The Chelsea Flower Show made its triumphant return last week!
We were lucky enough to pay a visit to the show, as well as Chelsea in Bloom - here are our highlights!
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RHS Chelsea Flower Show
The world's most famous flower show has run regularly for over a century, and it's without a doubt the best place to see the latest, cutting-edge trends in floristry and gardening. The show was cancelled last year due to the pandemic and replaced with a virtual show, so 2021's show was the first in-person event for over two years.
This year also marks the first time the show has ever been held in September, giving exhibitors a new and exciting opportunity to show off gorgeous autumnal blooms and gardens.
NAFAS Floral Art
Eight members of the National Association of Flower Arrangement Societies (NAFAS) created a stunning series of floral sculptures with the theme 'Nature's Sculptures', earning a gold medal for their efforts.
These fantastic and inspiring installations show the growing trend towards a more natural and wild look in floristry. There's a greater use of wildflowers, with natural foliage, fabrics, and woods creating structure instead of floral foam.
Nurseries
This year there were some fantastic displays of vibrant seasonal flowers like gladioli and dahlias. It was lovely to see the autumn flowers on display, as in previous years the show has been held in May so many of these stems are usually out of season!
Dibley Nurseries won gold with a beautiful planted rockery full of begonias, streptocarpus, and other houseplants.
Plant of the Year
The coveted 'Plant of the Year' award was won by the Cercis Canadensis 'Eternal Flame'. This is a beautiful garden shrub that's definitely an apt winner for Chelsea's first autumn show - it has heart shaped leaves which change colour over the year from bright glossy red, to burnt orange, and then yellow. In the spring, it blooms with pretty pink flowers.
Gardens
The show gardens are a huge part of Chelsea Flower Show, inspiring new trends in plant choice and garden design. This year introduced a new category focusing on urban green spaces, showing how you can make the most of limited space with balcony and container gardens. Alongside these, there were the traditional, elaborate show gardens and soothing sanctuary gardens.
We noticed many of the gardens emphasised the idea of allowing nature to take centre stage, with the designs not being overly regimented and structured. Instead, they were all about being free flowing, wild and natural. A wild meadow style has plenty of benefits, as it encourages wildlife to settle and is much better for the environment, so it's lovely to see this being featured at such a prominent show.
There were of course lots of beautiful autumnal blooms to admire, with some of our favourites including zinnia, cosmos, verbena, echinacea, rudbeckia, and fountain grass.
Trade Stands
Gaze Burvill won the best trade stand award with a dreamy garden and terrace designed by Ann-Marie Powell Gardens. The display featured a terrace with plenty of places to relax, with the back part of the stand inspired by woodland.
We really loved the finishing touch of the vases of flowers perched on the tables. They're very in line with the 'just picked', wildflower look that's very popular at the moment. Although these bouquets often look almost thrown together, they're actually quite tricky to perfect and require a lot of skill.
Floristy & Floral Design Competition
This year's competition used the concept 'Our World', and entries were split into two formats - floral windows, and more open floral installations. Each format was given two themes to choose from as part of the overarching concept.
There was a new challenge this year, as RHS have banned floral foam from displays due to it being a single-use product. Designers therefore had to think of new, eco-friendly techniques when creating their sculptures.
Floral Windows
Floral window designs could be based on either British Blooms or Preservation.
We also loved Edie Rose Designs' floral window on the left, crafted from upcycled metal grids and dried and preserved flowers. This design was named 'Convergence' and themed around the ideas of industry and nature in coexistence, and earned a bronze meal.
Amanda Randell-Cox won best floral window (centre). This is a beautiful atmospheric design with gorgeous colours, and a sense of movement created with the bird flying above. The flowers used include hydrangeas, amaranthus, fountain grass, dahlias, and orchids.
Fairford Flower Collective won a silver medal with their lovely display on the right, which was created using only locally grown seasonal flowers from gardens and allotments. We love the garden look and the beautiful peach dahlias.
Floral Installations
Floral installations could be created around the ideas of Pollination or Beauty of Nature.
Tracey Rowbottom's floral display (left) focused on capturing nature's beauty. We particularly loved the gorgeous spheres packed with foliage, as well as the mirrored spheres which reflected all the natural patterns on display.
Flowers of Elegance won a bronze medal with their beautiful and creative installation 'Aristaeus' Apiary' (middle). Aristaeus was the Greek god of beekeeping, so it's no surprise this display focuses on the importance of bees and pollination. The central tree is covered in miniature beehives, and surrounded by an overgrown flower meadow, jars of honey, and more.
Lastly, Larry Walshe Studios created the mixed media installation 'Our World' (right). We love the contrast between the plastic bottles and natural ferns, mosses, and twigs.
Chelsea in Bloom
Chelsea in Bloom is an annual floral art festival, running alongside the Chelsea Flower Show. Chelsea's shops, restaurants, and hotels are all adorned with incredible floral displays, filling the streets with colourful blooms.
This year's theme was Extraordinary Voyages, inspired by 'Around the world in 80 days'. The beautiful displays featured motifs from the golden age of travel, including vintage hot air balloons, sailboats, and more.
Space NK - Silver
Space NK earned silver with this gorgeous floral hot air balloon. We loved the creative use of dried flowers including pampas grass, hydrangeas, succulents, eucalyptus, and bunny tails.
Trotters London - Silver
Trotters recreated their mascot with flowers, with a clever use of germini for the trousers, craspedia for the waistcoat, gypsophilia for the shirt and carnations for the head.
NU - Gold
Nu were inspired by Cappadocia in Turkey. This region is renowned for its otherworldly landscape, marked by surreal volcanic rock formations, cave dwellings, and underground cities. Every day at sunrise, up to 100 hot air balloons soar over the region, giving visitors a chance to enjoy its mesmerising vistas.
Derek Isaac from SuperNature Flowers recreated the scenery with stunning purple hydrangeas, finishing it off with a hot air balloon made of dried flowers. Hydrangeas were a big winner for Chelsea in Bloom - they offer great coverage and vibrant colours for instant impact.
The Sloane Club - People's Champion Runner Up & Gold
The Sloane Club celebrated Hannah Snell, a woman who secretly became a sailor in the Royal Marines in 1746, to find her missing husband. She assumed her brother-in-law's identity and enlisted, ultimately travelling to India with her unit.
A boat named the Snell sloop takes centre stage in this display, surrounded by mementoes and souvenirs from around the world. Once again, we see a fantastic use of hydrangeas, with bright blue hydrangeas capturing the colours of the ocean.
The Amazonian Archway
Designed by Maison de Fleurs, the Amazonian Archway marked the entrance into a recreation of South America, bringing the rainforest to Chelsea. The arch was crafted with a breathtaking array of tropical plants and flowers, including guzmania, kentia palms, vanda orchids, ferns, hanging triffids, tillandsia moss, monstera leaves and more - not to mention, the lifesize toucans and cranes created entirely from flowers!
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