The Merry Month : Robert Merry visits Chelsea Flower Show
I found myself with two tickets to the Chelsea Flower Show. We bought them originally as Christmas presents last year but our friends had already booked, so we thought we would go instead. We still have to buy them an alternative present. Or maybe it’s too late now and we just need to buy them a bigger present this year?
Being first timers and therefore inexperienced Chelsea Flower Show visitors, we had tickets for Saturday. The show opens to the press and judges on Monday, the Queen and celebs have a private view on Tuesday and then it opens to the public. Saturday is the busiest day. Many of the exhibitors sell off their plants at 4pm. A slow swelling of the crowd reaches a bloated climax about mid-afternoon by which time there is even a queue for the gents toilet. Sacra blur!
Looking at any of the exhibits involves standing at the back of deep rows of on-lookers waiting for someone at the front to move. Then filling the gap until you reach the front. It is a wholly civilized experience of aged, middle England, politely jostling.
The L’Occitaine garden was one of my favourites. A simple grove created by four closely grown olive trees, a table and chairs in the middle surrounded by perfumed herbs satisfied all the senses.
The Royal Horticultural Society’s Best Show Garden and gold medal winner was The Laurent-Perrier Chatsworth Garden. A
re-creation in part of Joseph Paxton’s rockery at Chatsworth. Paxton was the successor to Capability Brown, who created the original gardens.
The most striking and memorable parts of the exhibit were the (apparently) randomly placed boulders of sandstone. Diverting water falls and precariously piled one of top of another, the Ashover Grit provided a depth and solidity to the garden that clearly impressed the judges.
Around the edges of the main pavilion were groups of stands exhibiting all manner of garden accessories, garden furniture and gardening equipment. Plenty of outdoor space creation for barbecues and upmarket soirees.
Equally popular were stands dedicated to garden sculpture. Some was cast stone – there was a particularly fine pair of life-size English Pointers cast in a granite and cement mix. There were bronze animal sculptures, in various poses; cubist, modernist and just plain ‘ist’ shapes and materials to adorn the garden.
By far the most interesting were by two stone sculptors. One was Matt Maddocks of Maddocks Contemporary Design.
Working in gabbro from India, his pieces were formed from rough boulders with polished circles, exposing the depth of the black interior of the stone. He told me he worked the pieces in India and had spent years working in the quarries, learning ancient carving techniques.
The other was Paul Vanstone. Using Carrara and Bardiglio from Italy, Rain Forest Green from Rajasthan, Rosa Aurora from Portugal, Iranian Onyx and many more natural stones, he produced highly original pieces of work.
There were slender columns of the human torso, large, grotesque and equally beautiful heads, reposing figures, all using the stones’ natural veining to enhance and inform the work.
When I spoke to him he said he was tired. He’d been there since Monday and wasn’t used to all the talking. He wasn’t a salesman. He spent most of his time in solitude, working the stone. He smiled and said it had been a good show. I wished him well and congratulated him on the beautiful sculptures.
To be honest, I’m not really a garden show sort of person. I like the smell and can appreciate the effort that goes into the creation of the exhibits. But to see stone used in the award winning Chatsworth garden, the releasing of the hidden black interior in Matt Maddocks’ work and the beauty of Paul Vanstone’s sculptures made it all worthwhile. Even if it was a bit of a crush and a long wait for the loo.