The RHS Chelsea Flower Show in London is the world’s most prestigious flower show. Since 1913, the Royal Horticultural Society has held its annual show in the gardens of the Royal Hospital Chelsea. It will be held from Tuesday, May 24, to Saturday, May 28, 2022.
While Shadow Carriage is always here for your event transportation, in this blog, we’ll tell you why it is completely worth it to attend the Chelsea flower show. Let’s start.
The Chelsea Flower Show spans 11 acres of garden space, with the Great Pavilion alone covering nearly 3 acres. It’s also the show’s centrepiece, dubbed the Crown Jewel. Here, over 80 exhibitors showcase innovative garden designs, stunning flower arrangements, and garden products. The show isn’t just for the show. Buying plants is a popular activity among visitors.
The show is also a major event on the royal calendar. For many years, the Queen herself has attended, but if she is unable to attend, other senior members of the royal family do. However, don’t expect to rub shoulders with a princess or prince. They get to go on a preview day, which is the Monday before the show opens to the public.
The flower show has a different theme each year, and this year’s theme is wild plants and natural design. This year’s wildflower theme is met with displays of show gardens and flower arrangements featuring weeping willows, blooming hedgerows, poppies, buttercups, and even the humble nettle.
The show aims to inspire you to create your own garden, balcony, or indoor arrangements by displaying a dazzling array of colours, shapes, and scents. The Great Pavilion, for example, has a House Plant Studio where you can get the best ideas for bringing nature into your home.
Visitors’ attention will be drawn to more than just the plants. Garden sculptures and garden furniture are also on display and, of course, for sale, as are a wide range of gardening tools arranged between entire arches made of flower petals and sculptures made of sprigs, leaves, and flowers.
You’ll get hungry and thirsty as you walk through the Great Pavillion (which was once a massive, white tent before being replaced by the current wooden structure) and the rows and rows of stalls and display stands. That is also taken care of. Know that the most popular drinks are Pimms and champagne and that the most popular finger food is fish and chips, though plenty of seafood is also available.
The aforementioned white tent was not thrown away; instead, it was cut up and sold as aprons, bags, and even jackets. Garden gnomes have been prohibited throughout the flower show’s history, with the exception of 2013, when the ban was temporarily lifted and celebrity-painted gnomes were displayed and sold for charity.
The Chelsea Flower Show would not be complete without competition and prizes. The best garden receives a prize, and awards and titles are given to the flower of the year, a new rose, and new plants. Harlequin Blue Streptocarpus (or pansy in plain English) was even named flower of the decade in 2020. It’s the only pansy with outer yellow petals and deep blue inner petals — proof that it’s not always roses and orchids that win big!
If you are inspired and want to create and plant your own garden: A show garden for the Chelsea Flower Show takes 19 days to build and only 5 days to dismantle. Allow for much more time, as this is the time frame for professionals. And once you’ve created your own masterpiece, you won’t want to take it apart!
You might wonder why a world-famous flower show with over 168,000 visitors per year is held in a hospital garden. Allow us to explain. The Royal Hospital Chelsea, founded in 1682 by King Charles II, is not a hospital at all, but rather a retreat for army veterans. You will see the Chelsea Pensioners, retired army members dressed in their distinctive blue uniforms or scarlet coats and black hats, proudly wearing their ribbons and medals.
With that said, you should definitely visit the Chelsea flower show this year, or whenever you get the chance. Also, a Mercedes E-Class taxi would be perfect for your transportation which Shadow Carriage will have available for you at a call’s notice.