Chelsea

i fully agree with you,its wonderful to watch but to have these gardens is very expensive,ive missed a few and got some good ideas from the two ive seen,but i will be doing the cheaper version,lovely to watch tho and i would love to go

I like to watch it and enjoyed it immensely the year i went there.

For 'me' it's the spectacle of the whole event that i like - the extravagance and the luxury of the show 'woo's' you into wanting to get out in the garden and create something wonderful !

I love it and get totally immersed each time i watch it .... i've even got episodes from a couple of years ago on record which i watch repeatedly !!!

I'll shut up now, getting excited again ;-))

I agree with all the comments , enjoyed going and never miss an evening ! But like Mad says it is a bit pie in the sky and when those plants went to spain to force them into flower I did begin to wonder.....

I would love to go one day. I always wonder, what are the foreign equivalents? Is there something like that in France, for example?

Something that irritated me this year is the media banging on about a garden created by "prisoners and homeless people". I find that so insulting to homeless people. I came very close to being homeless once in my life, and was helped by a relative in the end, but I would never put myself in the same category as the man who is serving seven years for grievous bodily harm who was interviewed in the Telegraph. What a crass categorisation.

I agree with you so much Bryony, and how patronizing. We should all think "There but for the grace of God (or whatever we believe in) go I"

And yes Pamq, that is quite disgusting to take flowers to Spain to force them into bloom. It would have served them right to get stuck there by volcanic ash.

Louise, I'm glad you and thousands of others enjoy it so much, specially to actually go. I can understand you being 'wowed'.

Another thing too whilst I'm in cynical mood ! now its all those b..... celebs jumping on the bandwagon at Chelsea. How many of them are real gardeners?

Sorry for the mini-rant :D

I dont think there would be too many celebs being real gardeners, you have to get your hands dirty

Hiya Mad pleased to see you back blogging lol these ott garden shows don't interest me much. especialy the celebs swanning round pretending to know what they are talking about.I will shut up now and go and water my beans. :0)

I lok forward to chelsea coming round every year.

I like Chelsea for ideas - some of the planting schemes are so subtle and the colours so well put together. Yes, the big gardens are completely out of reach for mere mortals but for inspiration, I don't think you can beat it.

I don't watch it any more. I find it boring. It's the same old thing every year. And I think most of those designed gardens look daft

i agree hywel,used to never miss it,but didnt even see the last one

Andrewr I'm surprised you still find it useful with your beautiful garden. But
seeing a beautiful colourful garden on the screen at lunchtime (whilst eating lunch) I saw lots of things which just wouldn't all flower at the same time anyway. I realise someone with much experience would realise that, but novices could be led astray.

Mad - you can always get ideas. I saw one planting that was so simple but effective - white and blue camassias with orange hecheras in front. Now, where was that heuchera catalogue I came home with....

Andrew, orange heucheras must be new. I love the sound of that colour scheme, and have used similar to good effect, such as Begonia 'Sutherlandii' with purple Petunias. At least they flower at the same time in the season.
Its mainly the sight of gardens packed with flowers which we couldn't have flowering together.