Chelsea week 2025

I always watch the BBC coverage of the RHS Chelsea flower show and this year is no exception.  I have never been to the show and am not likely to, as it is expensive, crowded and the tickets sell out so fast.  The TV coverage gives me a much better view of the gardens than I would get at the show.  All the photos are from the RHS website.  

I usually judge the gardens by whether I would like them outside my back door! 

Benches and water features have seemed to be a focus for me this year.  Above is a rather lovely large water bowl and bench  from the ADHD Foundation garden designed by Katy Terry.  This garden will live on at the University of Liverpool.

If I had to choose one favourite garden, it would probably be this one, The Glasshouse Garden by Jo Thompson. I like the snaking rill in the path.

The planting in The Glasshouse garden was lovely too, with the rich reds, pinks and purples.  These rich colours can be seen in lots of other gardens. This garden is going to a women's prison in the South of England.

The RHS and BBC Radio 2 Dog Garden was designed by Monty Don, the main presenter of Gardeners' World and showed some lovely, gentle, naturalistic planting.  

I like all the greens around the path here.  

I liked the copper water feature in the Down Syndrome Scotland garden, designed by Nick Burton and Duncan Hall.  This garden will go to a garden at the Palacerigg Country Park in Scotland.

My favourite water feature was in the Pathway Garden by Allon Hoskin and Robert Beaudin.  Very simple, a bowl carved out of a stone. This garden is going to the Shekinah Centre in Devon, which supports people experiencing homelessness.

Really beautiful.  I would love this in my garden!

The London Square Chelsea Pensioners' Garden had this inviting path to explore, with another still water feature.  Designed by Dave Green, this garden is moving a few metres away to the Royal Hospital, Chelsea, so that the Chelsea Pensioners can enjoy it.

This bench also caught my eye, made from a tree trunk in the Garden of the Future by Matthew Butler and Josh Parker.  

To see all the gardens, there is a link to the website here.

A new David Austin rose was launched and it is one I have my eye on. called The King's Rose, it is similar to Rosa Versicolor (Rosa Mundi) but is repeat flowering.  It may well be added to my collection - perhaps not now, but in the future...

Reading instructions - always a good idea!

I wanted to make some new pillowcases as I have a huge stash of material and I had found an unused cotton sheet in a charity shop which I thought would work well for some of the backs. I had a nice simple pattern and got to work yesterday cutting the pieces out and then sewing them up. 

I used some vintage material and some that I had been gifted years ago in a blog swap. I managed to sew the inside flaps onto the outside a couple of times, so there was a bit of unpicking and re-sewing. I managed to finish three pillowcases, but wasn't really happy with them.  "They'll do", I thought.  I washed them today and hung them out to dry.

I decided I wanted to make a couple more today, so then read the pattern through again as I wasn't sure I had really got it right.  It turns out that I hadn't!  I had read what I thought it said, not what it actually said.  So I made two more today, following the instructions and surprise, surprise, they looked so much better.  I looked at the ones I had made yesterday...

Yes, you guessed it, I unpicked them and re-sewed them properly.  Although the unpicking was a bit of a pain, I was listening to a play on the radio, so that helped.  I re-sewed them correctly and I am so pleased I did them again.  They look much, much better and much more professional!  So yes, sometimes it's a good idea to read and then follow the instructions!

The three A's in May

May is all about the three A's - Aquilegia, Allium and Astrantia - and I love to see them.  Above is an aquilegia (Columbine or Granny's Bonnet).  They have moved themselves about and self seeded in various places too, so it is a surprise to see where they will appear next.  

My alliums in the border are not doing so well and I assume it is because they are getting too hot and dry in the summer months.  With this in mind, last autumn I planted some in the big pots with the roses,  as I thought that roses and alliums always look good together.  These are some of the ones in pots and so far, are looking good.

I enjoy seeing them gradually open up and become fuller.

For Astrantia, here is Burgundy Manor, a lovely deep red.  It is also in a pot where I can keep an eye on it. They seem to like a little bit of shade and moist soil.  I have some of the white varieties too but they are not  quite in flower yet.  They obligingly self seed, so I have several smaller plants in pots too. 

Some of my roses are almost in flower too, which is quite early, but probably caused by the very dry Spring/early summer we had/continue to have. 

The scents of early May

 

There are lots of plants blooming at the moment as we continue into late Spring/early Summer.  Above are lilies of the valley, grown in a pot. I tried to grow them in the garden but they weren't happy.  They seem OK in a pot at the moment, so I am enjoying them.  They always remind me of my Mum as her favourite fragrance was Yardley Lily of the Valley.

image from Amazon UK

She always wore it when she went out and I remember when I was little and she would come to say goodnight - the waft of that fragrance as she went out of the room has stayed with me.

The Choisya White Dazzler is flowering away at the front door and greets me with a scent of honey, I think. (It is a type of Mexican Orange Blossom, but I can't smell any oranges!) As it is in a more enclosed space, the scent is quite noticeable.

The flowers are really pretty and bring me a lot of joy.