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The Very Best of 2015 – A Year in Pictures
The moment I sit down to write my review of the year my mind goes completely blank. How do I sum up the year that was 2015? What happened of any note? Nothing there. A gardener’s optimistic outlook...
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Chelsea Flower Show 2016 Preview: The Cloudy Bay Garden
In just 11 days the Chelsea Flower Show will fling open its gates to an expectant crowd of RHS members and their guests. Until now my Chelsea 2016 coverage has been rather lacking, so over the next few...
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Chelsea Flower Show 2016 Preview: The Winton Beauty of Mathematics Garden
The more I explore what’s in store at this year’s Chelsea Flower Show, the more excited I get. On reflection I was disappointed by last year’s show gardens, very few having stuck in my mind a year...
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Chelsea Flower Show 2016 Preview: Royal Bank of Canada Garden
This will be my final post before the lucky few (who include HM The Queen, but not me this year) are granted early admittance to The Chelsea Flower Show. The weather has taken a distinctly Chelsea...
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Keeping Chelsea in Perspective
Every year, in about the middle of May, my eyes, previously amused by any new flower or shoot as if it were a new-born baby, start to view my garden more critically. They spy dark, unplantable corners;...
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Chelsea Flower Show 2016: The Show Gardens
The Chelsea Flower Show opened yesterday, showcasing the best clutch of show gardens in many years. Visitors were treated to magical woodlands, gracious urban formality, alien abstract sculpture,...
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Chelsea Flower Show 2016: Best in Show – The Telegraph Garden
The problem with writing about The Chelsea Flower Show is that there’s so much to say and so little time to say it. And then there’s coming up with a new angle to share. The BBC’s coverage is so...
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Chelsea Flower Show 2016: My Best in Show – The Winton Beauty of Mathematics...
The great thing about the show gardens at this year’s Chelsea Flower Show was that they were all completely different. Yes, there were common threads – a preponderance of pines, the full gamut of red...
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Chelsea Flower Show 2016: The Vestra Wealth Garden of Mindful Living
Despite the unpredictability of the British weather, the idea of outdoor living has always appealed to me. In another life I’m convinced I lived somewhere tropical; the Caribbean or South East Asia...
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Chelsea Flower Show 2016: The M&G Garden
And now for something completely different, a garden that should appeal to those of you with more freestyle sensibilities. There are always one or two show gardens that linger in the mind from one...
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Chelsea Flower Show 2016: The Viking Cruises Mekong Garden
For some reason the woodland ride that connects the Chelsea Flower Show’s Artisan Gardens seemed particularly quiet this year. On previous visits this pleasantly shaded route has been thronged with...
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RHS London Early Spring Plant Fair 2017
The RHS London shows ought to be a pleasure for me to visit; they take place just five minutes from my office and are genteel, polite affairs, quite unlike the scrum of Chelsea or the hassle of...
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Chelsea Flower Show 2017 Preview
I am taking a different approach to my Chelsea Flower Show coverage this year. Recent events and the amount of time I am able to spend at the show have persuaded me to devote more time to enjoying...
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Chelsea Flower Show 2017: Beneath a Mexican Sky
Ah, the vagaries of the British weather. Last week: wind and torrential rain, this week: clear skies and temperatures in the twenties centigrade. I’ve veered from wearing boots and a winter coat to...
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Chelsea Flower Show 2017: Best in Show – The M&G Garden
Well slap my thigh and call me Mildred, James Basson won gold and landed this year’s Best in Show for his monumental Maltese quarry garden. Gold was, as I predicted, inevitable, and Best in Show a...
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Chelsea Flower Show 2017: Chengdu Silk Road Garden
When I go to the Chelsea Flower Show, I want to see flowers. Whilst in the Great Pavilion this expectation is met in spades, occasionally some of the garden designers forget and start getting a bit...
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The Merry Month of May
O THE month of May, the merry month of May, So frolic, so gay, and so green, so green, so green! O, and then did I unto my true love say, Sweet Peg, thou shalt be my Summer’s Queen. Thomas Dekker...
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Chelsea Flower Show 2016-2017: The Morgan Stanley Gardens
Given the paucity of show gardens at this year’s Chelsea Flower Show, I regret not having written more about last year’s crop, which had a different pedigree altogether. I hope to correct one such...
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Chelsea Calling
It’s going to be a different kind of Chelsea Flower Show for me this year. As is tradition, I shall be there on opening day, but also for two days before. How come? Because it’s my first year as an...
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Chelsea Flower Show 2018: The LG Eco-City Garden
I have said it before and I will say it again, the LG Eco-City Garden makes me feel happy: the question is, can I explain why? Firstly the colour palette of saturated greens, punctuated by yellows...
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