A new experience for me — An Elegant Sufficiency

I think we all love it when an opportunity arises to do something new, especially when it also offers a chance to get an inside view of somewhere special. I’ve blogged before about a great day at Chelsea Flower Show, when our daughter in law Amy was working for the RHS and very much involved in the organisation. Yesterday, though, I was there in a slightly different role, extending my judging skills beyond the village show marquee and joining a team to judge tradestands at this year’s show.

How exciting was that?

I’d stayed overnight, so reporting for duty at 8.30am wasn’t a problem. I can’t say the entrance displays were at their best in the cool morning light, but a little sunshine made all the difference later, when there were crowds of people around and not really the best time to take a photo.

Can you identify the theme?

It’s onions. Alliums. The installation is filled with all varieties of the plant and the bunting made from fabric dyed using onion skins - just how many colours can be achieved from one single plant?

Having met my colleagues in the tradestand judging team, been issued with our badges and the necessary paperwork we set off for a little standardisation exercise. The organisers had identified three stands to illustrate the expectations and we each referred to our judging criteria to see how it could be applied to the examples offered. I’m not used to judging in a team like this, so it was reassuring to experience how it would work - did we all agree? Were we all applying the criteria in the same way? One important aspect was key to the RHS expectation: the use of plant material in the stand design. After all, it’s a flower show. But it was also reassuring to find some more familiar aspects too - what about the backdrop? This stand had that lovely wall to incorporate into their design but not all were quite so lucky.

These are tradestands of course, so we were encouraged to go into the stand and take a look around to assess the “business” side of things. Was it tidy? Where/how was stock stored and those personal bits and pieces that stallholders need, such as their bags and water bottles. In a small space, that’s not always easy and some creative solutions were called for.

Use of colour was another familiar judging point. The ladies on this stand were wearing pink and red dresses too! We were also looking at how information was presented, such as prices and product details. Broadly speaking though, exactly the same principles I apply to an entry in a village show applied here too.

With the addition of “Use of plant material” of course!

The joy was being here when there were so few people around. Even the popular show gardens, where during normal opening hours the crowds might be six deep had just a handful of people around them, usually because a celebrity was being interviewed or the photographers were there.

For they were there in abundance. I realise that so many of the interviews and features that will appear on our screens throughout the week were actually filmed yesterday and from time to time we came across these huge contraptions being moved around with all the safety precautions around them. (That’s the blue rope 😉 )

Standing in the queue for a mid-morning coffee, I had the chance to compliment one of my judging colleagues on her choice of handbag. How neat is that?!

Her flowery dress was complemented by flowery shoes too. In fact, many of the female members of the judging team were dressed in flowery style, ( including moi having drawn a blank on a flowery dress, managed to find a suitably themed jacket at the back of my wardrobe which fitted the bill perfectly!)

I think we’d all looked carefully at the weather forecast that morning and put umbrellas and raincoats in our bags as a result. So far so good but those clouds appearing didn’t offer much hope.

By now it was nearing lunchtime. We’d completed about half of our workload of fifty or so stands so we made our way back to where we’d started and looked forward to lunch and a bit of a sit down!

I’m used to judging shows where lunch is part of the arrangement and very much appreciated that offer as always. What I didn’t reckon on was being taken to a smart French restaurant in Pimlico though! With many of the dining options in the showground being used for corporate entertaining perhaps, we were fortunate to enjoy a rather good lunch - and we were all glad of the walk back to the showground afterwards, I can tell you!

For me, that was partly because whilst driving here on Sunday afternoon, I didn’t have chance to take photos of some of the wonderful floral displays that were part of Chelsea in Bloom (or was it Belgravia in Bloom?), including these handsome lions outside Linley. They wouldn’t be permitted by the RHS - artificial grass! - but standing here on the pavement, they were a fine pair of creatures.

Actually, even whilst on foot it wasn’t easy to get a decent picture of some of those displays, what with traffic and light and all of that. But it would have been fun to take a walk around the area and see some of the spectacular designs.

There was still work to be done though, so returning to the showground, we purposely took a different route to where we’d left off, catching a glimpse of the Swiss garden as we went. Designed by one of Amy’s friends, I’d followed progress on the Switzerland Facebook page and was happy to share a brief “Gruetzi miteinand” with the people there.

One aspect of shows like these has changed in recent years. I think we’ve all got odd collections of promotional material - pens and cotton bags, not to mention the catalogues we’ve thrown away having carried them around all day. Issues of sustainability and eco-concerns mean that these ways of sharing information are discouraged and we were keen to offer credit for more contemporary ways of learning more about a product.

Our afternoon schedule included the rather larger tradestands with outdoor kitchens, huge sculptures that balanced in a way that looked precarious but clearly wasn’t and more open structures where planting and design played a larger part of the concept.

By 4.30, we’d completed our schedule and each seized the opportunity to take a look at parts of the showground we’d not had chance to see. I was on the lookout for Amy, who had been working on one of the show gardens all week and who had promised to show me what she’d been doing.

For the last four months, she’s been working with a London design studio who had created this Sanctuary garden for the show.

Privileged access meant a peek inside, where the beautiful interior was warm and inviting.

Definitely several steps above the normal summerhouse, I must say, I loved the idea of this in my garden!

As we left, we checked to make sure we’d not left footprints on that gorgeous black decking!

As we passed the Swiss garden again, Amy spotted Lilly, the designer sitting there, so we popped in for a word, admiring that gorgeous fencing as we went! (precision cut in Switzerland with gentle charring followed by the application of a wood stain, apparently)

As we made our way back to the RHS office to get our bags, it was clear that something was afoot. There were more photographers than ever and things had turned quiet…

There was no chance to get our bags, however….that area was roped off. Oh heck…we knew Edward was sitting in a restaurant in Sloane Square, waiting for us. What to do? Well, no choice but to wait it out.

Thankfully, Her Majesty didn’t take too long - she arrived around 5.30 - and having glimpsed her golf buggy and her cheerful demeanour, we persuaded the policemen to let us through to gather our belongings.