Limbering up for Chelsea

The sun has been shining all day, and those Chelsea plants are moving quickly. The Rhododendron 'Horizon Monarch' we looked at the other day are now showing lots of colour and the leaf canopy on the acers is thickening by the hour. I caught up with Ricky this morning - he seems on good form but is a bit concerned about the length of time that some plants will spend in the coldstore.

We also caught up with a few of the Chelsea staging team to take a few shot of us limbering up for Chelsea. Now's the time to get both the plants and the team in shape to ensure peak performance at the show! I have great confidence in both!

Managed to find time to capture a few images for my first lecture in the My Garden School Course - Shrubs - the foundation of good planting. (visit http://my-garden-school.com/shrubs )In this spring weather those spring flowering shrubs are really excelling themselves: ribes, spiraea, magnolia even potentillas and lilacs are blooming already. I hope this does not mean we'll have an earlier gap in the season this year.

Meant to get the nuts and bolts of the two ponds, steam and exercise trail nailed today but it hasn't happened yet. That warm sunshine is just too distracting - will have to get down to boring construction details next week otherwise I really am cutting it fine.

Hopefully the garden centres will have a bumper weekend - certainly the nursery has been operating beyond maximum capacity this week - working well into the night, and sometimes into the early hours of morning. Garden Centres everywhere are welcoming a sales boost after the dark days of winter and everyone is determined to make hay while the sun shines.