Chelsea Flower Show ‘risks dumbing down with make-good-and-mend attitude’
The Chelsea Flower Show is at risk of dumbing down with a “make-good-and-mend” attitude, a leading designer has said.
Mark Gregory, a five-time gold winner, said the flower show should protect its “glitz and glam”, during a Royal Horticultural Society preview event in London for this year’s garden show season that highlighted sustainability and money-saving gardening tips.
“I don’t want to see dumbed down gardens, rewilding, make-good-and-mend. I want to see glamour, I want to see glitz,” Mr Gregory, who has been dubbed the “King of Chelsea”, said at the event. “Chelsea is a catwalk, it’s haute couture.”
He added: “I don’t want gardeners to feel that the only way to get a medal is to use recycled, grungy, make-good-and-mend materials.”
This year the show, which starts on May 21, will include a feature garden made almost entirely from repurposed materials, while the RHS Hampton Court in July will showcase a money-saving garden.
In recent years there has been a focus by the charity on sustainability, which has included the first compulsory ‘green audit’ for all show gardens this year.
All of the show gardens underwent an assessment of their green credentials and were given suggested changes to lower their environmental footprint, including carbon, water use and biodiversity.
Since last year, all gardeners must have a plan for how the elements of their garden will live on elsewhere, rather than being thrown away.
Mr Gregory said he welcomed the challenge by the RHS for gardens to become more environmentally conscious, saying that “we can mix glitz and glamour with a little bit of a softer touch.”
Last year his ‘plot to plate’ garden, which won Silver Gilt, included several sustainability restrictions, including no plastic, no cement or concrete and zero waste to landfill.
The RHS has also made an effort to reach younger and more budget-conscious gardeners, introducing a “balcony gardens” category to Chelsea in 2020.
This year it held the first Urban Show in Manchester, targeting those with limited outdoor space, which included balcony gardens built for a budget of just £500. Tickets for the show were half the price of those for Chelsea.
Mr Gregory also warned against any limits on the budget for gardens, after some criticism of the level of spending on some of the gardens at Chelsea, which frequently cost hundreds of thousands of pounds to build on the site.
“If somebody wants to spend £2m on a garden, bring it on,” he said. “We want the showstoppers, it’s a world-class event.”
He added that it was “British PLC Horticulture’s shop window,” and pointed out that the UK’s ornamental horticulture and landscaping industry was worth an estimated £28.2bn to the British economy in 2019.
The Repurposed Feature Garden at this year’s Chelsea will be designed by award-winning designer Darryl Moore of Cityscapes, using elements from gardens dating back to 2010.
It will include a series of corten steel columns taken from storage after appearing in Andy Sturgeon’s 2010 The Daily Telegraph Garden and distinctive steel fins from his 2016 garden repurposed as information boards.
“The world’s resources are limited. In order to build a sustainable and adaptive future in response to the challenges we face from the climate and biodiversity crisis, we need to look at ways to reuse and recycle materials we already have,” said Mr Moore. “I hope this garden will encourage more designers and visitors to do the same.”
The ‘Money-Saving Garden’ at RHS Hampton Court Palace Garden Festival will be designed by Anya Lautenbach, who has become famous via Instagram for her budget-friendly tips.
She said gardeners could propagate hundreds of new specimens for free by using cuttings from existing plants, and suggested reusing old containers or pots, making your own plant supports or using paving slabs from online recycling groups.
Clare Matterson, RHS Director General, said: “We see every day how gardening and growing plants can provide much-needed respite for people facing some of the toughest challenges and how it can bring joy in hard times.
“This makes us really want gardening to feel, and be, accessible and available to all. Through this garden, we want to share how gardening and growing plants at home doesn’t need to cost a fortune.”
