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The Flower Show Facade
Work has been busy. So busy that I guiltily have to admit I haven’t been to the allotment in a couple of weeks. Can one even call it that anymore? Surely the allotment is now a weeded forest. A thicket of fat hen. A swaying meadow of seeding couch grass. A velvety prickle of Borridge and Comfrey. I must get there this week and thin the greens.
Part of my work has been on the production of a new eight episode gardening strand for ITV’s This Morning. Long, happy days of garden makeover’s are always filled with pleasure. Though again, I must admit, there were moments on this week’s shoot that I acutally thought my body might just curl up and die from exhaustion. I have never worked so hard in my life. It did however occur to me, amidst popping in penstemmens, digging in dahlia’s, and wearingly placing rubeckia, that flower show gardens such as RHS Chelsea, or Wisley, are somewhat a farce.
You only have to look at our garden makeover. Plants had been supplied by kind nurseries or purchased at nearby stores. They were in tip top health, but were growing as naturally as non native plants possibly can. There was no holding back, no forcing on, no keeping the plants for the perfect flower. They flowered when they wanted too, respective to the season, respective to the weather.
I’m in no means berating flower shows, any reader of this blog will know that I love them. Wonderful days out go hand in hand with inspiration and creativity. However, it is important and must be acknowledged that what you see is certainly not what you get if trying to idealise the garden you saw at home. Plants are grown specifically for the occasion. Blooms that set each other off with explosive force are often never seen in flower at the same time in the natural world. A careful and considered approach to plant biology is used. When will it flower normally? How do I hold it back? What can I place it against to create a stunning backdrop?
You can of course create a stunning garden without this, again the plants within the garden makeover, should they continue to flourish, will be a great sweeping gem of colour and vibrancy. Use idea’s from flower shows. Let inspiration and creativity well up. But do not, under any circumstances take what you see as what you get, because as with many things in life, the flower show facade can be a great white lie.
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