The Chelsea Flower Show goes online

The annual Chelsea Flower Show opens tomorrow, but for the second year running it will be a virtual show. The new online event may repeat itself in years to come.

Monday, as usual, will be a members’ day for Royal Horticultural Society, but from Tuesday the RHS will be filling the week with an online extravaganza for the public featuring virtual garden tours, talks by experts and practical demonstration for the gardening public.

Attractions

Award-winning growers will provide online video tips on alliums, alpine, peonies and roses as well as fruit and vegetable growing. Away from the traditional, with its floral competitions and prizes, the virtual tours will take in the garden of DJ and presenter Jo Whiley in Northamptonshire, DJ Trevor Nelson’s North London garden and the vegetable garden of celebrity chef Blanc.

Notably, the pandemic has been an influence behind some the top virtual showcase designs this year, among them ‘The Florence Nightingale Garden: A Celebration of Modern Day Nursing’ designed by @rmalandscape; ‘Finding Our Way: An NHS Tribute Garden by @NFerrettCohen; and the Psalm 23 Garden by Sarah Eberle Landscape and Garden Design.

As with last year, the real Chelsea Flower Show at the Royal Hospital will be moved to the Autumn, when it is hoped more Covid restrictions will have been removed. However, garden designers planning exhibitions for the planned September event will be giving online presentations this week, among them Sarah Eberle, Charlotte Harris and Tom Massey.

Other participants in the virtual show include top designer James Alexander-Sinclair talking about border planting; and the BBC’s Gardeners’ World presenter Arit Anderson putting forward ideas for sustainable gardening.

The climax to the virtual event will be a spectacular floral display with Nicki Chapman and Simon Lycett.

This post was written by Jonathan Bearman, a member of the British Horticultural Society