Chelsea .

[Elaine]

Are any of you watching the Chelsea Flower Show coverage? I have to say, I become more disappointed with it every year...I might not follow it after this year. It is all talk now, the presenters waffling on about stuff, then there are the weird gardens created by even weirder people, which get more attention than the plants.

Gone are the days when they concentrated mainly on the plants!! I used to sit there enthralled by the beauty of all the different shapes and colours, with paper and pen to hand, to jot down something I wanted. The cameras used to be in all the tents, showing everything...

Shame really.

Is it just me?

[John]

You are not alone Elaine.
Gave up watching it a few years ago - sooooo boring - waffle waffle and more waffle.

John

[Geoff]

I agree - the repetitiveness and the concentration on grand designs that we can't aspire to and wouldn't really want is terrible. I watch via recorder and speed through much of the nonsense, like anything with Christine Walkden or Rachel de Thame featured. More Carol Klein and plants please and why don't they survey the trade stands (I've never been so I assume there are tool stands like other shows) for new ideas?

[Diane]

It's lovely but it's like watching some ethereal horticultural dream that's just out of reach to us mere mortals.

I'm sticking to Beechgrove Gardens for my flower and veg fix.

[Westi]

I do like watching it & would love to go but only with a VIP first evening pass when not so many people around as it is so crowded!

The gardens do look quite nice if a bit (lot) OTT and they are just for now & I often wonder what they would like like in different seasons or even in a couple of years.

Good to see the potato display got a gold though! Shame the only pictures you are shown of it you can't quite read the display writing on the history etc.

Westi

[Elaine]

Well I'm glad I'm not the only one who feels this way....we can't all be wrong.
Tonight, we had a tantalizing minute or two of Fuchsias, with Carol Klein...far too short too see the many stunning beauties in the display. pffft
Now it's all talk. And Jo Swift irritates me beyond measure.

[Diane]

I think someone mentioned, in last night's programme, that in future the public may? be allowed to walk through the show gardens.

[Geoff]

I like the discussion of linking health and gardening - I can offer therapeutic weeding!

[Shallot Man]

I agree with Diane. Beech-grove for me. Would be nice to see repeats of "Clacks Farm"

[PLUMPUDDING]

Apart from all the talk, I like seeing some of the colour contrasts and shapes they come up with and the more natural gardens are lovely. I probably am more drawn to those because they aren't all straight lines and hard surfaces and I imagine those kind of gardeners are control freaks who don't like leaves to fall on the lawn or plants to seed in the "wrong" place.

I loved the new Streptocarpus they showed, but will have to look up its name.
It is a pity they don't spend more time in the growers tents and tell you the names of the plants they are looking at instead of having daft gushing presenters leaping about in front of them.

Don't know whether you would call the Chatsworth entry a garden or not, it looked like a chunk of beautiful countryside dug up and put down in Chelsea.

[Primrose]

I keep hope somebody is going to come up with something pretty eclectic, decorative and useful with vegetables but I guess that is too simple for something as "posh" as Chelsea.

[Diane]

The streptocarpus is called "Polka Dot Purple" and it's from Dibleys.

[Cider Boys]

Like Diane and Shallot Man it's Beech-Grove for me as well since it is both practical and informative..

Barney

[PLUMPUDDING]

Thanks Diane, I've got several other varieties from Dibley's

[Tony Hague]

I think you lot are a bit harsh. I went to Chelsea on the Wednesday; the BBC team were much in evidence, including inside the pavillion. Even the stand of just potatoes got a spot on the TV coverage (mind you, it was the first time anyone has got a gold with just potatoes !). I thought what I saw of the TV coverage matched fairly well with what I saw being there.

There were few vegetables, true. Robinsons seeds had a display that was a fairly miraculous achievement for the time of year - it isn't exactly peak harvest time and one wonders where in the world or with what kind of artificial environment they had actually been grown. As well as the potatoes a few more unusual items sneaked onto one or two of the exotic stands. I would have liked to see more veg, but I suppose it is the Chelsea Flower show after all.

I agreed with Monty Don's choice of the Chatsworth and Perfumer's gardens as the best. The seamless way in which the Chatsworth garden had been put together made it hard to believe it had not always been there. And the perfumer's garden - the table and chairs amongst a stand of olive trees really invited you in. Monty also commented that they needed to find a way of letting visitors walk through the gardens, and I really think so too. It is a bit odd feeling like you are looking over the fence into a garden, and doesn't let you see how it would be to have one like it. Can't see why they don't have timed tickets to presentations of the garden by the team creating it.

My impression from my visit was thta it would be nice to see a bit more space given over to the actual gardens and a bit less commercial tat, but I guess that's the way the world works.