For five days in the beautiful British springtime, the Royal Hospital Gardens in Chelsea transform into a haven of garden design and beautiful blooms. Check out my Freddies Flowers review and add a little colour to your home.
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I’m not much of a gardener I’ll happily admit that. My green fingers aren’t green with the touch of creating beautiful outdoor spaces, they’re more green with envy. That’s not to say that our garden isn’t nice, it is, but it’s all Ian’s doing with some help from the mothers. My ideal outdoor space is one for entertaining, eating, drinking and relaxing – not all built up but areas with sympathetic planting creating spaces or rooms, somewhere I could work outside or just chill in the evening. I’m lucky, Ian has created that, but I still love to dream of the ultimate garden.
Every year at the end of May, the RHS Chelsea Flower Show will occupy the TV viewing schedule, for a week of Monty Don and Co. showing us around the show gardens that have been planned to perfection for months, if not years, transforming the Royal Hospital Gardens into different worlds, far away from my little Cotswolds patch. And every year without fail I say… next year I’m going to Chelsea. It’s a bit like the ticket ballot for Wimbledon, I just need to remember to pull my finger out.
This year, I did it! I booked tickets as a birthday surprise for the one person I knew would appreciate the wonder of Chelsea as much as I, my dear friend Lucy. The only difference is Lucy can grow plants, whether they are indoors, outdoors, rescue ones that are near death, supermarket bargains or a succulent with little babies, she has that green finger touch, and the perfect companion to a day admiring the blooms and views.
Just like my birthday trip to Warner Bros studios for the Harry Potter tour, Chelsea was on my bucket list and somewhere that I desperately wanted to experience; walking through the gates on a sunny Friday morning, Lucy and I looked at each other and exclaimed: “We’re here!” Take a look at some of the snaps from the day…
The main pavilion is jaw-dropping – firstly that they manage to erect this huge building in the middle of the hospital gardens but also the exhibitors inside. We thought we’d start our day inside and I’m glad we did as if we’d left it to later, I very much doubt we’d have got all the way around. Anyway, the pavilion is full to the rafters of all sorts, shapes and sizes of some of the most amazing plants ever… including a pink pineapple!
The Best in Show Garden this year was a beautiful and thought-provoking design by Chris Beardshaw for Morgan Stanley in support of the NSPCC. Lucy and I managed to get chance to have a good look at the garden and hear about the work and research that Chris put in, to design a space that tells the journey of a child, through their emotions, and how the NSPCC helps them. It was a stunning garden and very worthy of “Best in Show”.
I loved all the gardens but my favourite was the LG Eco-City garden designed by Hay-Joung Hwang that embraced the inside, outside concept that I love about gardens; add to that, that everything was powered by the solar panels on the roof and the moss wall that absorbs the same amount of CO2 as 212 trees. Even the plants in this garden are eco-friendly! And although it’s about a more eco-aware lifestyle, it still looks pretty amazing and stylish too.
However, for the masses and the viewers of Gardener’s World, the biggest buzz was around Mark Gregory’s Welcome to Yorkshire garden – in fact, we tried to visit the garden 3 times but everytime we were there so were the BBC and also the crowds. Just before leaving we managed to grab a corner to peer around and into this little part of Yorkshire in the centre of Chelsea. The garden was perfect in every way and even the sounds of Yorkshire could be heard as Mark had incorporated sounds within the design. It was easy to understand why everyone wanted to see it.
We couldn’t leave without spotting the everyone’s favourite gardening idol, Monty Don! Moments before BBC went on air, the crowd caught a glimpse of Mr D and got their elusive wave, I managed to grab a quick snap of him and Joe Swift chatting away. A total and utter, unashamedly Garden Fan Girl moment, with a murmur of… we can go home now we’ve seen Monty! It was at that point that I realised I’d been a 40-year-old woman on the cusp of mid-life…
If you’re thinking of going, I can honestly say that Chelsea was truly a magical experience, the gardens were exceptional and perfect, every petal, every blade of grass, each water feature created the perfect ripple and sound. I can recommend a visit enough, even if you’re not a garden person, I guarantee you will love it.
Freddies Flowers Review
Now, if you’re like me and love flowers but don’t know quite what to do with them, you’ll want to give these amazing people a look up… Freddies Flowers! We met Freddie at Chelsea and whilst I will admit, I was a little apprehensive at first about signing up for another subscription service, but I couldn’t be further from the truth. Freddies Flowers are fresh, beautiful, long-lasting and make the house prettier. In fact, I’ve loved the boxes I’ve received so far, that I decided to do a review and unboxing to show you what you get. So why not check out my Freddies Flowers review video below…
If you fancy a free box of beautiful fresh flowers, delivered straight to your door, check out the website and sign up for Freddies Flowers. Remember you can cancel your subscription or manage your deliveries through your account at any time, and you only pay on the day of your flower delivery. Take a look and let me know how you get on… I’d love it if you like the video to give me a subscribe or a thumbs up, thanks!
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Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. I chose to subscribe to Freddies Flowers and have not been reimbursed for my review. Opinions are my own.
If you are inspired to visit RHS Chelsea next year, then keep an eye on the RHS website.
