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Countdown to Chelsea

This morning I opened up my Facebook feed to find that an old travel companion had created an installation for this years Chelsea Flower Show. Is it really that time again….already? Jo was a uni student when we met many moons ago in Central America, but she has since forged a successful career in interior design and prop styling. The display she has created for the flower show features a Sunflower garden, made entirely of fabric and paper, held together no doubt with the assistance of every tradie lady’s favourite tool, the hot glue gun.

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Image; Jo Bailey

The Chelsea Flower show runs from Tuesday May 23rd til Saturday May 27th this year and promises to provide new ideas, fresh inspiration and as always wonderful, eye catching, stunningly beautiful garden displays. In addition to 28 gardens, and 100 plant displays, this year there is also a secret garden which is only visible from a viewing platform, BBC Radio 2 Feel Good Gardens with each garden focused on heightening one of the 5 senses, a fruit and vegetable garden with over 50 varieties of edible produce, urban murals and much, much more.

The Chelsea Flower Show is certainly on the bucket list for most florists, and for those who are lucky enough to get there this year, I’m sure it won’t disappoint. As this is the first show after Brexit, the show organisers were keen to rethink the show and it certainly has been reinvigorated, with lots of fresh content which has been key in the increased interest in the event. In the past the tickets have been slow to sell with tickets even available on the day. However this year, unbelievably, the popular show sold out more than 2 weeks before it opens, and now tickets are being offered online for £1300 a pair!

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Image; Telegraph

Also this year, Dame Judi Dench is being celebrated; having a gorgeous apricot toned rose named in her honour. The rose has a medium tea scent, and is a David Austin style rose.

Judi isn’t alone though, over the years many celebrities have had roses named in their honour. Barbara Streisand, an avid rose fan, has a deliciously fragrant lilac rose named after her. Freddie Mercury fans are said to have fund raised over 2000 pounds to breed a yellow rose in his honour 2 years after his death. The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge (William and Catherine) had a soft apricot rose that opens to white named in their honour at the show in 2011. And Julie Andrews had a rose named in her honour at the Chelsea Flower show back in 1992.

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Image; Barbara Streisand rose via Telegraph
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Image; William and Catherine Rose by David Austin

I can’t wait to see the photos emerging next week when the show opens, and I am keen to see how the public receives the new format and new features. As always, for the moment anyway I will admire the pictures from afar, but one day, maybe one day I will get there myself!

Stay tuned!

Fwf x

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