Chelsea 2016

Yesterday I left Suffolk very early and went to the RHS Chelsea Flower Show.  The last time I went was 9 years ago and last year I'd thought about going but by the time I'd stopped dithering the tickets were all gone.  So last Sunday when I saw the first BBC programme I bit the bullet and ordered a (very expensive) last minute ticket.

I didn't have just one favourite garden, I had several:

Cleve West's M & G garden was inspired by Exmoor and had beautiful natural planting and water running through it,

the LG smart garden had delicious, romantic planting,

and I just loved the dark pinks and purples, highlighted with whites and greens, in the Husqvarna garden.

The Modern Apothecary garden, designed by Jekka McVicar was not only beautiful but was full of plants known to be beneficial for health and well-being,

and the Chelsea Barracks garden, designed by Jo Thompson was stunning.

There were also the 300,00 individually crocheted poppies in front of the Chelsea hospital, a tribute to those men and women who have served in all wars, 

and the Modern Slavery garden designed by Juliet Sergeant was really poignant.

The grand marquee was full of all kinds of deliciousness, including a pullman train carriage taking visitors from London to Singapore, but my favourite exhibition was this one celebrating 90 years of allotments - I bought some heritage seeds.

My favourite artisan garden was the  Papworth Trust's Together We Can garden as it included not just beautiful painting, against a very vivid purple, but sound and water too.  It was designed by Peter Eustace, and Dame Evelyn Glennie worked with them as well as and I was lucky enough to see her perform in and with the garden.

My overall impressions of the show were of beautiful planting, lots of native plants and general prettiness.  I took lots more photos, and a video of Dame Evelyn and if you want to see them they're on my flickr stream.  

When I returned to Suffolk I found that this beauty had opened - Ruffled Patty.

She's a bit like Chelsea, beautiful but short lived! I can't wait to go again, who's coming with me?!

The Tale of Mrs Tiggy-Winkle, or Two

We're very excited as we're getting our own Mrs Tiggle-Winkles - two to be precise.

Hedgehogs are in serious decline and our gardens here don't have any access to them for hedgehogs to find us so my neighbours had a bright idea. They contacted a hedgehog rescue centre and asked if we could be considered to re-home some injured ones that aren't ever going to be able to be released into the wild.  The lady (rather tall and formidable) came and assessed us and said that we could have two.  They will either be one eyed or 3 legged - many hedgehogs are injured in road accidents or by strimmers etc, but as we have safe gardens with no lawns to need strimming or any chemicals used by any of us, we are ideal candidates!

One neighbour has been very busy digging tunnels under our fences

and cutting hedgehog sized holes in them (the size of a CD apparently), so that they can roam freely between the three gardens.

I didn't know that they can roam up to a mile each night, but the lady was happy that between our three gardens we'd have plenty of space for them.  Mine is the middle garden and I'm really hoping they linger and eat all the slugs and snails.

They arrive next week sometime I think - we're all very excited!

In other news this tulip is currently my favourite.

It's tulip Menton from Peter Nyssen and has done really well.

Also, these irises have opened today - don't they look gorgeous with the rain drops on them.

I've no idea what variety they are as they were here when I moved here, they're quite short.

Sadly several of my other irises are suffering from slug damage - but that will all change when the Mrs Tiggy-Winkles arrive :-)