We bring you our pick of the virtual events happening in and around this year’s RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2020. There are sneak peaks into private gardens, plants galore, memories of shows in years gone by, and messages from royalty.
Monty Don would normally be presenting the TV coverage of the RHS Chelsea Flower Show. This year, he lets us share his morning routine and shows us round his garden at Longmeadow – including areas you don’t see on the TV programme!
Join @TheMontyDon on a tour of Longmeadow, as he shares his garden with us for the virtual #RHSChelsea Flower Show. @The_RHShttps://t.co/C4qp5PRFZ0 pic.twitter.com/GeEvjnNjM2
— Gardeners' World Mag (@GWmag) May 20, 2020
Monty isn’t the only person to open their garden to celebrate the virtual RHS Chelsea Flower Show. Renowned Chelsea garden designers, including Bunny Guinness and Tom Stuart-Smith, show us their gardens to help raise money for the National Garden Scheme. The NGS raises millions of pounds for charities through its open gardens in a normal year. This year, it is sharing virtual garden tours on its website and asking people to donate online.
In celebration of #RHSChelsea and its talented designers, join us for a virtual visit to gardens designed by Chelsea Flower Show gold medal winners including Tom Stuart-Smith, Bunny Guinness and Marcus Barnett. https://t.co/AhnKeXqNs1 pic.twitter.com/Nc15FxFJTO
— National Garden Scheme (@NGSOpenGardens) May 18, 2020
Famous for creating exquisitely detailed Japanese Show Gardens, and with many a Chelsea gold medal to his name, this year designer Kazuyuki Ishihara, shows us round his own private garden, in Nagasaki, Japan. And he explains why he loves moss!
Adam Frost gives us a tour of his garden. He explains what the garden was like when he first moved in, he shares how he is changing and evolving the garden. He talks about his plans for the future of the garden – and even shows us his slightly camera-shy cat Ash!
Join Adam Frost on a tour of his garden, for the virtual #RHSChelsea Flower Show. https://t.co/dH1qLWKtV9 pic.twitter.com/N1cSg4ecy2
— Gardeners' World Mag (@GWmag) May 20, 2020
The Royal Family have a long association with the RHS Chelsea Flower Show. To mark this year’s show, this previously unpublished photo of the Duchess of Cambridge was released, showing her working on her Back to Nature garden for the 2019 show. The garden highlighted the importance of allowing children to play outside and reconnect with the natural world.
Want to get a little bit of the RHS Chelsea Flower Show look in your home? Florist Nikki Tibbles shares some of the secrets behind making a gorgeous bouquet, and shows how to create this Chelsea-inspired floral feast.
Chelsea wouldn’t be Chelsea without the Chelsea pensioners. Photographer Annie Green-Armytage has been digging through her archives to share some of her favourite photos from previous RHS Chelsea Flower Shows.
David Austin Roses gives visitors to the virtual show a behind-the-scenes tour of its nursery, and shares how it breeds such beautiful roses. The nursery has also been sharing some memories from previous RHS Chelsea Flower Shows. Including this video of their highlights from last year’s show.
With so many children off school at the moment, finding ways to entertain them, and educate them about gardening and the natural world, is more important than ever. The Skinny Jean Gardener is running a kids club to help weary parents do just that! He explains why hedgehogs are so vital to our gardens’ eco-systems and how to make a hedgehog house.
My School/ Kids Garden Club continues today for @The_RHS #RHSChelsea and today we are attracting Hedgehogs into the garden! https://t.co/eWf6DDPJJd
Plus I get through to @plantmadman Matt Biggs in my journey to the virtual show ???? pic.twitter.com/shHKgtUhxV
— ???????????????????????? ???????????????? ???????????????????????????????? (@SkinnyJeanGard) May 20, 2020
It may not be the most glamorous element of the RHS Chelsea Flower Show, but compost is certainly one of the most vital. Makers of peat-free compost, Dalefoot Composts, have teamed up with Vegepod, winner of RHS Chelsea Garden Product of the Year 2020, to help people grow their own vegetables at home. You’ve got until Monday 25 May to enter their competition.
#Competition to mark #virtualChelsea: Win GYO veg kit worth over £100 @franchiseedsuk @glovespecialist @vegepod & #peatfree compost
For chance to win, RT, follow & tell us yr favourite plant with photo if poss
Closes: 25 May 6pm
T&Cs: https://t.co/x61hEYo08c@The_RHS #RHSChelsea pic.twitter.com/HSQCDaKwTl— Dalefoot Composts (@DalefootCompost) May 18, 2020
We may be living in unprecedented times, but the RHS Chelsea Flower Show has continued through many strange and challenging circumstances. The RHS has been looking back through its archives, to discover how the show has coped with war, floods and strikes in times gone by.
This is not the first time that the RHS Chelsea Flower Show has not gone ahead in the usual way – in fact it is the 10th! Uncover fascinating tales of wartime, floods, strikes and other crises and how #RHSChelsea has always bounced back. https://t.co/SjrR8VHI57@RHSLibraries pic.twitter.com/B1ItyWo809
— The RHS (@The_RHS) May 19, 2020
Last year, Andy Sturgeon’s garden for M&G won Best in Show at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show. This year he shares Chelsea memories and a tour of his own private garden with garden designer and judge Ann-Marie Powell.
Chef Raymond Blanc shows us you can grow your own in even the tiniest of spaces, as he shows us round his tiny balcony garden, packed with herbs and vegetables. He also whips up a delicious recipe, full of the flavours of spring.
For this week’s #virtual #RHSChelsea I filmed a little segment from my tiny balcony garden ???? hopefully it will provide a little inspiration while we are at home.i hope you enjoy. https://t.co/dUU5IX7q2C https://t.co/UzBTJSxJYL
— Raymond Blanc (@raymond_blanc) May 19, 2020
HRH The Prince of Wales issues a stark warning about the need to tackle the plant health crisis that threatens our gardens and the wider landscape.
In this powerful video message, issued as part of the first RHS Virtual Chelsea Flower Show, His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales warns of the critical need to tackle the current ‘plant health crisis’ that threatens our plants, wildlife and natural landscape.@ClarenceHouse pic.twitter.com/lRCLcFOBQR
— The RHS (@The_RHS) May 21, 2020
And in one of the most surreal tributes to the RHS Chelsea Flower Show, a group have decorated a public phone box. The phone box now has its own show garden, it has been awarded a fake gold medal, and there’s even a plant swap.
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