EVERY year I think the same thing at the Chelsea Flower Show. More British Asians should take up gardening and become members of the Royal Horticultural Society.
I know tickets are expensive, but it’s a once-a-year event and Chelsea is worth the investment. Apart from anything else, it’s fun. I saw people queuing for a few sips of champagne.
The really big story this year – from my point of view – was the decision taken by Tata-owned Range Rover to become headline sponsor. Plus, the IT firm Tech Mahindra sponsored a balcony garden and won a gold medal in its very first appearance at Chelsea. It’s like getting a double century in your first Test match.
The company’s CEO and managing director, Mohit Joshi, told me he was “hooked” the moment he came to Chelsea two or three years ago as a corporate guest and decided he would sponsor a garden. He reckons other Indian companies will now be tempted to follow his example.
A Morris Minor promotes flowers and picnics in DevonAmit Roy
Last Monday (18), the preview day before Chelsea opened to the public, turned out to be cool with scattered showers. However, last Friday (22) was the first really hot day at Chelsea, where a place to sit down was at a premium. Watching a long line of mostly elderly women sitting on a wall reminded me of something I had seen years ago at Eton College. It was a similarly long line of boys sitting on a wall with their legs dangling, watching the Eton Wall Game (no outsider understands the rules).
I know very little about horticulture, but after attending Chelsea for a few years now, I can now tell my hosta (suitable for shady corners) from my wisteria and alliums. My method of tackling Chelsea is to walk down Main Avenue, where the bigger show gardens are located (a model of the new Belgravia Green Range Rover Electric was tucked away, amid greenery), and then take in the profusion of flowers in the Great Pavilion (I always walk through the floral arches in the David Austin rose section, and see the vegetable displays). A rose is meant to be quintessentially English (“she’s an English rose”), but I think the Mughals got their first with their Shalimar gardens.
In contrast to the Range Rover, there was a Morris Minor in the Great Pavilion, promoting flowers and picnics in Devon. It brought back fond memories, because I had a Morris Minor for years.
I then cross over to the other side of the show to look at the balcony gardens (this was where Tech Mahindra had their “Hedgerow in the Sky”).
What is noticeable is the number of people in wheelchairs. Most are elderly folk, but I saw one young woman being wheeled around sipping a glass of champagne. Gardening must be a healing experience. I would certainly like to see many more British Asian families bring their less mobile relatives.
Visitors gather around Tech Mahindra’s Hedgerow in the SkyAmit Roy
The late Queen would visit Chelsea on preview day at around 5pm. That role has been taken over by King Charles. Papers used to make fun of him, because he apparently “talked” to his plants. Perhaps it is gardening that has kept him sane.
In 2023, almost the first garden King Charles visited was the RHS Eastern Eye’s “Garden of Unity”. This year, accompanied by Queen Camilla, the King “returned to RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2026 for a year brimming with the celebration of biodiversity and the protection of natural spaces”.
“Charles, a keen environmentalist who believes passionately in living in harmony with nature, toured some of the standout gardens and met the charities he is patron of and whose causes he champions”, the RHS said.
Starting with a tour of The Curious Garden, designed by Frances Tophill, the royal couple “viewed a garden filled with plants that are both beautiful and functional, including dye plants, and design elements promoting traditional crafts”.
Hostas on displayAmit Roy
Speaking after the visit, Tophill said: “The King told me the garden is everything he hoped it would be, which I feel pretty good about, to be honest. He wanted to stay longer and see more, but, unfortunately, he had to go. Although he was sad the garden would be dismantled soon, he was happy about the plan for it to be relocated at a college for young adults.”
The King admired the garden’s delphiniums – his favourite flowers, a nod to his role as patron of The Delphinium Society and their prominence at his Highgrove garden. The selection included some rare ones such as Delphinium ‘Alice Artindale’ – a rare double rose-bud type with unique sepal layers, seldom seen today.
Sponsored by his charity, The King’s Foundation, the monarch influenced the design of the garden, alongside charity ambassadors Sir David Beckham – who suggested garlic and Nepeta (catmint) be included – and Alan Titchmarsh, who advised on the horticultural narrative of the garden. They consulted the King on the design of the garden (the most visited at Chelsea this year). I thought, given Beckham’s involvement, it would be a footballer’s patch. Actually, it had the feel of a country garden, with flowers on the left and vegetables on the right.
Tophill added: “David Beckham said this is his kind of garden and I thought he would enjoy the vegetables the most, but he commented on the wildness of the flowers.”
Titchmarsh commented: “Aside from celebrating the real joy that gardening brings to our lives, we will be highlighting how simply growing more plants helps mitigate both the biodiversity and climate crises, and therefore why gardeners, from enthusiastic new gardeners to incredible skilled horticulturists, are more important today than ever.”
Visitors rest along a wall, playing their own version of the ‘Chelsea Wall Game’Amit Roy
Rose grower David Austin’s debut launch of Sir David Beckham’s rose was showcased in the garden, alongside the King’s own rose, launched at last year’s show. A semi-double, repeat-flowering shrub, “The King’s Rose boasts delicate papery petals with distinct stripes in shades of fuchsia pink and white and has a light musk fragrance”.
Queen Camilla spoke to father and son David and Richard Austin on the David Austin exhibit in the Great Pavilion.
Richard said: “We were delighted to hear from the Queen that The King’s Rose is performing well in her own garden, where she has several planted.”
I have been spending the weekend in my late uncle’s house in Colchester, where I have allowed his huge garden to run a little wild.
But the red poppies are now bursting into bloom. A thing of beauty, really, is a joy for ever.
