Chelsea Flower Show had been hit by the economic recession, with eight less show gardens on display and a number of notable corporate absences. But those who did turn up have lifted the gloom that could have permeated the showground at London's Chelsea Hospital.
The designers of show gardens and floral displays alike have put real effort into producing exhibits that show what can be done on tight budgets - the results being thoughtful and often ingenious use of flora and less about dramatic landscape and avant garde structure.
The QVC Garden and the Laurent-Perrier garden illustrate sound design and subtle planting that is transferable to most people's plots of land. My favourite was the Cancer Research Garden, which was a little more challenging with its white walls and spherical sculptures - but even there, nothing was terribly overstated and there was a flow to the whole exhibit, whichever angle you came at it by.
That said, there have been some who have produced quirky and offbeat features, such as Tony Smith's 36,000 slates that make up The Quilted Velvet Garden or the sculptured tower of recycled material that forms the central part of the Future Nature garden.
Even in the Grand Pavilion, a sense of fun abounded. The Cayman Island Department of Tourism stand had an amazing underwater garden made of up humble sedums and succulents that mimic an undersea coral reef and the National Association of Flower Arrangers' Societies remarkable floral arrangements of cut flowers, in shapes that look like solid objects such as vases and screens. I could even forgive the fish tank of pirhanas that looked menacingly at me when I took a photograph of them.
The show is open to the public from May 19-23.
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