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 stands with daffodils and tulips, dahlias and lilies, delphiniums and begonias, fuchsias and roses, sweet peas and alstroemerias, cacti and carnivorous plants, vegetable (yes, an entire stand of potatoes!) and of course loads of orchids. I love orchids, and who can resist Avon Bulb’s display of lady-slipper orchids (Cypripedium) mixed with specialty Arisaema? Two square meters of Arisaema sikokianum, proudly showing off their little white knobs: just wonderful. The Eric Young Orchid Foundation has a particularly nice display of Oncidium and intergeneric hybrids with the most amazing colours and patterns.

Sudamerlycaste locusta

This is where the real botanising starts. Of course, I like big blowsy flowers for display, but as a botanist, I am more interested in the natural and rare. Thus, a green hooded orchid called Sudamerlycaste locusta gained my attention. It has a beautiful pale-green fringe along the lip, which must have reminded the author if this Peruvian species of a green locust. From the cloudforests of Borneo hails Cleisocentron merrillianum, which was showing off its curiously azure-blue clusters of flowers. You would really have to look out for this little guy and avoid being attracted or distracted by the colourful display of others beauties nearby. A Chelsea visit really is plant hunting in an ocean of flowers!

Utricularia quelchii

The carnivorous plant displays are always amazing, clumps of towering Sarracenia pitchers, snake-headed Darlingtonia and Nepenthes that look like a toilet seat are usually present. A clump of flowering Venus’ fly trap (Dionaea muscipula) was a lovely sight, holding its dainty flowers high above the deadly traps so it does not catch its pollinating insects. Sometimes more unusual carnivores can be found. Notoriously hard to grow and thus very rare in horticulture are the epiphytic bladderworts, which have leathery leaves, tubers and branches with minute bladder traps hidden in the moss on the trees. I have seen these in the wild in South America, but never thought I would encounter Utricularia quelchii in Chelsea! Unfortunately, no hummingbirds here to pollinate it, but there were many bees and bumblebees that enjoyed the show, happily pollinating the poppies and alliums on the various perennial plant displays. 

Paris japonica with Lilium sachalinense (left)
and Dysosma "Spotty Dotty" (upper right)

Harperley Hall, all the way from County Durham, had some unusual plants in their display and they deserve my golden medal (if I had one to give). A selection of choice lilies. Dainty Lilium rubellum, fritillary-like L. mackliniae, tiger-spotted L. sachalinense and carmine L. pumilum were all jewels in their own right. Then I spotted a flowering specimen of Paris japonica, the organism with the biggest genome on the planet and hence a very slow grower and shy flowerer. Fringed by a Cypripedium and a lily it hardly stood out, but it was a good find, as I had never seen it in flower and it sure is a botanical oddity. It was hidden by a large clump of “Spotty Dotty” a complex hybrid Dysosma (or Podophyllum, whatever taxonomy of Berberidaceae one prefers) with incredible vigour and weird wine-red pendent flowers. It was a novelty a few years ago, but has now become a staple of the woodland garden (it was present on four different displays).

Primula sieboldii theatre

Normally, regimented displays are not as appealing to me as the more natural ones, but sometimes you find an exception. A Japanese primrose theatre filled with rare selections of Primula sieboldii is one of these. These fragile woodland plants are not what you would expect in such a setting, but I was told that this is how they are usually displayed in Japan, including their bamboo labels and paper-framed house. It sure reminded me of the P. auricula-theatres, which is a good British traditional way of displaying its relatives, but I wonder if this tradition is so British after all.  

Fruit and vegetables are always interesting to see how these are made interesting. The scent of strawberries drew me to one stand, and I got a good tip from them. I should stake the strawberries on small sticks off the ground, so that the pill bugs will not get to them. I am not sure if I can manage to stake all of them, but I can give it a try with some and see if it works. They sure had lovely strawberries!

And then there are the colourful people. I am always delighted to see people so excited about plants and flowers. It really is a rarity, animals usually get more attention, and true, there were some pandas (or actually people dressed in panda suits, but they were very realistic from a distance) in the Chengdu Garden display that stole the show. A dinosaur accompanied by a bodybuilding caveman was showing off his King Protea. He also spoke fluent Italian, a classical language dating back to prehistoric times. All great fun. There were the inevitable celebrities, Dawn French, Judy Dench, Joan Collins, Monty Don, Roy Lancaster, with people flocking around them. 

Chelsea is all about plants though, so time to admire some of the show gardens. I was pleased to see little lawn and lots of native UK plants on show. Stretches of flowering native turf pink with cuckoo flower and ox-eye daisies forming a backdrop for spectacular animal statues made from driftwood (James Doran-Webb), the Welcome to Yorkshire garden was fun with a little shoreline and lots of native Yorkshire plants and M&G, sponsor of the event (their name was everywhere), aimed to make a garden with native Maltese plants, although I though it looked more like weeds on a graveyard. The Radio 2 gardens were lovely, particularly Zoe Ball’s listening garden, a wilderness of sound, made visible in shallow ponds. Not frog-friendly, but a great way to interact with the public.