Now you’re past the tongue-twister of a name, you can enjoy the waxy, claret-coloured flowers of this unusual shrub. I first discovered Sinocalycanthus raulstonii ‘Hartlage Wine’ at Felley Priory on a rainy day last year, but it’s since cropped up again and again, most recently on the Hillier Nurseries stand at Chelsea. Although hardy, it appreciates a little protection from the wind and decent, humus-rich soil. If you can manage that, the reward will be long lasting, lightly-scented flowers and attractive yellow autumn foliage.

Lilium regale – the ultimate lily?

Lilies are, without question, one of the most elegant summer flowering bulbs. Gertrude Jekyll, the renowned garden designer and plantswoman, would frequently plant large clumps of Lilium regale in strategic spots, creating height and drama at pivotal points in her schemes. In addition to stature, the lilies also contributed intoxicating scent and white flushed pink flowers that stood out against dark foliage. There are lilies for sun and lilies for shade, lilies for acid soil and lilies for chalk soil, as well as varieties that enjoy both dry and moist positions. They even enjoy being grown in containers. In short, there’s no excuse not to grow lilies somewhere in your garden. I share Ms Jekyll’s passion for graceful Lilium regale, as well as taller and showier hybrids such as ‘African Queen’, ‘Golden Splendour’ and this year’s delectable newbie ‘Red Velvet’ (top of post, photographed today).

Lilium speciosum ‘Rubrum’ at The Garden House, Devon

I’d like to leave my love-in with lilies there, but of course mother nature isn’t inclined to make things so easy for us gardeners. The problem is the most wanted pest in my garden after seagulls and snails, the dreaded lily beetle (Lilioceris lilii). Just a glimpse of one of these scarlet beasties is enough to set my pulse racing. Hence no picture in this post! They mean one thing and one thing only – trouble – in the form of rapidly devoured leaves and disgusting black goo dangling from the undersides of any foliage that remains. The goo disguises the kind of repulsive slug-like larvae that Roald Dahl would have had great fun with in his books.

Part of the HW Hyde & Son display at the 2013 RHS Chelsea Flower Show

Despite being easy to spot, the adult beetles are masters of escapology. Just one false move and they drop to the ground, making them impossible to find and squish. This year I started spraying early as a preventative measure which appeared to work, but I let my guard down too soon. This weekend I discovered several nasty grubs munching away at my treasured plants, but no sign of the offending adults. I picked off the effected leaves and destroyed them, then sprayed again for good measure. Unfortunately lily beetles always find a way back, so it pays to be vigilant year-round. Look out for your fritillaries too, especially after mild winters, as lily-beetles will decimate these with equal vigour.

A few bugs are not going to stop me from growing more of these otherwise easy-going bulbs, but it does pay to inspect plants regularly. Late attacks are normally less damaging, as the bulbs have built up their strength for the following year, but early infestations can result in smaller bulbs and poor flowering.

Lilium ‘Golden Splendour’

A reminder that next week, on Friday 21st and Saturday 22nd February, the RHS will be marking the imminent arrival of spring with their London Plant and Design Show.  There will be ravishing displays of spring bulbs and winter flowering shrubs from the country’s top nurseries, plus a preview of this year’s Chelsea and Hampton Court Palace show gardens.  If you’re anything like me it will be impossible to come away empty handed or uninspired.  This year’s show will incorporate London Potato Days; visitors will be able to chose from 75 varieties of seed potatoes, take part in chitting workshops and listen to talks about potato growing.  In celebration of British chip week, there will also be freshly cooked fish and chips, served in traditional cardboard boxes.  Try keeping me away!

Click here for more information, or simply enjoy my photograph of the sublime Crocus malyi at last year’s show.

For the lucky few – journalists, celebrities and royalty – the Chelsea Flower Show starts today. The rest of must wait until 8am tomorrow when the show opens to members of the Royal Horticultural Society. With the temperature due to remain in the high twenties, HRH The Queen will need her sunscreen when she gives the show her seal of approval this afternoon.

Back in the less rarified environs of Highgate, my outdoor thermometer is already reading 26 degrees and it’s only just time for elevenses. I have abandoned the already delayed task of planting out my sweet peas, so as not to stress them further. The goldfish are basking shamelessly in the warm water at the edge of the pond, between pots of marginal plants. A fat wood pigeon is sunning itself on the paving, taking a refreshing drink and observing me cautiously. Thankfully the sun will soon move around to the other side of the building, leaving us all in the cool shade again.

Our London garden, like me, very much designed for cooler conditions.

As soon as Chelsea approaches I feel the need to ensure both gardens are ship-shape and Bristol fashion (which, my overseas readers, is an English way of saying ‘sorted out’). Whilst neither could hold a candle to any of Chelsea’s show gardens, it’s a task which means I can feel slightly less inadequate when I walk Main Avenue tomorrow. Late May is the junction at which spring gives way to summer. Pots of tulips and daffodils have come to an emergency stop and perennials have their feet firmly on the accelerator, trying to escape the infamous Chelsea chop.

In London green still dominates, with tiny pops of white in the form of Hydrangea anomala subsp. petiolaris (climbing hydrangea), Galium odoratum (sweet woodruff), Digitalis purpurea ‘Alba’ (white foxglove) and Polemonium caeruleum var. lacteum (white Jacob’s ladder). Chelsea plant of the year in 2011, Anemone ‘White Swan’, is tantalisingly close to producing the first of its pure white flowers, each petal sporting a violet-blue band on its reverse. Incredibly, Tulipa ‘Greenland’ is still fighting on, having graced the garden with its green-tinged pink flowers for weeks. Alongside Primula japonica ‘Apple Blossom’, they were as pretty as a picture for the brief time their flowering season overlapped.

Still beautiful in old age, Tulipa ‘Greenland’ resting on a bed of Ophiopogon nigrescens

A plant which I have been meaning to applaud for months is Nemesia ‘Lady Vanilla’. At the time I bought them I thought £6.95 for a single annual bedding plant was a bit steep, but I was utterly seduced by the rich vanilla scent. A year on, every plant has come through the winter without once halting a cavalcade of fragrant white flowers. They are now smothered, as if it were August, filling the garden with amazing aroma all day. A plant I couldn’t recommend highly enough and which I will hopefully nurse through a few more winters.

Scent is so important in a small garden, especially when one’s only at home to appreciate it in the evening. From seed sown in early February, I now have large, vigorous plants of three sweet pea varieties which I am planting in new lead-effect planters. The first is ‘April in Paris’, an exceptionally scented variety with primrose-coloured flowers, edged deep lilac. Next is ‘Sir Jimmy Shand’, a white exhibition hybrid with a lilac ripple across the backs and edges of the petals. Offsetting these paler blooms will be ‘Just Jenny’ which has long stems of deep, violet-blue flowers. Trained against a wall, warmed by the sun until midday, they should grow tall and strong, but I will be keeping my eye out for mildew, whilst tying in and watering regularly.

In our coastal garden, summer has been in evidence for weeks. I have taken the sort of risks that would make a textbook author wince, planting tender perennials out from Easter onwards. So far the gamble has paid off, with summer pots looking full and climbing plants already eyeing up the eaves. Only my dahlias remained cosseted indoors, but now that we have guests staying almost every weekend the dining table has to return to its intended function. At 2ft tall and well-branched after lots of nipping out, I planted Dahlia ‘Karma Choc’, D. ‘Amercian Girl’ and D. ‘Jescot Julie’ outside in large terracotta pots at the weekend.

Ready for summer, our coastal garden this week

This year’s planting scheme is all about orange and the hots pinks and purples that flatter the colour so well. In the centre of the garden table is a pot filled with blue Felicia amelloides, fiery Nemesia ‘Trailing Orange’ (clearly the breeder had run out of ideas when naming this new seedling) and Begonia ‘Glowing Embers’. The latter had better get its skates on before it’s completely eclipsed by its neighbours.

Felicia amelloides, Nemesia ‘Trailing Orange’ and a glimpse of Begonia ‘Glowing Embers’.

Finally, and I doubt we’ll be seeing many of these at Chelsea, it’s been a fine growing season for Echium pininana. Hailing from La Palma in the Canary Islands, this splendid plant tolerates frost but does not look better for it, so demands a sheltered position in a mild garden. Other than that it’s not especially picky and seeds prolifically. This plant is now 12ft tall and counting, smothered in bumble bees and dazzling our visitors. I may sound a little smug, but rest assured this is a defensive position and by 8.30am tomorrow morning Chelsea will have roundly put me back in my place.

If you are visiting the show this year I hope to see you there; if not, I look forward to bringing you a glimpse of the world’s greatest flower show, right here at The Frustrated Gardener.

Tower of jewels and beacon for bumblebees, Echium pininana.

I was right about some things concerning this year’s Chelsea Flower Show; the weather was better; most designers defaulted to the tried and tested formula of multi-stemmed trees underplanted with tight-knit perennials; and Alan Titchmarsh’s garden was far from cutting edge – more of a blunt axe one might say.

However I was wrong about one thing, and that was The Telegraph Garden. Having suggested the garden might be a little suburban, I now have to eat my hat. I’d happily eat two if the designers Tommaso del Buono and Paul Gazerwitz asked me to, so far adrift was my assessment. Any similarity to a suburban garden ended with the rectangular-shaped plot, the rest was pure, carefully considered, contemporary genius.

Tommaso grew up in Florence, which explains something about the strength and structure of the duo’s second design for a Chelsea garden. References to the gardens of the Italian lakes and Renaissance palaces run throughout, without ever surfacing in an overt or crass way. Common limes (Tilia x europaea ‘Pallida’) are trained and pruned to create a tabletop of foliage, giving shade to the seating area and lemon trees arranged beneath. Then there is clipped box, not shaped like giant exercise balls, but soft, wide and flattened, like beautiful emerald pincushions. Another Mediterranean shrub Phillyrea angustifolia, which sports darker foliage than box, is clipped into similar forms along the boundary of the garden. Tuscan terracotta pots planted with Gardenia augusta ‘Florida’ welcome visitors entering from the side axis.

The designers’ choice of hard landscaping materials is also resolutely Italian. Half way down the garden the boundary is punctuated by a panel of nougat-coloured travertine limestone, characterised by its watermarked patterning. The brass band above the bench is a refined, glamorous, understated touch; it’s clever details like this that separate exceptional designers from the rest. I found myself completely in love with the white mesh chairs selected for the garden by Tommaso and Paul, designed by Eero Saarinen and Harry Bertoia in the 1950s and still in production today.

Behind the shady lime trees a second vertical panel, this time fashioned from grey-green, white-veined verde issorie marble from the Italian Alps, was turned into a water feature. Gardens of the Italian Renaissance celebrated, indeed flaunted water, and this was a nod to those extravagant statements of wealth, power and control over nature. The recessed band of brass was repeated here, adding sparkle and shine to the gently falling water.

It was the planting for me that most clearly demonstrated Tomasso and Paul’s restraint. There was an immaculate lawn which, despite being the pinnacle of ambition for many British gardeners, is barely ever seen at Chelsea these days. My Australian companion was dazzled; I was reminded of what an incredible backdrop a well maintained greensward can be for a good planting scheme. Let’s see more lawns at Chelsea next year please.

In yesterday’s diffused sunlight the planting sparkled. The colours the designers had chosen were those of gemstones – peridot, citrine, emerald, sapphire and opal – vital, saturated and so redolent of May. Thankfully there was no homogenous mix of wispy, meadowy things here, but the sort of generous clumps one would plant at home. Stand out plants were Iris ‘Jane Phillips’ (an absolute classic, below), acid-yellow Euphorbia ceratocarpa, royal-blue Anchusa azurea ‘Loddon Royalist’ and magenta Gladiolus byzantinus, rising above misty cloudy of Nigella damascena ‘Miss Jekyll’ and Foeniculum vulgare.

Paul Gazerwitz is quoted in The Telegraph as saying ‘There is always the temptation at Chelsea to show off and put in lots of stuff. We wanted to go for something simple, bold and punchy’. It was a good move which earned them a gold medal and had them firmly in contention for Best in Show. Sadly the pair missed out on that accolade to Luciano Giubbilei and Laurent Perrier, but to them I award my own prize for best show garden. Now, where are those hats…..?

Tommaso and Paul’s international design practice del Buono Gazerwitz Landscape Architecture is based in Shoreditch, east London.

In my next post I’ll be writing about my runner-up Chelsea show garden, The Garden for First Touch at St George’s by Patrick Collins.

Plant list

Trees

• Tilia x europaea ‘Pallida’

Hedges

• Laurus nobilis
• Magnolia grandiflora

Topiary

• Buxus sempervirens
• Osmanthus x burkwoodii
• Phillyrea angustifolia

Herbaceous plants

• Amsonia tabernaemontana
• Anchusa azurea ‘Loddon Royalist’
• Borago officinalis
• Camassia quamash
• Campanula persicifolia
• Cenolophium denudatum
• Centaurea cyanus ‘Blue Boy’
• Dianthus carthusianorum
• Euphorbia ceratocarpa
• Euphorbia palustris
• Euphorbia amygdaloides var. robbiae
• Euphorbia wallichii
• Foeniculum vulgare
• Geranium himalayense ‘Gravetye’
• Gladiolus byzantinus
• Hyssopus officinalis
• Iris germanica ‘Blue Rhythm’
• Iris germanica ‘Jane Philips’
• Linum perenne
• Lithodora diffusa ‘Heavenly Blue’
• Nigella damascena ‘Miss Jekyll’
• Phlox paniculata ‘Blue Paradise’
• Sesleria autumnalis
• Silene dioica
• Veronica spp.
• Viola cornuta ‘Belmont Blue’

Over the years the rock bank site at Chelsea has provided the setting for some of the show’s most exciting gardens. Last year it was occupied by The Australian Garden created by Flemings for Trailfinders, a stunning garden that will linger long in the memory and which marked their end of their eight year long association with the show.

Curiously for such a prominent location the rock bank has been carved in two this year, one half occupied by the kind of water features that mercifully most of us are unable to afford, the other by Patrick Collins’ design for charity First Touch. Being gently elevated towards the back, the plot offers its designer opportunities that Main Avenue does not. Philip has taken full advantage with a scheme composed of intricate terracing and falling water. Like The Telegraph Garden, which receives my ‘Best in Show’ accolade, Patrick eschewed prairie-esque planting and limpid pools for a design which I felt had genuine stand-out.

The garden is a celebration of the amazing work carried out by the neonatal unit at St George’s Hospital in Tooting, London, which cares for some of the sickest and most premature babies born in the South East. Patrick’s own daughter, Isabel, now 13, was born at 27 weeks and spent the first three months of her life in St George’s, so his commitment to this garden is a very personal one. First Touch is a charity which supports the hospital, raising money for vital equipment, specialist nurses and support for the families of sick babies. They have their own WordPress blog where you can find out more. Patrick’s design for the First Touch garden is symbolic of the strength and determination shown by premature babies and their families on their journeys, which can be long, distressing and painful.

The garden has two central features, the first an asymmetric flight of steps crafted from rust-coated steel (a finish repeated in several show gardens this year) and buff-coloured gravel. This is a lovely contrast, the sharp angles of the chestnut metal against the lightness of the stone. The tone of both materials is cleverly echoed in the papery bark of Chinese red birch, Betula albosinensis, its new foliage fluttering cool and luminous above the terraces. Without this dramatic juxtaposition the garden might have been dense and heavy, but both gravel and water reflect light pleasingly into all corners of the scheme.

A second key feature, the watercourse, starts its journey in the form of a narrow, dramatic waterfall almost hidden amongst foliage at the back of the plot. It makes its way through a series of stepped pools and small cascades to the front of the garden. This is intended to symbolise the difficult time families experience when a baby is born prematurely, followed by greater calm as the journey (hopefully a positive one) unfolds. The water’s course ends in a slightly larger pool where a pale, abstract sculpture in loosely human form marks the centre.

The plants that tumble down the banks of the stream could have come from my own garden – a typical waterside combination of astilbes, Hosta fortunei var. hyacinthina, ferns, irises, Tradescantia ‘Purwell Giant’ and Primula pulverulenta. Patrick’s contemporary use of these plants was a nice reminder of the country’s great stream-side gardens, such as those at Trengwainton, Cornwall and Harlow Carr, Yorkshire.

The other side of the terraced steps was devoted to lovers of drier, sunnier conditions such as thyme, Alchemilla mollis, Nepeta x fraassenii, Tulbaghia violacea, Armeria maritima and Erodium × variabile ‘Roseum’. Against the cool greens at the stream side, the sharp blues and candy pinks really popped.

This was a show garden that many gardeners might glean inspiration from. Sloping sites, either at the front or back of a house, are not easy to resolve. This treatment could be a great solution for a partly shaded situation, perhaps with the inclusion of a more extensive level space for entertaining and sitting out. If I had any criticism it would be that very little information about the garden and the idea behind it is given in the accompanying brochure, and that the plant list misses out several key plants, such as the astilbes, irises, dwarf pines and regal fern (Osmunda regalis). This oversight won’t have spoilt anyone’s appreciation of this charming garden, which gets my runner up award for Best in Show and my vote for People’s Choice.

(Patrick Collins is a landscape architect and garden designer. This is his sixth Chelsea garden, four of which won gold medals. Inexplicably, this scheme was only awarded a Silver Gilt medal.)

No doubt spurred on by TV talent shows, where the audience as well as expert judges get a vote, the RHS introduced People’s Choice awards at the Chelsea Flower Show in 2010. These awards reflect entirely the opinions of the public and are awarded in the Show, Fresh and Artisan categories.

Triumphant in the show garden category this year is ‘Hope on the Horizon’, designed by Matthew Keightley in support of charity Help for Heroes. The garden’s design represents the path towards recovery taken by wounded, injured and sick military personnel, veterans and their families. Matthew, who has never designed a show garden before, works for landscaping firm Farr & Roberts and describes himself as more of a hands-on, practical designer. However with a brother currently serving in Afghanistan, he is well qualified to understand the sensitivities of the subject he’s been charged with representing.

When the show ends to day, rather than being broken up or sold off, the garden will be carefully dismantled and transported to Chavasse, a Help for Heroes facility near Colchester, Essex. Here it will form part of a larger landscape for recovering servicemen and women to enjoy.

Matthew’s garden, sponsored by the David Brownlow charitable foundation, is arranged along two axes, forming the shape of the military cross. At one end a sculpture by the Scottish artist Mary Bourne depicts the horizon. The piece is formed of five slate-grey panels set against a shaded, tightly-clipped yew hedge. An artist whose work explores mankind’s emotional, intellectual and physical relationships with the world we live in, Mary’s work is a great choice for this project.Visitors to the show will no doubt have been struck by the garden’s signature features, blocks of cool granite surrounded by clipped box and colourful, optimistic planting. The finish of the stone monoliths, which represent soldiers’ physical being, becomes more refined as one moves through the garden, describing a journey towards physical recovery. They end up dark, smooth and perfectly sawn, surrounded by crowds of soothing ferns and foxgloves. It’s a nice analogy, but practical too as the blocks might double as seating or pedestals for other sculptural pieces.

Meanwhile, Matthew’s choice of planting is intended to represent psychological well-being. It becomes more structured and controlled as one progresses through the plot but is always colourful, uplifting and ultimately crowd-pleasing. There are tactile grasses such as Calamagrostis × acutiflora ‘Karl Foerster’, Stipa tenuissima (above, with Nepeta racemosa ‘Walker’s Low’) and Briza media, intermingled with herbs which will release their scent when soldiers brush past. I could have done without the lupins which, although pretty, contribute to a plant list which is perhaps overly long for a space just 10m x 15m. Not being someone who abides by the principal of ‘less is more’ I can hardly criticise, but I have a feeling the RHS judges may have had this in mind when they decided to award the garden a silver gilt medal rather than gold.

My favourite part of Matthew’s design, the shorter cross axis, is terminated by a simple slab bench inlaid with the inscription ‘It’s about the blokes, they are just blokes, but they are our blokes‘. (I hope servicewomen everywhere will forgive their omission from this dedication.) Underplanted with hostas, Brunnera macrophylla ‘Jack Frost’, ferns, polygonatum and Liriope muscari ‘Big Blue’, this would be a tranquil spot in which to rest and contemplate the symbolism of this poignant yet hopeful garden which captured the hearts of the British public this week.

Medal: Silver Gilt

Plant list

• Agapanthus ‘Peter Pan’
• Agapanthus africanus
• Aquilegia vulgaris var. stellata
• Asplenium scolopendrium
• Asplenium scolopendrium ‘Angustifolia’
• Asplenium trichomanes
• Astrantia major ‘Large White’
• Astrantia ‘Roma’
• Briza media
• Brunnera macrophylla
• Brunnera macr. ‘Jack Frost’
• Buxus sempervirens
• Calamagrostis × acutiflora ‘Karl Foerster’
• Carex oshimensis ‘Evergold’
• Carpinus betulus ‘Fastigiata’
• Convallaria majalis
• Delphinium ‘Black Knight Group’
• Dicksonia antarctica
• Digitalis purpurea
• Digitalis purpurea Excelsior Group
• Dryopteris affinis ‘Cristata the King’
• Dryopteris lepidopoda
• Dryopteris wallichiana
• Delphinium ‘King Arthur’
• Euphorbia amygdaloides ‘Purpurea’
• Euphorbia characias subsp. wulfenii
• Euphorbia mellifera
• Fatsia japonica
• Foeniculum vulgare
• Foeniculum vulgare ‘Purpureum’
• Thymus citriodorus ‘Aureus’
• Geranium ‘Johnson’s Blue’
• Geranium himalayense ‘Gravetye’
• Geranium ‘Bright Red’
• Heuchera micrantha ‘Palace Purple’
• Hosta ‘Big Daddy’
• Hosta tardiana ‘Halcyon’
• Hosta ‘Sum and Substance’
• Liriope muscari ‘Big Blue’
• Lupinus ‘Gallery Blue’
• Lupinus ‘Red Rum’
• Matteuccia struthiopteris
• Nepeta racemosa ‘Walker’s Low’
• Pachysandra terminalis ‘Green Carpet’
• Papaver orientale ‘Royal Wedding’
• Pittosporum tobira ‘Nanum’
• Polystichum setiferum ‘Dahlem’
• Rosmarinus officinalis
• Salvia nemorosa ‘Caradonna’
• Salvia officinalis ‘Purpurascens’
• Stipa arundinacea
• Stipa gigantea
• Stipa tenuissima
• Taxus baccata
• Tellima grandiflora
• Thymus pulegioides ‘Aureus’
• Tradescantia ‘Zwanenburg Blue’
• Zantedeschia aethiopica ‘Crowborough’

Despite the inevitable fuss over the show gardens, the highlight of my visit to Chelsea Flower Show is always the Great Pavilion. At 12,000 square metres, about the same size as two football pitches, it dominates the show ground. It’s here that many of the greatest nurserymen and horticultural organisations showcase their latest discoveries and cutting-edge projects; and they are not just from the UK, but as far afield as Japan, Grenada, Thailand and South Africa.

The standards are always incredibly high with 54 exhibits, more than half of those housed under the Pavilion’s taught tarpaulin, awarded gold medals this year. The stand-out result had to be that achieved by Hilliers, celebrating their 150th year in the nursery business. The family firm was awarded its 69th consecutive gold medal for its stunning display of trees, flowering shrubs and perennials around the central monument. Congratulations to them on their record-breaking achievement.

Hosta ‘Firn Line’, a new introduction for Brookfield Plants

The Hilliers exhibit features around 4,000 plants, so choosing just 10 from the show to feature in this post is a challenge. My selection this year is a little eclectic and reflects what caught my eye on the day rather than what’s new. So many of the plants launched at the show have that ‘trying too hard’ look about them, so I tend to steer well clear. There was a definite fashion for dark coloured flowers, not all of them attractive, and foxgloves abounded to the point of excess. None of them made into my list.

I love a good hosta; grown well there’s no foliage plant to rival its beauty and variety. Brookfields’ gold medal winning display caught my eye this year, brimming over with beasts as large as H. ‘Sum and Substance’ and H. ‘Empress Wu’ and as diminutive as H. ‘Cracker Crumbs’. A new introduction called H. ‘Firn Line’ was my favourite. Its striking heart-shaped foliage is blue-tinted with a broad cream margin which fades to white during the growing season. Lavender blooms (alas unscented) appear in midsummer, but are simply gilding the plantain lily.

Convallaria majalis ‘Verwood Golden Slippers’ from Avon Bulbs

Staying with the foliage theme for the moment, no-one could pass by the luminous lily of the valley, Convallaria majalis ‘Verwood Golden Slippers’ without lingering to admire its vitality. From Avon Bulbs, this is a plant that requires some patience to get going, but will reward you with startling golden leaves in early spring. Who would not wait with baited breath to see this emerge from the soil each year?

Rosa ‘Simple Peach’ from Harkness Roses

My Australian friend and I were both agreed that Britain’s rose breeders need a kick up the backside when it comes to staging their exhibits, which look increasingly old fashioned and uninspiring. Even David Austin Roses, which have done so much to move the industry forward, have not done anything exciting at Chelsea for years. Most of the new rose introductions were not worthy of my list, if indeed one could identify them at all. However Rosa ‘Simple Peach’ from Harkness Roses was undeniably pretty. The single flowers are attractive to bees, making it a great choice for anyone looking to encourage wildlife into their garden.

Mystery Zantedeschia

It’s generally considered something of a faux pas to make spelling errors on plant labels at Chelsea and this one did not go undetected. Not only was this lovely Zantedetia (sic) misspelt, but the variety, ‘Queen of Dominica’ also appears not to exist, in the UK at least. Despite its uncertain identity, I felt this lovely flamingo-coloured flower deserved a mention. If you are as taken by it as I am, Zantedeschia aethiopica ‘Marshmallow’ has a similar stature and colouring.

Leucospermum glabrum x tottum ‘Volkano’ from Trewidden Nursery

Before I move away from the coral theme, two plants shown by Claire and Jeff at Trewidden Nursery in Cornwall. Their meticulous display of hardy (ish) exotics earned them a well deserved gold medal, a brilliant achievement after the trials and tribulations of the wild winter they experienced in the South West. The first is Leucospermum glabrum x tottum ‘Volkano’, a spring flowering South African shrub which is best suited to coastal gardens, where it requires very little water or routine maintenance. The flower heads are nothing short of spectacular and earn it the common name ‘pincushion protea’.

Aloe polyphylla from Trewidden Nursery

Taking centre stage amongst a superb array of succulents was Aloe polyphylla, the spiral aloe, so called because of the way its leaves spiral out from the centre of the plant. Aloe polyphylla is endemic to the Kingdom of Lesotho in the Drakensberg mountains where it grows on high slopes and in rocky crevices. Summers here are cool, and in winter the plants might even be covered by snow. It is considered particularly tricky to grow, so hats off to Trewidden for coaxing this magnificent specimen into flower right on cue for Chelsea.

Celmsia semicordata from Kevock Garden Plants

One of my favourite exhibits at Chelsea is staged by Kevock Garden Plants from Midlothian, Scotland. This year’s island site provided new opportunities and as always the array of rare and interesting alpines was second to none. The stand-out plant for me, occupying centre stage, was a magnificent Celmsia semicordata, a plant hailing from New Zealand’s South Island. Here the Maoris used to peel the silvery underside from the leaves and attach it in rows to create a rain cape. The leaves were also packed into leggings and shin protectors for warmth and to guard against thorny plants. A plant as useful as it is beautiful.

Saxifraga ‘Brynhyfryd Hybrid’ from Kevock Garden Plants

Staying with Kevock for another of my top ten, this divine saxifrage, producing delicate veils of pure white flowers, is Saxifraga ‘Brynhyfryd Hybrid’. It was shown alongside another hybrid cultivated by Matthew Ruane at Brynhyfryd Nursery called S. ‘Nicholas’. Two wonderful plants for an alpine garden and just crying out to be admired.

Polygonatum stenanthum from Tale Valley Nursery

My big discovery at this year’s Chelsea was Tale Valley Nursery, a small specialist nursery in Devon offering a range of alpines, bulbs, herbaceous woodland plants and ferns. I was bowled over by the variety and quality of the display, which rightfully won proprietors Chris and Lorraine Birchall a gold medal. I noted down treasures such as Beesia calthifolia, Disporopsis ‘Min Shan’, Carex siderosticha ‘Shima-Nishiki’, Vancouveria hexandra, Coptis omiensis ….. I could go on but any more dribble on the laptop keyboard and it might fuse. I had to choose just one plant to feature in my top ten and that is Polygonatum stenanthum, a towering giant of a polgonatum that can grow up to 2m tall. Absolutely wonderful and a nursery I have a feeling I will be patronising in future.

Pelargonium ‘Australian Mystery’ from Fibrex Nurseries

Finally, and in honour of my fabulous friend and flower show companion ‘Helen of Oz’, a pelargonium named ‘Australian Mystery’. Unlike some other pelargoniums the flowers are simple and nicely spaced apart, the top petals stained and feathered berry red and the lower petals pure white. Shown by Fibrex Nurseries, this would make a super infill plant for borders after early bulbs and perennials have died down, or planted to cascade out of a pot or urn.

I hope you’ve enjoyed my somewhat random but considered selection from Chelsea’s finest. Do let me know which is your favourite or if, indeed, any turn you off completely.

Away from the hype and hubbub of Chelsea’s Main Avenue, two categories of show garden highlight the newest talent and the most innovative ideas in garden design. These are the Artisan and Fresh gardens. Many famous designers cut their teeth here, where the cost of staging a garden is less and the scope to push boundaries is greater. Some graduate to the big show gardens, whilst others are content to stay and play, year after year.

The Artisan Gardens, seven in all this year, are strung out along the shady length of the Serpentine Walk and are major attractions for showgoers. The smaller gardens here are intended to engage visitors with their artistic and naturalistic approach. They tend to be traditional, vernacular and less esoteric, designs with which British gardeners will feel instant empathy. If I have any beef it’s that there is a tendency for them to become overly twee; masterly recreations of traditional British gardens comprising stone walls encrusted with moss and packed with a riot of cottage garden flowers.

Breaking this stereotype for a new years has been Kazuyuki Ishihara, who with his incredible style, exuberance and attention to detail has fast become a Chelsea legend. Mr Ishihara is one of Japan’s best known landscape artists and gardening personalities. Maving mastered Ikenobo, the purest form of Ikebana (a Japanese style of floral arrangement), his tiny flower shop in Shianbashi Nagasaki became the highest grossing florist per square metre in Japan. In 2004, Mr Ishihara created his first garden at Chelsea where he won a silver gilt medal and then from 2005 to 2007 he won three consecutive golds. Not a bad start. Using flowers, greenery and traditional hard landscaping materials he continually expresses the Japanese spirit and identity through his work and this year won both a gold medal and the award for Best Artisan Garden. As always the composition of button mosses, acers and irises around a scaled-down tea house and water wheel was rendered impeccably, clearly guided by a gentleman who understands one of the world’s most precise forms of artistry.

A few gardens away, one of Mr Ishihara’s students, Shuko Noda, created his first ever Chelsea garden entitled ‘Arita’. He won silver gilt, just like his teacher ten years previously. The town of Arita in the Saga Prefecture is where Japanese Imari porcelain is made. This artisan craft was represented by ceramic spheres, tiles and bowls within the garden. In contrast to his tutor’s design, Mr Noda’s garden was consciously contemporary with an elegant modernist pavilion, pale stone paving and rolling swathes of moss. The planting was carefully contrived to echo the rich colours and natural imagery depicted on the porcelain’s smooth surface.

Lupinus ‘Noble Maiden’, Digitalis purpurea f. albiflora and Camassia leichtlinnii subsp. suksdorfii ‘Alba’ in The Topiarist’s Garden.

In complete contrast The Topiarist’s Garden, by Marylyn Abbott of West Green House, was a space designed for a theoretical gardener influenced by the tradition of ‘Topia Opera’ – or fancy gardening to you and I. What was so striking about this garden was the quality of the building or ‘bothy’, which looked as if it could have been sheltering below the trees of Ranelagh Gardens for hundreds of years. In fact it had been there for less than two weeks. The clever twist in Marylyn’s garden was that pots of bulbs, annuals and perennials could be placed within the framework of box hedges to create constantly evolving display. Balancing the need for structure and seasonal interest in a small garden is big challenge and this was an inspired way in which to achieve it.

Brooding, black water was not confined to the main show gardens and appeared as the focal point of the Tour de Yorkshire garden. This year the Tour de France has its Grand Départ in God’s Own County and Alistair Baldwin celebrated with a garden evocative of the moors over which the elite cyclists will toil. An elliptical pond fashioned from Corian, and looking rather too much like a very posh bathtub, had its surface broken by a discreet circle of tiny bubbles. In a nod to the prestigious event, the York stone wall at the back of the plot was adorned with bicycle wheels reclaimed from recycling centres around Yorkshire. Iris sibirica, which must have appeared in over a third of all show gardens, featured here alongside yew, ferns and thalictrums.

I will leave you tonight with this detail of a stepping stone, inspired by Nordic rune stones, part of the Viking Cruises Norse Artisan Garden.

Chelsea needs to watch her back. Her bigger, louder and brighter sister at Hampton Court Palace is slowly but surely stealing her crown. Chelsea may be smarter, better educated and popular with the establishment, but compared to Hampton Court she is starting to look a little too prim and proper.

Costing just £15,000, this contemporary sunken garden by Alexandra Frogatt had all the quality of a garden costing ten times more

I used to view The RHS Hampton Court Palace Flower Show as very much a poor relation to Chelsea. I doubt I will ever warm to its overtly commercial side, over which I wish the RHS would exercise a little more restraint, but whilst Chelsea appears increasingly stuck in a stylistic rut, Hampton Court gets more and more daring every year. For the first time, I think I prefer what Hampton Court has to offer: more variety, more adventure, more excitement and more inspiration for real gardeners.

The 100th anniversary of the start of The Great War was commemorated at Hampton Court using gardens, flowers and even scarecrows

Hampton Court’s gardens were split into four categories: the big-money show gardens; small but perfectly formed summer gardens; ‘Your Garden, Your Budget’ gardens (with price tags ranging from £7,000 to £15,000) and finally conceptual gardens. The result, to my mind, was a well balanced spectrum of size, style and cost, offering something of interest for everyone. The quality of gardens at Hampton Court has come on in leaps and bounds over recent years, but still one or two, disappointingly staged by garden centres, fell wide of the mark. That aside, I have never been harder pressed to choose a favourite, so here’s a selection, about which I hope to write in more detail shortly.

In Vestra Wealth’s Vista garden, designer Paul Martin created the ultimate outdoor living space

If I had to choose my number one it would be Vestra Wealth’s garden entitled ‘Vista’, designed by Paul Martin. This really was a garden for entertaining on a grand scale and frankly made me green with envy.  The quality of the materials and plants used to create this superlative design was second to none.

For a garden with such a rosé outlook, the glasses were not quite half full

In ‘A Space to Connect and Grow’, designer Jeni Cairns had thrown in everything bar the kitchen sink. In fact there probably was a sink amongst the recycled and upcycled materials used to create this vibrant garden. Interest and detail was incorporated into every corner, justly earning the garden both a gold medal and the award for best summer garden. Unlike Chelsea, many of Hampton Court’s show gardens are designed to be viewed from three sides, or in the round. Jeni had embraced this opportunity, treating the boundaries of the garden with as much love as the centre. The choice of plant material was suitably upbeat, including zesty yellow eremurus and plant of the moment, Echinacea ‘Hot Papaya’.

Featuring recycled and upcycled materials, a green roof, flowers, fruit, vegetables and herbs, Jeni Cairns’ garden ticked all the boxes

I am not sure who had the idea of theming the conceptual gardens around the seven deadly sins, but it was an inspired decision. Rachel Parker Soden’s ‘Lust’ included a neon Peep Show sign draped with Gloriosa superba ‘Rothschildiana’ (top of post), orchids exploding from a red velvet settee, and suggestive anthuriums parading themselves gaudily behind steamed-up windows. Never have plants looked more suggestive.

Steam rising from ‘Wrath – Eruption of Unhealed Anger’, designed by Nilufer Danis, drew unsuspecting crowds in, rewarding an unlucky few with a soaking from sudden jets of water. As an evocation of a volcanic landscape it was near perfect; flame coloured kniphofia, achillea, crocosmia and echinacea mingling with Dryopteris erythrosora and grasses, all emerging from a landscape of charred black rock. Ominous rumblings from the smoking mound added to the brooding, sensory experience.

Smoke rising from Nilufer Danis’ gold medal winning conceptual garden, entitled ‘Wrath – Eruption of Unhealed Anger’

If ‘Lust’ wasn’t provocative enough, Katerina Rafaj drew attention to the vast amount of food we waste in her garden entitled ‘Gluttony’. Despite the relative lack of planting the garden was awarded a gold medal.

Love it or hate it, the design for ‘Gluttony’ highlights the huge amount of food that we consume or waste every day

Equally thought-provoking was The World Vision Garden designed by John Warland. This large show garden celebrated the transformation of the Antsokia Valley, part of Ethiopia hardest hit by famine thirty years ago, from drought stricken wasteland to fertile farmland. Orange-clad assistants helped visitors interpret the garden’s exuberant displays of tomatoes, maize, cut flowers and fruit, all products that Ethiopia now exports to the rest of the world.

30 years on, The World Vision Garden celebrated Ethiopia’s recovery from famine

My new found interest in vegetable growing was piqued by these pot-grown cherry tomatoes

Having been absent from Chelsea this year, Hampton Court welcomed back Australia and Trailfinders with a superb garden designed by Jim Fogarty for Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne. Naturally this huge plot had a completely different feel to any other garden, featuring a palette of plants from the states of Victoria and the Northern Territory. Many plants were unfamiliar to me, but the varied textures of silver foliage set against red Devonian sandstone were easy to appreciate without any knowledge. A timber-clad structure at the back of the garden symbolised the rock formations of the Northern Territory, such as Uluru and the MacDonnell ranges. The sinuous layout of paths and pools was inspired by the Rainbow Serpent, a dreamtime creature from Aboriginal culture.

Essence of Australia celebrates the beauty and diversity Victoria and Northern Territory Flora

We return to the UK for my last three gardens. The first was the winner of a competition run by TV’s The One Show, designed by architecture student Alexandra Noble. The garden featured nine regularly spaced reflective pools representing the underfloor heating systems the Romans knew as hypocausts. Fine, billowing grasses were employed to create the impression of steam rising from the water, with other planting in shades of purple and lime green. This was a wonderful design for a sunken space and I am sure we’ll be seeing more from Alexandra Noble in future.

The designer of The One Show Garden, Alexandra Noble, was inspired by the Roman hypocausts of my home town, Bath

Nothing could have been more English than The Forgotten Folly, designed by Lynn Riches and Mark Lippiatt. The garden centred around a ruined stone building sitting high above a tumbling stream. Exuberant planting demonstrated how garden plants can successfully be combined with native wildflowers to create a haven for wildlife, as well as a beautiful space for humans to enjoy.

Nature takes hold in and around a ruined folly in this naturalistic garden

Finally, a garden which could have been a complete shocker, the NSPCC Legacy Garden designed by Adam Wollcott and Jonathan Smith. Four periods of garden style, from Victoria through to the present day, were represented in this small summer garden. The progression was marked by changes in the paving and plants, beginning with a shaded Victoria fernery, then an Edwardian rose garden, moving on to the the kind of 1970’s gaudiness I remember from my childhood. The present day section was filled with a familiar assemblage of perennials, but it was the humorous accessories, the teddybears, plaster ducks and lead soldiers, that really brought this whimsical garden to life.

A little bit of joyful whimsy, the NSPCC Legacy Garden depicts garden styles from the Victorian era to the present day

I hope I have managed to illustrate the enormous stretch of the gardens at Hampton Court Palace Flower Show this year and that you found something among them that inspires you. Already I am looking forward to seeing how the show moves forward again next year. Chelsea needs to take heed of her more worldy, provocative sister and let her hair down, just a little so as not to frighten the horses.

Exemplary planting was a feature of ‘Untying the Knot’ designed by Frederic Whyte for Bounce Back Foundation

Those of you wondering where The Frustrated Gardener has got to need not worry. I am alive and kicking in China, having just been to a magnificent Japanese teppanyaki restaurant with Taiwanese hosts. Consequently I am feeling thoroughly indulged and very international. There has been no let up in the schedule so, alas, no botanising, which grieves me greatly. Lacking any photographs of Chinese gardens to share with you, I am following tonight’s cuisine and reminding myself of the beautiful work of Japanese designer Kazuyuki Ishihara. His garden at Chelsea this year, entitled ‘Paradise on Earth’, demonstrated typical mastery of the art, capturing a perfect, tranquil scene in a space just a few metres square. I feel rested, peaceful and at one with nature just looking at it again. I hope you feel the same. よく眠る (I Sleep Well).

Damp mosses and cascading water combine to create a soothing environment in which to enjoy tea ceremonies

A miniature waterwheel seen from between the boughs of an acer

I embark on my review of 2014 with a degree of trepidation, as this year did not turn out to be quite as joyful as I hoped it might be. The two preceding years were gloriously packed with exotic travel and big events, so in hindsight 2014 was probably never going to live up to expectations. There have been many sadnesses, including the passing away of my granny and great aunt, marking the end of an era in the Cooper family. Work has been all consuming for us both and we have not enjoyed our usual ‘big’ holiday. In retrospect this may have been a sacrifice too far as we love our sun and adventure.

Yet one great happiness, the arrival of my niece Martha, rescued 2014 from the doldrums. I’d re-live all of the last twelve months just for that life-changing event. Happily the two generations, Great Granny Cooper and little Martha, were able to meet before their ways parted again. Martha will be one year old on January 3rd and is an ever-moving bundle of joy, laughter and smiles.

A-one, a-two, a-three, BLOW!

Meanwhile The Frustrated Gardener has gone from strength to strength, thanks to all the people who looked in regularly, or even dropped by just the once. It matters not, as the views, comments and likes are what have kept me going through a year of ups and downs, and will propel me into 2015 with as much gusto as I started 2014. Thank you for looking in and I hope you enjoy my review of this year’s best bits.

Yours truly, pictured in our new vegetable garden

There is no denying that 2014 was a vintage year for gardening, garden visiting or simply being outdoors. The UK escaped with a mild but very wet winter, followed by a lovely spring, summer and autumn. The growing season in both of our gardens was long and productive, creating an equal abundance of flowers and foliage ….. and for the first time in London there were fruits and vegetables too.

Our first crop of tomatoes was pampered in the sunniest corner of our London garden

In January, following the birth of baby Martha, we made the first of three visits to Cornwall. There, in the depths of winter, we discovered camellias, daffodils and leptospermums in full bloom. More incredible still was the profusion of aeoniums sprouting from walls and pots in St Ives’ narrow streets and alleyways.

Leptospermum scoparium ‘Coral Candy’

A second New Year highlight was the brilliant Hellebore Day at Bosvigo in Truro, the event which kicked off my gardening year. I took the sleeper train from Paddington, arriving in Camborne at the crack of dawn, and just had time to freshen up at Trevoole before joining the long queue for Wendy Perry’s hellebore bonanza. I purchased four beautiful seedlings from Wendy’s ‘Bosvigo Doubles’ strain and gave them all pet names in order that I could identify them in future. I am excited to see their richly ruffled blooms again in 2015, especially ‘Blackberry Fool’ and ‘Eton Mess’.

I named this beautiful Bosvigo double hellebore ‘Blackberry Fool’

March saw us travel up to Sheffield for a family birthday celebration, offering us the chance to visit the city’s wonderful Botanical Gardens. We were blessed with exceptional weather and greeted by swathes of hepaticas, crocuses, polyanthus and oxlips. It is heartwarming to witness the renaissance of public parks such as Sheffield Botanical Gardens, when as recently as the 80’s and 90’s so many seemed doomed to become drug-blighted, no-go areas. As the UK economy improves, it’s to be hoped that councils apportion an appropriate amount of their funds to the continuous improvement of our precious green spaces.

Restored Glass Pavilions, Sheffield Botanical Gardens

To my mind one can never pay enough visits to Sissinghurst, which truly deserves its matchless reputation as a garden of great beauty, style and plantsmanship. I visited three times during 2014, which further proved to me what a remarkable job the Sissinghurst team make of keeping this famous garden looking tip-top year-round. I am ashamed to admit that I never got around to writing up my April sortie, when the orchard and Delos were blanketed by a delightful patchwork of narcissi, anemones, fritillarias, scillas and hellebores.

A swathe of anemones carpets the ground in an area of Sissinghurst known as Delos

Sissinghurst’s orchard studded with cheerful narcissi, an early treat for the bees

It was a lovely day, with fewer visitors than one encounters later in the year. As always at Sissinghurst I was dazzled by the accomplishment of the plant associations, one of Vita Sackville-West’s many legacies which endure through today’s gardening team. A very special combination was Chaenomeles x superba ‘Knap Hill Scarlet’ set against the weathered brick and silvered oak of the Tudor castle. The Japanese quince’s colour is more tangerine than scarlet, but is exquisite next to its emerging lime-green leaves and the terracotta-tinted walls. Equally stunning and thoroughly modern was the dazzling pairing of fiery greigii tulips with the verdigris-coated urn at the centre of the Cottage Garden.

At Sissinghurst, climbers are selected to complement the warm tones of the castle walls

This eye-popping combination is just what’s needed to welcome in the spring

May is the month when The Frustrated Gardener gets more visits than any other. For the first time I took a week’s holiday for Chelsea and immersed myself in this greatest of all flower shows. There was much remembrance of the start of the Great War, both in show gardens and the Great Pavilion. This sobering theme was continued through many other RHS shows in 2014, a poignant reminder of the devastation, suffering and loss experienced in a conflict that began 100 years ago. Featuring blackened water and Iris sibirica (both widely employed at this year’s Chelsea), Charlotte Rowe’s brooding pool represented a crater left by an exploded bomb.

‘No Man’s Land’, designed by Charlotte Rowe

My ‘most read’ post of the year was my write up of The Telegraph Garden designed by Tommaso del Buono and Paul Gazerwitz. When I look back on my photographs I love this garden just as much, if not more, than I did back in May. Those saturated greens and cool blues are right up my street, and I admire the careful balance achieved between structure and informality. It’s not a garden I’d care to maintain – too much precision trimming required – but I could enjoy it endlessly, especially with a glass of Veuve Cliquot in hand.

Style and substance – The Telegraph Garden designed by del Buono Gazerwitz

Later that week, with my Aussie friend Helen, I visited Sissinghurst once again, but it was lesser known Goodnestone Park (pronounced ‘Gunston’) that captured my companion’s imagination. It may have been the roses, it may have been the bucolic vegetable garden, or it may have been the chatty head gardener, but we came away thoroughly inspired by this magical Kent garden and appreciated the relative absence of other visitors.

All set for the season ahead, the kitchen garden at Goodnestone Park, Kent

June saw us visit Amsterdam, me for the first time, to enjoy the city’s open garden weekend. We were blessed with great weather and found the whole event a fantastic introduction to Dutch garden style. Approximately 30 gardens opened their gates to the public, varying from grand museums to small domestic plots. For anyone challenged by narrow, shaded or dry spots it’s great to see what others have achieved in the same conditions, and the refreshments on offer aren’t bad either. Amsterdam’s gardens open once again in 2015, June 19 to June 21 inclusive.

The narrow garden at Singel 124, Amsterdam

Late June brought upheaval to our London garden when we embarked on the particularly ill-timed construction of raised vegetable beds, utilising a spot which had been neglected for a couple of years. Furthest away from the building, the designated spot receives plenty of sun, so we chose to incorporate seating for those balmy summer evenings. Despite having to lug over 300 bags of topsoil and compost through the flat, we had it planted up and ready to go by the second week in July. Although the sweetcorn and courgettes didn’t quite hit the mark, we enjoyed as many herbs, tomatoes, salad leaves and beans as we could eat.

Various forms of lighting mean that we can enjoy the garden in the evenings

Hampton Court Palace Flower Show was excellent this year and I declared Paul Martin’s exceptional garden, entitled ‘Vista’, my best in show. It had all the elements I love in a garden – generous entertaining space, ebullient planting, modern materials and close attention to detail. The cantilevered table was to die for, although if I were the host I’d have been topping up those glasses of rosé pronto. It was good to see Australia represented again at an RHS show, after we waved goodbye to Flemings at Chelsea in 2013. Jim Fogarty showcased the diversity of Australian flora in a garden full of colour and movement.

For a garden with such a rosé outlook, the glasses were not quite half full

‘Essence of Australia’ celebrated the diversity of Victoria and Northern Territory Flora

One thing had been on my mind all year, and that was the opening of our garden for the National Garden Scheme. It seemed such a good idea when our friend Beth suggested it back in September 2013, but as the big day approached the pressure mounted. Sometimes the moon and stars align and this was one such occasion. The sun shone, the flowers bloomed (many for the first time this year) and the people came – 220 of them in the space of 2 days. What struck us was how friendly, kind and considerate all our visitors were and how far people were prepared to travel to see a garden measuring just 20ft x 30ft. When the sums were done we had raised almost £700 for the NGS charities, which is an amazing figure. None of this would have happened were it not for a small band of people who publicised the opening and helped out on the gate and selling refreshments. We’ll be opening The Watch House again in 2015 on August 1 and 2 and hope for another fine turnout.

The Watch House Garden in August 2014, ready for opening

The garden was thronged with visitors on both days

The men with the money, Nigel, James and Simon manned the front gate

September was a sad month, marked by the passing of my last remaining grandparent. Granny Cooper was not a great gardener but loved to be outdoors, either walking or, in later years, sitting in my parents’ garden. In perfect partnership with my grandpa for over 70 years before his death, I like to believe they are now together again, enjoying each others’ company over a steaming cup of tea and slice of lemon drizzle cake. Granny Cooper loved the colour yellow so these roses are for her:

Vera Cooper: 7 June 1920 – 1 September 2014

Late summer was not without its happier moments. We enjoyed three nights of luxury at Hotel Endsleigh, Devon in a room that looked out over the magnificent long border, reputedly the longest unbroken expanse of herbaceous planting in England. Whilst other guests arrived by helicopter, we had to make do with conventional wheels. Soft top down, we crossed the county to visit Cliffe and Gill Heavens, fellow blogger and author of Off The Edge Gardening. Now there is a garden with a view and a gardener with a wealth of knowledge.

Hotel Endsleigh’s long border is planted to give guests enjoyment throughout the growing season

The garden at Cliffe (now closed to the public) overlooks sublime Lee Bay

As usual, most of October was spent working in China, so it was great to return to two gardens still going strong. Having been blighted with mildew through the summer, Clematis ‘Madame Julia Correvon’ came into her own in October and was still blooming on Christmas Day. She was joined by Anemone ‘Wild Swan’ and Eomecon chionantha, otherwise known as the snow poppy, despite normally blooming in May and June.

A lady with staying power – Clematis ‘Madame Julia Correvon’

Most of December was spent in bed, not relaxing, but recovering from a succession of unwelcome bugs. For the most part it was a month I’d rather forget, but by Christmas Day I was well enough to pose with Him Indoors for our traditional festive self portrait. You will spot on the right of the photograph a miniature greenhouse I bought for myself on a recent trip to Holland. Well, Father Christmas took the hint and delivered (albeit in 100 pieces) a tiny, lean-to greenhouse; the sort that stands against a wall but that one can’t actually go inside. It’s perfect for what I need and will allow me to start sweet peas early, bring on seedlings and give tender plants a little additional protection. All I need is time to put it together, and before I know it there won’t be an inch of staging left unoccupied.

Thank you for reading this post and for joining me on my trip down memory lane. The going was a little rough at times and my suspension almost failed, but as 2015 approaches I can see open road ahead. I hope the same goes for you. Happy New Year!

A Happy New Year from The Frustrated Gardener and Him Indoors

Only fifteen days into the New Year and the RHS have offered the public a glimpse of how the show gardens will look at this year’s Chelsea Flower Show. As you’d expect there’s little that might risk furrowing the brows of the judging panel, but there are some distinct trends emerging from the panoply of designs that have been revealed so far.

The World On Our Doorstep

Last year Cleeve West alluded to Islamic styling with his Persian inspired Paradise Garden for sponsors M&G Investments. This year we get the full monty in the shape of Kamelia Bin Zaal’s ‘The Beauty of Islam’, which explores the relationship between mankind and the earth.

The Beauty of Islam will mark designer Kamelia Bin Zaal’s Chelsea debut

Poetry, sculpture and calligraphy will be employed to demonstrate the beauty of Arabic and Islamic cultures, whilst Kamelia’s planting will illustrate the extent to which the Arabic empire grew, extending to regions where rosemary, papyrus and jasmine could be found. There’s surely no better time to reinforce the beautiful, cultured and peaceful nature of Islamic culture and I am sure this garden will garner a lot of positive attention. Too much hard landscaping can turn the Chelsea judges off, so it will be interesting to see if Kamelia’s completed project strikes the right balance between authenticity and high horticulture.

Kamelia Bin Zaal studied Landscape Design at Inchbald School of Design in London

Several of this year’s first time designers are not Brits, or even Europeans, which I hope will start to turn the tide against the tedium of endless perennial prairie and annual meadow plantings. I doubt either of the latter will be found within ‘The Hidden Beauty of Kranji’, a garden designed by John Tan & Raymond Toh. Their show garden is inspired by a lush suburb of their native Singapore and will brim with orchids, tropical ferns, coconut palms and jungly creepers. This is a garden that is certain to turn heads, provided it can survive the vagaries of a British early summer.

The Hidden Beauty of Kranji is inspired by the gardens of a Singaporean suburb

A garden guaranteed to hog the limelight is the Sentebale garden designed by Matthew Keightley. With HRH Prince Harry as it’s Patron, and last year’s People’s Choice designer at the helm, it would be hard not have the highest hopes for a gold medal. Sentebale provides healthcare and education to Lesotho’s vulnerable children and Matthew’s garden aims to offer visitors a taste of this mountainous country, along with a sense of the vibrant atmosphere in the charity’s Mamohato camp. A central building constructed using traditional materials will anchor the scheme, which also includes rocks and water features.

The Sentebale garden has already had Royal approval

Effortless Elegance

Chelsea would not be Chelsea without the stylish presence of both Laurent-Perrier and The Telegraph. The prestigious Champagne House has surely secured greatness by partnering with leading British designer Dan Pearson and one of our country’s greatest estates, Chatsworth. Having been absent from Chelsea for more than a decade, Dan’s garden is inspired by the wilder reaches of Chatworth’s historic garden, featuring an ambitious rockery and stream. It will be a welcome change of pace for Laurent Perrier, who’s garden I admired, but did not love in 2014.

The Laurent-Perrier garden will occupy the prominent ‘triangle’ site at Chelsea

The Telegraph have left much to the imagination, releasing only a black and white pencil drawing of their garden designed by Marcus Barnett. To better understand Marcus’ design, think of Mondrian, a principal member of the De Stijl Movement (which translates from Dutch as ‘The Style’) founded in Amsterdam in 1917. The garden will rely heavily on rectilinear geometry, with bright blocks of flower and foliage contributing colour and texture. In place of the monochrome rendering, expect vibrant, primary colour-blocking against a foil of cool greens.

The Telegraph Garden will employ the vibrant colours and closely related tones favoured by the De Stijl Movement

Knowing What Works

My parting shot is to herald the return of TV gardener Chris Beardshaw to Chelsea, with a garden that brings together tried and tested features such as rusty metal pillars, pollarded trees and effervescent perennials. It’s been a winning formula before, and I am sure it will be again, but at face value this garden (top and below) feels a little too safe for my liking. I would be more than happy to be proved wrong.

What’s for sure is that Chelsea Flower Show will once again hold the nation in its thrall. Running from May 19-23 2015, tickets are still available, but don’t dilly-dally, they’ll be gone before you can say ‘Alan Titchmarsh’. Do let me know which gardens tickle your fancy, or dowse your bonfire.

Chris Beardshaw’s garden will be relocated to East London following the show

Generally speaking I am not the kind of person who wins lotteries or ballots. I don’t even come out of tombolas or raffles particularly favourably. I am the man that walks away with the cider vinegar or the oversized tea cosy fashioned from yarn that looks like it would induce an electric shock. But today fortune was smiling on me as, for the very first time, I managed to get my hands on that most precious of prizes, a Chelsea Flower Show Press Pass. Rather like turning left on a plane, once you’ve experienced preview day at Chelsea it is hard to go back. There are film crews, photographers, hacks and celebrities galore, but compensating for that is the space and time to take in one of the greatest celebrations of horticulture on the planet. It was as if all my birthdays had come at once. Of course I will be back tomorrow for the first member’s day, but the experience will feel decidedly ‘economy’ compared to today, even though I only had a couple of hours to spare and an iPhone in my pocket.

Despite the inclement weather (high winds and drenching showers), most of the show gardens on Main Avenue were holding up well. I felt for the designers of the Hidden Beauty of Kranji garden who had bravely bedded out orchids beneath palm trees almost bent double by the gale. My highest hopes were for Dan Pearson’s Laurent Perrier garden, but, exceptional as it was, I am not sure it’s a shoe-in for Best in Show. So skilled is the garden’s execution that it appears to have been torn straight from the Derbyshire countryside and pasted into the grounds of the Royal Hospital. It is wild and authentic, but is it a Chelsea garden? We’ll know what the RHS judges think first thing tomorrow morning. If the accolade does not go Dan’s way, My top tips for the big prize would be The Retreat, designed by Jo Thompson for sponsors M&G investments, and Matt Keightley’s Hope in Vulnerability garden for Prince Harry’s charity Sentebale. Jo Thompson has created an archetypal English garden (above), with a contemporary twist. Matt’s design (below), inspired by the Mamohato Children’s centre in Lesotho, made my heart sing with it’s colourful planting and warm, friendly atmosphere: if not the top honour it deserves serious recognition.

Given my rare good luck, I think it’s only fair to share with you the highlights of my afternoon at Chelsea. Whether you are visiting, watching the TV coverage or admiring from afar, I do hope you enjoy the show. Check back throughout the week for more pictures, analysis and my top 10 Chelsea plants for 2015.

At about 10.30am yesterday morning a small crowd surrounded Monty Don and RHS Director General Sue Biggs as they prepared to announce the prize for ‘Best Large Show Garden’. Their position, next to the island site at the bottom of Main Avenue, left little doubt as to the winner – the Chatsworth Garden designed by Dan Pearson for Laurent-Perrier. It was the bookies’ favourite to take the accolade and, judging by the rapturous applause, the public’s as well.

Managing Director of Laurent-Perrier in the UK, David Hesketh, is the man with the enviable task of selecting a designer for the Champagne house’s Chelsea garden each year. He is clearly persuasive, as Dan Pearson has not designed a Chelsea garden for eleven years. David’s brief to his designer is a simple one, purely to reflect the value’s that Laurent Perrier adhere to when crafting their distinguished cuvées: lightness, freshness and delicacy.

Rocks surrounded by the fragrant flowers of Rhododendron luteum

There can be no argument that David’s brief was achieved. During last night’s BBC coverage Monty Don described The Chatsworth Garden as one of the most significant ever created at the Chelsea Flower Show. I would have to agree. Not only is it one of the largest (no show garden has ever occupied the full island site before) but also one of the most ambitious. Taking his inspiration from two of Joseph Paxton’s lesser known features within Chatsworth’s 105 acre garden – the magnificent rockery and the ornamental trout stream – Dan Pearson has masterminded a garden of unrivalled detail, impeccable naturalism and enormous charm.

The layout of the Laurent-Perrier garden from the northern edge

Dan’s design is unusual for Chelsea in that it can be glimpsed from all sides. This in itself is a challenge as views from every angle have to be considered, whereas in other gardens the main viewpoint is from the front and one side. A tiny stream begins high on an austere rocky outcrop, out of view from visitors. It then flows gently down and through meadows of flowers where it is crossed by giant stone slabs, ending its course in a small pond: “Getting the levels right was crucial” explained David “every stone and pebble in the water course has been carefully secured in place to achieve the right effect”. The mammoth stones used for the garden do not just simulate Paxton’s monumental rockery of 1842, they are the actual rocks that Paxton rejected during his original project. They were found discarded, scattered around the Chatsworth estate, many weighing several tonnes.

Rheums and osmundas in the shadow of Paxton’s gargantuan rocks

Although they are species commonly found in England, the trees that Crocus sourced for Dan Pearson have come from all over Europe. “British nurseries don’t tend to hold mature specimen trees for landscape projects” Crocus founder and CEO Mark Fane told me, “so we had to look to Europe”. The characterful pollarded willow that stands at edge of the garden came from Holland, whilst other trees were found in Germany and France. I was interested to learn that the location of one of the willow trees had to be changed during the build after the team discovered a Victorian sewer running under the site. It was doubtful that the old pipes could have withstood the direct weight of the tree, so it had to be moved elsewhere at the last minute.

The rocks, flanked by Enkianthus campanulatus, through which the tiny stream flows

The comment that was repeated by everyone I overheard was how incredible it was that this garden had been created in a matter of days and yet appeared as if it had been there forever. David Hesketh explained to me that the entire garden had been created at the nursery three months earlier and allowed to knit together over the weeks leading up to the show. Unlike some other show gardens, all the plants were transferred growing in the ground to Chelsea, and not left in pots. A swathe of wild flower meadow was grown specifically for the garden and cut into large square sheets of turf before being transported on trollies to the site.

A grassy bank strewn with red campion, troillius, irises and primulas

The planting creates as rich and colourful a tapestry as one could ever hope to see. Completely unswayed by trends and ‘it’ plants, Dan Pearson has used a palette of natives, carefully augmented by ornamentals, just as you would find in the wilder recesses of a garden like Chatsworth. I loved the floating canopies of Rhododendron luteum;  the fringes of candelabra primulas which appeared to have seeded themselves alongside the stream; the random spikes of camassia and marsh orchids poking through the turf; and the white clouds of Luzula nivea, Lychnis flos-cuculi ‘White Robin’ and Cenolophium denudatum foaming at the base of the trees. There were wonderful touches such as clumps of Narcissus poeticus hiding beneath the bushes and purple stemmed irises along the water’s edge. Many visitors would not have noticed these details, but the judges certainly did.

Turk’s cap lilies in all shades of orange populated shady parts of the garden

I was lucky enough to be invited to walk through the centre of the garden, across a heavy plank boardwalk, over rough stepping stones and then onto a lightly worn grass path. From inside, the garden felt even more permanent, as if I was standing on a little island of Chatsworth that had floated down from Derbyshire to South West London. Any team capable of creating a show garden this convincing deserves a gold medal.

Heavy oak planks invite visitors into the garden

A privileged view from the top of the grass bank inside the garden

Unlike many other show gardens there is a future for the Chatsworth Garden. When the show closes most of the trees, plants and stones will be transported back to Chatsworth where they will be used in the regeneration of the trout stream area. This was one of the main reasons Dan Pearson took on the project. He says: “I felt when I was here the last time it was wrong to make a garden for just five days and I felt uncomfortable about the waste and that the gardens were not being recycled. I wanted to work on something that lasts decades rather than days, so that is why I said I was important that the garden had another life.” The Duke and Duchess of Devonshire, who live at Chatsworth, were clearly delighted with the whole project and spent the day handing out leaflets and talking to the public.

White thalictrum

Dan Pearson vowed yesterday never to work on another Chelsea Garden. In the short term his Garden Bridge project will keep him out of mischief, yet firmly in the limelight. With that under his belt, surely another Chelsea garden will seem like a walk in the park?

In Paxton’s original design for Chatsworth, rocks were delicately balanced so that they could be made to sway for the amusement of visitors

Plant List

A complete plant list was not provided, and would have run to many pages. Here are some of the highlights:

• Asarum europaeum AGM
• Asplenium scolopendrium AGM
• Briza media
• Brunnera macrophylla ‘Betty Bowring’
• Cenolophium denudatum
• Cornus canadensis
• Deschampsia cespitosa
• Digitalis purpurea f. albiflora
• Dryopteris erythrosora AGM
• Enkianthus campanulatus AGM
• Euphorbia palustris AGM
• Hemerocallis lilioasphodelus
• Iris ‘Berlin Tiger’ AGM
• Lonicera pericylmenum ‘Graham Thomas’ AGM
• Lunaria rediviva AGM
• Luzula nivea
• Mahonia ‘Soft Caress’
• Matteuccia struthiopteris AGM
• Melica altissima ‘Alba’
• Osmunda regalis
• Polygonatum x hybridum AGM
• Rhododendron luteum
• Smyrnium perfoliatum

Cornus canadensis carpeting the ground

Big budget show gardens are all well and good, but it was two of Chelsea’s smaller gardens that really impressed me on Tuesday. The ‘Fresh’ category is where the RHS loosens its corset and affords designers a little more freedom, provided they remain on the right side of good horticulture. Designers are permitted to choose the shape and size of their plot (in modules measuring 3m x 3m) and are encouraged to embody an idea or concept whilst experimenting with new materials and technology. Sadly these gardens often struggle to deliver the impact of larger show gardens; not for lack of brilliance, but because they float randomly between trade stands that are attempting emulate show gardens themselves. The unfortunately stark backdrop of the Great Pavilion does not help matters. A shake up of Chelsea’s layout is long overdue and it would be good to see the Fresh garden promoted to a less confused position.

Nevertheless, in today’s featured gardens designers John Warland and Howard Miller manage to capture the current zeitgeist without being pretentious. Eye-popping fluorescent yellow and rusted steel combined with burnt orange flowers were common sights at this year’s Chelsea, whilst inky black water, bamboo and umbrella plants suggest more global influences filtering into garden design. In neither garden are flowers given centre stage. Each is completely different, and yet together they epitomise much of what is new and exciting in garden design.

I could not take my eyes off The World Vision Garden and the camera loved it too. Inspired by the beauty of rural Cambodia designer John Warland swapped rice plants for fluorescent acrylic rods, ‘planting’ them deep in a pool of dark water. Growing through and around them were frothy water buttercups, cyperus and taro plants providing shade beneath their elephantine leaves. The garden’s message is a harsh one: surviving on just two bowls of rice a day, the life of many children in Cambodia is permanently blighted by poor nutrition. Contrasting with the yellow rods, purple irises and water violets are planted to indicate that water conditions are improving enough to allow delicate plants to thrive in the paddies. As well as attracting attention with the mind bending suggestion of a reverse oasis (or should that be anti-oasis?) mirrored boxes filled with cacti are sunk into the water representing light at the end of the tunnel for the country’s impoverished rural communities.

Although this garden probably isn’t something you’d emulate at home (the water needed relentless filtering to maintain that lacquer-black appearance) it is wonderful to look at and in my view deserved better than a Silver Gilt medal. Perhaps one take-out would be the idea of planting cacti in a mirrored glass cube. If sharp drainage could be provided the light, bright habitat would be perfect for these prickly customers.

Architect Howard Miller probably thought he had the toughest brief of all when he was asked to portray the entire universe and the unidentified constituents within it using plants and rusty metal. Since I am no astrophysicist, I will not embellish what the accompanying leaflet tells me, that is without what’s known as ‘Dark Matter’ there would be no planets, stars or galaxies. Pretty dramatic news for us Earthlings. No one knows what Dark Matter is, apart from a cloud of mysterious invisible particles that float around in empty space. Its presence is only known because it is believed to bend light and create huge gravitational effects. Lost? Me too, but let’s go on ….

The garden uses wind as a metaphor for Dark Matter as it cannot be seen but its effects can. Plants have been chosen to be sensitive to the slightest breeze, so that the garden is continually moving in response to air movement. The presence of Dark Matter is reinforced by undulations in the ground, symbolised by a hollow where Dark Matter exists above it and a mound where it does not. I know now why I studied plant science and not astronomy, but evidently when the two disciplines collide the result isn’t too catastrophic. There is no explanation of the large cut-out cogs, but I like to imagine that this is what the Large Hadron Collider looks like, only shinier.

Given the rather esoteric message behind this garden, it’s just as well it’s attractive its own right. The ideas Howard Miller presents in this garden could be translated into a small urban strip, roof terrace or balcony, coming together to make an edgy, private yet usable outdoor space. There’s a boundary of bamboo, focal points in the giant rusted steel sculpture and planter, and plenty of year-round interest. The finishing touch is a bench on which to sit and contemplate the meaning of the universe. I may be some time.

The Dark Matter Garden for the National Schools’ Observatory won Best Fresh Garden and a Gold medal. How would you have judged it, and which of the two gardens do you prefer?

I feel for Matt Keightley, the garden designer who narrowly missed out on a Chelsea gold medal for two years running. Last year his Hope on the Horizon garden failed to secure the judge’s top marks, but won outright with the public who voted it their ‘People’s Choice’. This time, Matt’s design for the Sentebale garden, entitled ‘Hope in Vulnerability’ garnered the same medal from the the judges and we have just learned that it too has been awarded ‘People’s Choice’. I think this says rather more for the opinion of the UK public than it does for that of the RHS judges.

The Sentebale garden comes complete with royal approval

Matt’s showpiece for Sentebale, a charity co-founded by HRH Prince Harry, confirms that he is far from a one trick pony. A garden more different in tone and style it’s hard to imagine and personally I love it. In trying to capture the atmosphere of the rural landscape of Lesotho in Southern Africa, Matt has created a garden of great warmth and personality. Prince Harry said parts of it are “exactly like Africa” and the garden radiates that dry, herbal heat that I have been lucky enough to experience on previous visits to the continent. “I’m aware lots of people haven’t been to Africa, let alone Lesotho,” reflects Prince Harry: “This is our way of bringing a little bit of Lesotho to Chelsea”.

The garden viewed from behind its wooden palisade

It may well be that in striving for authenticity Matt sacrificed his chance of top marks. It’s been suggested that RHS judges frown on gardens that are overly themed, especially when this comes at the expense of excellent horticulture. As an onlooker it’s hard to see what could have been done better in the Sentebale garden. The construction appears to have followed the original plans submitted to the RHS (a point on which some gardens have been picked up in the past) and the production values are high. The idea is original and there are many facets to the scheme, beginning at a dry, sunny threshold and continuing into a colourful garden compound, before arriving in a cool shaded area with expansive waterfall and pool. Perhaps it’s here that the garden loses something of its pace and perfection (I spied a clump of agapanthus not quite in bloom), but all gardens need a quieter spot in which to reflect.

At the back of the plot, a deck is cantilevered over a pool filled by an impressive cascade

A view through the garden towards the cascade that took over 50 tonnes of stone to build

There are varied vistas into the garden from multiple viewpoints, a detail on which some other garden this year failed miserably. I am always underwhelmed by the show gardens that can be taken in with one glance (for example the Royal Bank of Canada garden), or which have to be appreciated through a heavy haze of foliage (sponsor M&G Investment’s garden). My knowledge of the flora of Lesotho is too limited to judge the appropriateness of Matt’s planting, but then this is a show garden and some creative license is surely to be granted?

Whichever way the People’s Choice vote had gone, Matt had made a certain member of the Royal Family very happy. Prince Harry remarked that the garden was “fantastic” and “everything I could have wished for” before cheerfully guiding the Queen around the site on Monday. She smiled proudly, no doubt happy for once to see her grandson grabbing the headlines for all the right reasons.

Prince Harry greets members of the Besutho Choir (Photo: Telegraph)

Matt Keightley strikes me as the kind of chap who will view this year’s result as a stepping stone towards a future gold medal and a place in Chelsea’s Hall of Fame. In ‘Hope in Vulnerability’ he successfully transports us to a little known country in Southern Africa whilst highlighting the work of a remarkable charity supporting disadvantaged children. This is no mean feat, especially during a cold, blustery week in May. The public have spoken, and as any good retailer knows, the customer is always right.

Agaves and kniphofias make up part of the planting beneath a cork oak

Spiky plants suggest a hot, arid climate

I changed my plans this year and instead of dashing headlong for Main Avenue when the show opened on Tuesday, I hung a left and made for the Serpentine Walk where Chelsea’s Artisan Gardens can be found. These gardens are built on a smaller budget and are frequently sponsored by councils, tourism authorities and charities. Their themes are often typically British, as exemplified by the charming Trugmaker’s Garden (about which more soon) and the Magna Carta 800th Anniversary Garden, which took ‘over-themed’ to a new level.

A place for everything and everything in its place

In recent years one garden has stood out, and that’s the garden designed by Ishihara Kazuyuki. At just after 8am on Tuesday morning I followed TV presenter Nicky Chapman and RHS judge James Alexander-Sinclair down the snaking pathway as they handed out the medals. Despite the TV cameras, only modest crowds gathered to watch as, one-by-one, the designers opened their white envelopes. There were hugs, smiles and just a few tears, but no reaction as exuberant as that of Mr Kazuyuki. After a momentary pause his customary composure fell away and he leapt in the air shouting “Gold” repeatedly whilst beaming from ear-to-ear. He speaks very little English so his elation is always wonderfully expressed through his body language.

The dapper Mr Kazuyuki waits patiently for the judges to come around

A moment of suspense as the envelope is opened ….

… and it’s ….

… Gold! Gold!! Gold!!!

As always, Mr Kazuyuki’s garden was perfection itself, down to the very last cushion moss. It represented a Japanese garden of the Edo period (1603-1867) when the practice of building gardens became popular amongst businessmen, merchants and politicians. These gardens were designed to mimic landscapes or views that the owner might have experienced, or to recreate well known scenes from around the globe. As such they were worlds in miniature, designed to impress and convey the wealth and sophistication of the household.

A circular opening allows light into the interior

Against the backdrop of a weeping willow, Mr Kazuyuki’s tableau of mosses, ferns, vividly coloured acers and moody pines lit up this shady corner of the Chelsea Flower show. It was a garden that drew you in, tempting you up the cobble steps to the little tea house at the top of the slope. Flowers were restricted to a few artfully placed azaleas and irises, but who needs flowers when foliage is this brilliant. Mr Kazuyuki goes home to Japan a happy man. Let’s hope he’ll be back with another winning design in 2016.

Acers shade cobble steps leading to the tea house

Mr Kazuyuki’s garden photographed straight on

In 2005, Singapore announced plans to distinguish itself as a ‘City in a Garden’. The projects that followed, such as The Gardens by the Bay, have attracted global attention, rivalling our very own Eden Project in terms of scale and ambition. The city’s long established botanical gardens have always been one of my favourites, brimming with lush foliage and thousands of orchids. Singapore’s national flower is a pretty pink vanda named V. ‘Miss Joaquim’, so it seemed only fitting that Raymond Toh and John Tan, designers of the Hidden Beauty of Kranji garden at last week’s Chelsea Flower Show, should include this special orchid in their scheme.

It’s not often that designers are brave enough to submit a garden with such a distinctly tropical theme and it did feel very much as if this garden ought to be under glass or in a fancy hotel atrium. There was little for the average gardener to take away in practical terms, but there was plenty of admiration for the distinguished design duo’s colourful composition. To plant palms and orchids outside in London during May takes some nerve and at night the entire garden had to be wrapped in a protective layer to keep out the cold. On the first day of the show the garden was taking a bashing from the wind and rain, but the bright colours never lost their sparkle. The contrast between this and the Laurent Perrier Chatsworth Garden, just a few yards away, was a dramatic one.

I particularly enjoyed the narrow waterfalls emerging from a wall of lush greenery. They were clearly inspired by The Gardens by the Bay (above, photographed in October 2012, shortly after it opened) and roared satisfyingly as they plunged into the foliage fringed pool below.

A pavilion at the centre of the garden offered shade from the not-so-tropical sun. The roof was planted with creepers and tree ferns (Cyathea arborea), representing Singapore’s quest to increase the number of roof gardens and green walls around the city. Kranji, the north western suburb after which the garden is named, is a low-rise, well-to-do neighbourhood with a horse racing circuit, organic farming collective and farmer’s market. All very middle-class. Great pride is taken in the city’s natural environment and this garden echoes the care and attention lavished on public spaces that I’ve experienced first hand each time I’ve visited Singapore.

The Hidden Beauty of Kranji was not to everyone’s taste, but deserved a silver gilt medal for pushing Chelsea’s boundaries eastwards. No doubt in Saturday’s sell off a lucky few went home with some choice specimens for their conservatory. Here’s the full plant list:

SHRUBS

• Alocasia ‘Calidora’
• Alocasia ‘Polly’
• Alpinia purpurata
• Calathea insignis
• Calathea ‘Medallion’
• Cordyline fruiticosa
• Costus woodsonii
• Ficus elastica
• Ophiopogon japonica
• Philodendron ‘Imperial Red’
• Philodendron pertussem
• Philodendron selloum
• Philodendron xanadu
• Sansaveria trifasciata laurentii
• Spathiphyllum ‘Lima’
• Spathiphyllum ‘Sensation’
• Schefflera arboricola
• Aeschynanthus lobbianus
• Dracaena cintho ‘Vertakt’
• Calathea orbifolia
• Ananas champaca
• Aglaonema ‘Cretea’

TREES / PALMS

• Areca lutescens
• Vietchia merrillii
• Cerbera manghas
• Musa tropicana
• Rhapis excelsa
• Cocos nucifera
• Cycas revoluta (below)
• Ficus lyrata
• Schefflera amate
• Cyathea brownii
• Cyathea arborea
• Pandanus tectorius var. sanderi
• Licuala grandis

GROUND COVERS

• Scindapsus aureus
• Calissia repens
• Microsorum diversifolium
• Nephrolepsis exaltata
• Humata tyremannii
• Asplenium nidus
• Platycerium bifurcatum

VERTICAL GREENERY

• Tradescantia zebrina
• Asplenium antiquum
• Chlorophytum comosum ‘Ocean’
• Tillandsia usneoides
• Philodendron scandens
• Peperomia angulata
• Syngonium red and pink
• Syngonium ‘Pixie’
• Sellaginella

ORCHIDS

• Aranda ‘Singa Gold’
• Dendrobium ‘Enobi Purple’
• Vanda ‘Miss Joaquim’
• Dendrobium ‘Asian Youth Games Singapore 09′
• Renanthera ’20th Singapore WOC 2011′ (red orchid, below right)

It’s a case of eat, sleep, work and repeat this week. The weekend cannot arrive soon enough. Considering what to write about tonight I realised that I had never shared the photos I’d taken at Chelsea of the ‘fleur du moment’ – bearded irises. It was not just Cayeux from France, but also Claire Austin, Kelways and Howard Nurseries celebrating these fabulous early summer blooms at the world’s premier flower show.

Cedric Morris’ seedlings display attractively ‘off’ colours such as butterscotch, puce, cream and mauve

Neither of our gardens are open or sunny enough for bearded irises, but this doesn’t prevent me from appreciating their marvellously flamboyant form and colour. Howard Nurseries presented a collection of Cedric Morris hybrids rescued from obscurity by former Sissinghurst Head Gardener Sarah Cook. These old varieties exhibit remarkable bruised, slightly ‘off’ colours that one can imagine the artist and plantsman relished. Before the Second World War, Cedric Morris was a renowned painter and breeder of irises, which he admired for their ‘elegance, pride and delicacy’. In 1940 he moved to Benton End in Suffolk, where he cultivated a garden inspired by Claude Monet’s at Giverny. He grew about 1,000 new iris seedlings every year, the best of which he named, many with names beginning ‘Benton’. Those that didn’t make the cut were sold at garden openings in aid of the Red Cross.

‘Iris Seedlings’ painted in 1943 by Sir Cedric Morris (copyright: Estate of Sir Cedric Morris)

Cedric Morris and his irises, back at Chelsea after a 60 year break

As is the way of things, recent hybridisation has given rise to more compact plants with clearer coloured flowers, some with pronounced ruffles and picotee edges. I fell in love with Iris ‘Ceil Gris sur Poilly’ and I. ‘Lune et Soleil’ from Cayeux; I. ‘Parisian Dawn’ and I. ‘Ink Pattern’ shown by Claire Austin. They demonstrate that progress has not entirely been at the expense of finesse.

Iris ‘Ciel Gris sur Poilly’

Iris ‘Parisian Dawn’

Iris ‘Lune et Soleil’

There is a place in any warm sunny garden for bearded irises and an incredible range of colours and forms to choose from. Just follow these three golden rules and you’ll reap the rewards:

1. Irises like a well-drained soil. If you garden on clay, mound up the beds so the rhizomes don’t get too wet.
2. Feed plants once or twice a year with Growmore and sulphate of potash. Feed after flowering and also in March if you garden on impoverished soil.
3. Divide plants straight after flowering. Give them a position at the front of a border or better still in a brightly lit bed of their own – they don’t like competition from other plants.

Howard Nurseries’ display of Cedric Morris hybrids in an artist’s studio setting