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Sally Nex

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Sally Nex

Tag Archives: phacelia

Chelsea chic

07 Thursday Jun 2007

Posted by sallynex in Uncategorized

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Jinny Blom, Kate Frey, phacelia, Sarah Eberle, Tiggy Salt, Ulf Nordfjell

As I mentioned a few days back, I had the fantastic experience of spending a whole week at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show just recently. And what a show it was. I had been a bit worried that I’d be all jaded this year – I did the same thing last year and was all wide-eyed and star-struck by it all, so I thought this year I’d be all “been there, done that”. I needn’t have been concerned. It was just as exciting to be there, the atmosphere was just as electric, and all those mouthwatering, beautiful plants…

The thing Chelsea did to me last year and has done again is to give me a sense of my own insignificance. I tend to strut around here at home thinking, I’m a professional gardener, I know it all – but when you go to Chelsea, you realise what an amateur you are in comparison to these utterly dedicated plantaholics. They’re so talented, too: the perfection it takes to get a gold medal at Chelsea has to be seen to be believed. When you’ve watched someone spend a whole hour teasing dead strands from a Stipa tenuissima, you know you’re in the presence of the highest standards it’s possible to imagine.

So, suitably humbled, I thought I’d just share my favourite Chelsea gardens from this year’s show. There were some real crackers: nothing head-and-shoulders above the rest, like Tom Stuart-Smith’s garden last year, but several which really grew on you (like Jinny Blom’s Laurent-Perrier Garden, and Ulf Nordfjell’s Tribute to Linnaeus). And, just for the record – I entirely agreed with the RHS judges in giving the Best in Show award to Sarah Eberle’s 600 Years with Bradstone. It was the only truly original garden there, executed with panache and daring, to say nothing of excellence: and every time you looked at it, you saw something else. You can’t ask more of a Chelsea garden than that.


This was Kate Frey’s garden for Fetzer Vineyards. Have you ever seen such wonderful flowers? The gorgeous blue ones were Phacelia campanularia – a new one to me, but a native wildflower in California. Kate – a lovely, gentle person who you can tell was just born to be a gardener – is a master at recreating wild landscapes like this: you can’t really believe such beauty is possible on such a small scale.


This was Jinny Blom’s garden for Laurent-Perrier. Jinny was over the moon about her gold medal – it’s the first time she’s struck gold after several years of trying. You could see why, too: the planting in this garden was ultra-sophisticated and very, very subtle, and she’d obviously put a huge amount of thought into it. And that moongate sculpture was something else: it moved around the garden with you. Fabulous.


This was another super-sophisticated garden with some really accomplished planting – I thought it had a good shot at Best in Show had the judges been playing safe. Robert Myers reflected the old, traditional nature of the Fortnum & Mason department store which sponsored the garden – but at no point did his charming garden feel stuffy. The garden was full of subtle little touches of brilliance: behind those beehives (which provided a major talking-point at the show) that fencing is made of old Fortnum & Mason hamper lids. And the clock at the back was set to seven minutes past five – or 1707 in 24-hour clock, the year Fortnum & Mason was founded.


Tiggy Salt’s small courtyard garden, Where the Wild Things Are, was a big hit, with adults and children alike. This is pure Chelsea theatre: the night sky formed a background to a recreation of Maurice Sendak’s classic children’s book, and a wonderful copper boat was there to take Max from his chamomile bed across to the “forest” of Fatsia japonica. It was magical.


And an odd little snippet: this Italian Scarce Swallowtail butterfly hatched out halfway through the show, having been imported as a chrysalis on a yew at the Romantic Gardens topiary display in the Great Pavilion. It fluttered over to the Claire Austin Hardy Plants display next door – presumably the irises looked prettier – before finally flying off. Apparently only a handful have ever been seen in the UK before. Look out for this one in SW3 for a few weeks to come!

Main border: May 07

19 Saturday May 2007

Posted by sallynex in Uncategorized

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alliums, californian poppies, cynara cardunculus, irises, main border, phacelia

Here’s my main herbaceous border (the Christopher Lloyd Tribute Border as I now call it – though it’s a long way from finished, and as you can see doesn’t bear a lot of resemblance to Great Dixter just yet!). It’s Californian poppy season, so I’ve got them in rivers through the other plants – lovely. You can just make out the last of the forget-me-nots (which have slightly taken over this spring) and in the foreground the Phacelia tanacetifolia is making a lovely pale mauve contrast. The cardoon (Cynara cardunculus) is revving up nicely and should be spectacular soon – already the foliage is looking great. The purple dots are alliums, which are dotting the border nicely – I’ve got Purple Sensation and A. christophii already out, and A. giganteum about to burst into fireworks at the back. You can just about make out the irises, too, at the top left-hand corner: I’ve got some fairly plain but nice irises, probably sibirica, but the star of the show has been I. Lothario, which you can just about make out in the picture. It’s been spectacular this year, and is the first year it’s really flowered, though I’ve had it about three years now – I think I’ve finally managed to keep it clear of competition from other plants. It’s all looking lovely – slightly blowsy but full of interesting things to look at.

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