershoes Laced With Hope garden with Frosts.

Spirit of Cornwall garden at RHS Chelsea 2018

One of the puzzling things about going round while it’s still being constructed is knowing what’s meant to be in the garden and what isn’t. This ladder does look rather wonderful here. But it disappeared later so presumably not…in the VTB Spirit of Cornwall garden by Charles Stuart Towner.

Then I went round the show again to see what I think is going to be big in ‘ordinary’ gardens over the next few years.

Paul Hervey-Brookes titivating the Viking Cruises Wellness Garden.

All very different at RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2018

There is a definite wind of change blowing through the gardening world, judging by this year’s RHS Chelsea

The grasses and structured hedging of the past few years has almost completely been swept away.

Instead there are huge beds full of flowers and colour.

Vivid colour at the David Harber and Savills garden at RHS Chelsea

The David Harber and Savills Garden by Nic Howard

While I don’t normally want to see graffiti in gardens, I loved this garden for Supershoes Laced With Hope.

Yellow is an emerging garden colour

At Capel Manor College, their display is called 50 Shades of Gold. I spoke to one of their designers who said ‘A few years ago, I’d never have considered using yellow in a garden.’ Their display is a celebration of yellow flowers of all kinds across all seasons.

And I spotted yellow in a number of other gardens, too, including Sarah Price’s garden for Morgan Stanley.

Yellow in the Trailfinders South African Wine Estate garden

The Trailfinders South African Wine Estate garden, with yellow oilseed rape (!) in the foreground. All our mothers would be scandalised.

Yellow in the beautifully abundant 'Stihl Inspiration' garden

Lilac and yellow in the beautifully abundant Hillier ‘Stihl Inspiration’ garden.

Yellow in the gorgeous LG Eco-city garden by Hay-Joung Wang

The free-standing arch

Taking that show gardens are a very pampered version of small town gardens, it’s interesting to see how many feature a free-standing arch. Adding height halfway along a small garden gives it a sense of proportion and gives the eye somewhere to pause, thus making the garden feel larger.

The exquisite ‘Hospitality Garden’ for G-Lion by Kazuyuki Ishihara. Love that moss!

This arch in the Urban Flow Garden by Tony Woods of Gardenclublondon is made of a specially fired porcelain so it doesn’t need any maintenance and lasts forever.