Going to the Chelsea Flower Show is one of my favourite days of the year. I'm a little sad it has (for me, anyway) been and gone. The 2007 show was sublime.
It's important to understand that when it comes to getting in, there's a pecking order. Only RHS members can purchase tickets for the first three days. My personal deal is that I go with my Mother (she's a member; I am her plus-one). We meet on the Tuesday morning at 8am, just twelve hours after HMTQ has departed and literal moments after the medals have been awarded. We arrive, have a scoot around, inhale an energy-giving cup of coffee and pain raisin and then get down to some serious critiquing - of the gardens and, naturally, the people around us.
Due to the fact that only members were there yesterday, all around milled an interesting and very specific cross-section of society. These are British ladies of a certain sort. Many of them wear rollers at night and assume it's perfectly normal to back-comb their hair into a thick bob, then set with copious Elnett in the same style they have been wearing since 1967. Sensible shoes are worn. Country Casuals, not Prada, is the label du jour. Sunglasses on the city ladies are by Chanel and Escada, country types are more likely to wear a floral-print visor or just not bother to bring any, on the grounds that clement weather is so unlikely in London. However, this would have been a mistake yesterday: it was as perfect an English Spring day as has ever occurred. A few of the ladies looked a little flushed by 3pm.
Naturally, there are also gays present. They either came in two-by-two or with the same arrangement as me: I was not alone in having a Mama savvy enough to know the benefit of a son who's an uphill gardener. But, it's not so cruisy. The drill is this: above Mother's head, there is a sharp eye-contact flash-acknowledgment of your presence, but due to the nature of the scenario, a number swap or (God forbid!) hook-up is out of the question. One just bats an eyelid, then turns to admire a colourful clematis or heavenly hydrangea.
Enough with the gossiping... these are the best of my snaps:
All photographs by me. Please ask if you want to use them elsewhere.
I think I saw these ladies at the Orangery one morning!
Gorge pics, though #2 is a bit anatomical - in the feminine - isn't it?
Posted by: xolondon | May 23, 2007 at 01:23 PM
Oh yes! Not my intention, of course.
I realise one or two wider-angle shots would have been nice, but there are *so* many people there that one ends up with a cast of thousands in the background which is not my favourite thing. So, close-ups it is.
Posted by: TRICKY | May 23, 2007 at 01:43 PM
My 86 year old grandmother has been wanting to go for years. I've tried for the past two to get tix. Maybe I should say my surname is Titchmarsh?
Posted by: Phil | May 23, 2007 at 07:38 PM
The only way is to pop that RHS membership application in the post.
I was bummed not to see Alan on Tuesday. I saw the other two Gardener's World presenters who aren't Monty Don, but not the big one. Maybe next year.
Posted by: TRICKY | May 23, 2007 at 10:46 PM