May, or is it November

I blame the BBC - they wanted jeopardy and weather, and since then we've certainly got it. This weekend was absolutely freezing - or at least it felt it in the nice north easterly winds. Saturday - it hardly got light. I spent the day in the garden. Did I enjoy it? No - do people really do that for pleasure? Anyway low light levels and cold have really brought the Chelsea plants to a standstill.

I like green in the garden, but you can have too much of a good thing. Green roses, green foxgloves and green rhododendrons are all too much - would be good to liven it up with a bit of colour.

Call from Alex this morning wondering why she had not had an entry for this new "Best Chelsea Plant" competition. I explained that I only got the email about it a week ago and things aren't looking that hopeful. Anyway apparently its all going to be very high profile. Entry in hand - plants are not. The Philadelphus has a one in one hundred chance of making it, the foxglove - slightly better odds.

Ricky is clearly worried. The roses were wilting when I arrived - moist enough at the roots but clearly shocked at a brief shaft of sunshine. Foxgloves showing buds but very green. Even some of the Rhododendrons are still very tightly closed. Outside in the Sir Harold Hillier Gardens there seems to be plenty of colour - but that is little consolation.

Just spoke to Tim Redwood about my Venetian Palace - sounds good - but heavy! It's always the same with any major stone constructions - at this stage I worry about whether they will really stand up without any foundations apart from a sheet of polythene! If they are in the middle of the exhibit its not so bad but when they are on the edge...... Well, its always the same - build a wall and somebody leans on it.
The throne of knowledge is being painted as I blog - bright peacock blue. Pots for Morocco are painted - haven't seen them yet! Tomorrow - lots more detail and Wednesday choosing trees. Thursday loading - Friday on site! So near and yet so far to go.

Talking gardening, garden shows and gardening

This week has been about gardening - surprisingly enough. Started with talks on climbers at Sunningdale - great weather and great audience - convinced myself that I love climbers - even bought a clematis. Talked about growing Clematis viticella 'Purpurea Plena Elegans' through Elaeagnus 'Quicksilver' - couldn't resist it.
Then to Penny Snell in Surrey - her garden looked magical - lovely audience - talked Adventures in Gardening - plant combinations for impact - a brilliant day finished off with another talk to a lovely group just outside Salisbury - Shrubs - always a favourite topic of mine.

This weekend - Gardening - the big pre-Chelsea onslaught. Tulips looked fabulous - heartwrenchingly gorgeous - heartbreakingly catastrophic when wind and rain broke off some of the doubles. From a distance the garden looks terrific - close up it looks decidedly precarious as weeds grow apace.
Sunday - Bishops Waltham Garden Fair - Lovely event where the great the good and the gardeners turn out to find trusted plants and treasures from great little nurseries and all in a good cause. I love this event, I love the people and I love the plants. Some may be horrified at the idea of a garden centre operator shopping at a garden fair - Sorry, but its different. This is just another facet of the Adventure of Gardening. It sits happily alongside big commercial horticulture - this is a thread of real plantsmanship that is essential to real gardening and pure oxygen to us plant anoraks that cannot live by garden centes alone.

Actually it was just what I needed after Friday - a terrific day pre-Chelsea filming with the BBC. 8 hours for four and a half minutes television. Sounds unbelievable and I can never believe how quickly the time goes, and how long it takes. They have to film every bit from several different angles to make the viewer believe there are lots of cameras rather than just one. Why? I hear you ask - still don't know, but that's how it is. The story - all about the weather - the effects of the cold winter - will it make it - won't it make it - lots of jeaopardy. For those of us involved with the show year after year every season is different, and everyone has its problems - so the weather is always a factor and its not that exciting. I would have loved to have the opportunity to talk more about our plans for the exhibit- the concept of Adventures in Gardening - my objectives - inspiring visitors etc. Anyway - Lovely crew, great day, pleased we'll get some coverage - wait and see!

As I said, the bulk of the weekend was devoted to gardening. Tulips look amazing, Rhododendron Horizon Monarch is in full bloom and overall the garden looks good and the weeds are thriving. Lots of new planting - peas again - first lot did not show -Treasures from the Plant Fair and a few replacements for cistus and phormiums that perished in the winter. We have lots of purple and orange in the garden and, against the fresh green of late spring it is simply mouthwareringly senational. I'd love to say it was all planned, but just like some of the best Chelsea combinations it just happened. - perhaps some intervention from above - who knows but it is simply heavenly.

Lakeland break

A week ago I managed a bit of a break taking a garden tour to the lakes. Living in the soft south its easy to forget the magic of the mountain landscape that awaits just a couple of hundred miles north. The first Hillier holiday of any year is always a treat and this one was no exception. A fair aount of sunshine, a good hotel overlooking Windermere, spring flowers, good company and a variety of gardens made for a very enjoyable few days. Our Lakeland guide George Feather and his wonderul wife Dorothy made us welcome as ever and we met many other passionate Lakeland gardeners along the way. The horticulture of the whole area is underpinned by the Lakeland Horticultural Society and its dedicated members. Their work at the community garden Holehird is fantastic and totally humbling. This remarkable plant collection held together and presented superby is entirely the work of volunteers - a real lesson in working together and co-operation.

On the way to Windermere we were privileged to visit Gresgarth Hall - The home and garden of designer Lady Arabella Lennox-Boyd. This is a fantastic garden and despite the hard winter it did not disappoint. Spring flowers including fritillarias, erythroniums, primulas and dicentras carpeted the ground around the lake. The hellebores were still magnificent and the magnolias were virtually untouched by frost. Arabella was gardening, and her passion and eye for detail in this garden are obvious. Its always reassuring to find a designer who practices what she preaches. I have to say we left Gresgarth on day one feeling that we had seen the highlight of the tour, and on a lovely sunny late afernoon.
The following day was fine and bright and Holehird welcomed us as warmly as ever. A vist here is never long enough and we all letf talking about our return visit - always a good sign. Then a pub lunch and off to Liz Clark's fellside garden at Hartsop.

This was a long way from Gresgarth - a remote fellside village - austerely beautiful in watery spring sunshine, but it must have been a long hard winter. Entering the small front garden under the branches of a magnolia we were met by Liz -a little bright-eyed lady in green fleece. She spoke quietly and clearly describing every plant that made up her garden picture with such colour that even those only peeping from the soil bloomed before our eyes. We explored the steep hillside garden behind the house, looked for invadng badgers, saw every tree she had raised from seed, and peeped into her late husband's plot on the other side of the lane - now in her care. This might not have ben the showiest garden I had ever visited, and it certainly wasn't the biggest budget. She doesn't drive, so even getting a new plant or a bag of fertiliser is a major expedition. However she was one of the most inspirational, positive and forward loking people I have ever met and her garden is one I can't wait to get back to. What she achieves in the environment in which she gardens put those of us with the gardening world at our fingetips to shame.
I came away feeling that maybe I had come to take it all for granted - a plant dies and I get another one. Chelsea comes and Chelsea goes. Maybe sometimes I forget to enjoy it and appreciate it? Something flowers in my garden and I don't even see it because I am not there at the time. That doesn't happen to Liz - her relaionship with her garden is different - She and her garden are dependent on each other - they get pleasure frm each others company and it shows.
Spending time with a group of gardeners, lecturing to the Lakeland Horticultural Society, and visiting a few gardens was just what I needed before Chelsea - To some it may sound like a Busman's holiday - guess I am just a dedicated Busman!

Through the egg timer..........

As April draws to a close I feel as if I'm about to slip through the narrow bit in the middle of an egg timer. The day comes when you turn over a page in the diary and May appears on the next page - horror of horrors! All those things that could be put off until later can't anymore.
Chelsea meeting this morning discussing statues, bark chips, furniture, fabrics and all those bits and pieces that go to make up the rest of the exhibit apart from the planting. First tickets - the car park passes arrived too.
Spoke to Ricky this morning he seems happy with how things are going with the plants - now that the weather has cooled down. A few warm days after a long cold spell mean lots of work watering and keeping an eye on the show plants. Soft new foliage is particularly vulnerable and if damaged now will not recover in time for the show.
Outside the sun has been shining on the best display of magnolias for years. Early morning frosts have damaged the flowers on close inspection, but the display from a distance is breathtaking!

After a long soggy winter gardeners are starting to complain about the lack of rain - wonder if we'll have water restrictions by the time we get to Chelsea? Anyway, although its been pretty redundant to date the coldstore could come into its own any minute. The cold weather has certainly had a vernalising effect on spring flowering shrubs. As temperatures rise a little those buds quickly unfurl. Rhododendron Horizon Monarch in my garden is showing colour and the wisteria at Ampfield House is unfurling before your very eyes!

Uniform has arrived

Excitement this morning as 3 big parcels arrive from Craghoppers with the uniform for the Chelsea Exhibit in it, an adventure ensues as we unpack, Gill and I fighting over the colours.

Aahhhhhh Sunshine!

The sun's out at last, the temperatures are rising, the leaves unfurl. A couple of warm days and the garden landscape is transformed as green shoots appear, the magnolias bloom and the grass starts to grow. Just been to the nursery for a quick look at the show plants with Rick. The roses look great, the acers are now a cloud of tiny red, gold and emerald leaves, and the cornus buds are swelling. Ten huge Acacia dealbata are blooming, their fragrant fluffy yellow flowers perfect under the protection of glass. These weren't intended for the show - they're for another profile project - but they are so perfect for Moroccan Magic that I might try and borrow them for the show. Morocco looks as if its boundaries might need to be moved - with citrus, Cupressus sempervirens, olives, oleanders and masses of roses Morocco could be big.
Statues and urns have arrived too - they will certainly make an impact. Also pebbles, stone and aggregates from Borderstone are in the loading bay. As soon as these materials start to appear it is a firm reminder that there are only four weeks 'til we start on site.
Had a chat with Tim Redwood this week about the Venetian Palace - he seems confident and I know he'll come up with the goods. We tend to work the same way - there's no way it will be rehearsed in advance - we both believe that the one off originality and spontanaiety of build up produces the best results - that's our excuse anyway!
Photoshoot this morning - Garden Centre pics and a bit of modelling with the Craghoppers uniform - I love it - so Indiana Jones meets Crocodile Dundee - and why not? After all its suppposed to be about Adventures!
Chelsea meeting next week with the construction team - lots of details to sort. What about furniture, book sales tables, drapes for the palace? How will the paving work when it gets to the top of the slope? - Brian from organicstone was asking. The paving team are the ones to answer that.
Also sheduled for next week a meeting with Scotts - to discuss details of the Secret Garden Diary Room, the filming, web presence, car parks, hotels, tickets and all the other bits andpieces that no one sees but make it happen.

Spring cabbage..................

Well, March is almost over and Spring is sort of here - at least the Daffodils are out. Still no reliable sunshine and snow forecast for this week! No wonder my broad beans still haven't germinated. Spring is definitely here in all those newspaper and magazine columns, where the Editor's journal has sent out the reminder that it's time to run a gardening article. They're still all on the Grow Your Own bandwagon, with mindblowing words of wisdom such as the earth shattering news that vegetable seeds are out selling flower seeds by 3 to 1, or was it 4 to 1? Anyway, it justified a run of paper article in the Daily T which included quotations from well-known gardening authorities like a spokesman from B&Q.

As always there has to be a down side in the Great British tradition - There is concern apparently that we are ignoring flowers and only growing veg. and the Sunday lunch table will be decorated with a bunch of onions instead of a fragrant posy.Get real - who has time for lunch let alone time to worry about flowers on the table!
As you can tell I'm getting into my cynical pre-Chelsea mood - ready for an onslaught of journalists demanding to know what's new in the way of plants and showing little interest in the other 3,498 others on the exhibit. we do have a couple of new ones: Digitalis 'Serendipity' and the really wonderful Philadelphus maculatus 'Sweet Clare'. The latter is a real winner but will be a bit of a challenge to get in flower for the show. Ricky has just dropped into the office and reports that the roses look good - best ever! As always they will need some light to get them at their best but at least they respond quickly!
Have just ordered tickets for the show - last orders were called to all concerned a week or so ago. From now on all sorts of characters appear from the woodwork requesting passes, imagining that they can be conjured up on a whim - it just does not work like that!
Gill and I have chosen the uniform - safari shirts this year - very Adventures in Gardening!- Sort of Indiana Jones meets the Happy Wanderer - Get the picture.
Think all of the design details bar one are now in place - Just the Venetian Palace to sort. Mehrdad at Quist has come up with a fab. glass and copper sculpture for my Ventian Adventure - gorgeous glass globes that resemble exotic fruits. I see it rising out of the dark feather like foliage of Sambucus 'Black Lace' and the rich orange blooms of Rosa 'Pat Austin'perhaps with a puff of sapphire Ceanothus 'Concha'. - Nice to dream about that one - all my ceanothus are black as your hat after last winter - Oh for some sunshine!