RHS CHELSEA 2016

Comments from John Fielding on plants at the show with a Mediterranean connection.

In Andy Sturgeon's The Telegraph Garden there were a range of Mediterranean and Australasian plants but the plant that stood out was the Macaronesian Digitalis canariensis (syn. Isoplexis canariensis). A Glaucium species was eye-catching with its bright orange red flowers against the intense grey leaves. Polygonum scoparium (syn. P. equisetiforme) which I know from Crete was used with delicate effect against an Anigozanthus cultivar of a brick orange colour.

Digitalis canariensis

Andy Sturgeon with Stephen Lacey

Digitalis canariensis

Polygonum scoparium

Glaucium

James Basson created another Mediterranean themed garden. James' previous garden was featured as our lecture at last year's AGM. Peter Dowle talked us through the process of inspiration and selecting the materials for the garden. The L'Occitane garden featured an Haute Provence stream bed with stone from the region and a naturalistic planting including Isatis tinctoria (woad) under old distressed specimens of Amygdalis dulcis (Almonds). The front corner of the garden had a planting of Lavandula with Linum and Papaver rhoeas.

L'Occitane garden

James Basson in L'Occitane garden

Reseda alba

Nick Bailey, who will be talking at our upcoming AGM, produced his first Chelsea garden called The Winton Beauty of Mathematics garden, emphasising plant growth algorithms.

At the front of the garden were specimens of Aeonium tabulare with their amazing leaf rosettes from Tenerife and Aloe polyphylla from South Africa. Reseda alba formed part of the herbaceous planting along with the bearded iris, Iris ‘Kent Pride’.

Beauty of Mathematics garden

Aeonium tabulare, Aloe polyphylla

What’s the collective noun for this many photographers? I can guarantee that it wasn’t a plant that created this much interest!

Hugo Bugg’s Bank of Canada Garden had elements of the flowers of Jordan with a Mediterranean theme.
Poppies and lupins were at the fore softened with Hordeum murinum (wall barley). The Lupinus sp. looked rather like L. pilosus from Crete but I didn’t get the name. Pistacia lentiscus was also in this garden. It will, I’m certain, be used more in the future as a mainstay of Mediterranean gardens but there is still a resistance to it probably because it is such a common wild plant. On my last trip to Crete I met a young couple who were starting a nursery and a garden design service. They could not buy this plant in Greece and had to import it from Spain!

Bank of Canada garden

Pistacia lentiscus

Lupinus

Isatis tinctoria

Jekka McVicar's garden, A Modern Apothecary for St John’s Hospice had a central planting of thymes. Isatis tinctoria (woad) stood out amongst the other plantings along with lavenders and fennel.

A Modern Apothecary for St John's Hospice

Our lunch was in a very quiet spot, no photographers, no celebrities with a view of the seating for the bandstand.

,The AkzoNobel Honeysuckle Blue(s) Garden designed by Claudy Jongstra and Stefan Jaspers was made up of dye plants. Again Isatis tinctoria (woad) was prominent with Calendula in bold orange. There was a coloured felt backdrop and swags of dyed wool placed amongst the garden. Borago officinalis (borage) also in full flower. This was probably the only garden with Urtica dioica, the nettle, in a prominent position. It is interesting how some of these dye plants are also eaten in the Mediterranean, though for practical reasons I won’t go into this now.

The AkzoNobel Honeysuckle Blue(s) garden

Borago officinalis

Isatis tinctoria

I also came across this clump of Scilla peruviana in the planting at the Crane Garden Buildings stand.

Scilla peruviana

Into the marquee where the nurseries have their stands. Lavenders were represented as well as ever by Downderry Nursery with a circular bed with an actual bed in it and a tapestry of Lavandula cultivars. They also launched a new cultivar L. angustifolia ‘Purple Treasure’ Ian Lavender (trademark name). Deep purple with larger flowers than normal, to the left of the picture.

The South African National Biodiversity Institute working with Kirstenbosch had another spectacular display of South African plants dominated by Protea as a cut flower display. The white cultivar of Protea cynaroides may have been ‘Snow Queen’. Very striking.

Protea cynaroides

Flora Toscana from Italy also had a stand with Protea and other related genera. These were all growing in pots. Quite impressive and they grow for cut flower and pot plants.

Iris ‘Terre à Silex’

Cayeux Iris is a company in the centre of France but many bearded irises are essentially from around the Mediterranean basin and quite happy growing in its climate. They breed new cultivars on a regular basis and put up a new one called ‘Terre à Silex’ for Chelsea plant of the year. It is a bold bicoloured almost black and white with a vivid orange beard.

Cayeux Iris

Another plant of the year entry was Calendula Power Daisy Sunny ‘Kercalsun’ from Kerley & Co. This appears to be a cross that I had been discussing with friends for a number of years without anyone getting around to trying to breed it! Presumably using Calendula suffruticosa and possibly crossing it with a Calendula officinalis double seed strain this perennial double flowered plant apparently has a long flowering period (from March to November) because of its sterility. It may perform well in the Mediterranean though I would suspect in order to do so it would need frequent watering!

Crocheted poppies

Calendula Power Daisy Sunny 'Kercalsun'

To finish, the poppy, Papaver rhoeas. Lynn Berry and Margaret Knight from Australia came up with the idea of creating a memorial to honour their fathers’ service in the second world war. They started crocheting red poppies in 2013 intending to make a small number.

When news of their project got out more and more people got involved ending up with around 50,000 contributing. The layout at the Royal Hospital was designed by Phillip Johnson.

Crocheted poppies