A botanist at Chelsea Flower Show
Chelsea: an ocean of flowers It is my fifth time visiting the Chelsea Flower Show, the biggest annual event in horticultural Britain. Every year I am amazed by the sheer number and diversity of plants and flowers on display. I am particularly perplexed by some totally out of season. I would not expect to see autumn flowering Nerine in spring, and I have no idea how exhibitors manage to keep Narcissus ‘February Gold’ in flower for such a long time. It is late May after all. There are always the fabulous displays of spring and summer flowers, each grower displaying a single genus and displayed with great care and abundance. Particularly special are the peonies. How they manage to keep these fragile flowers in bloom for the whole week, I do not know, but the wall off pink, white, dark red and primrose yellow peonies displayed by Primrose Hall Nursery (“every garden deserves a peony”) was simply outstanding. Potatoes in all colours and shapes Every year there are...