Crocus Chelsea Flower Show Blog

Chelsea 2010

2010-02-08T12:03:00.004Z

Chelsea has come round yet again and we are busily working on the Daily Telegraph garden and the Laurent-Perrier Garden. The Daily Telegraph garden is being designed by Andy Sturgeon and the Laurent-Perrier garden by Tom Stuart-Smith.

This year we have decided to enlarge the blog by having a lot more video so hopefully you will like it. Here is the link to the new blog

http://www.chelseaflowershowblog.com/

I hope you enjoy it.

Mark

Goodbye for now....

2009-05-20T09:40:00.002+01:00

It is a long time since we started planning for Chelsea 2009 and it is now finally over. It's been a great year with 2 Gold Medals and Best in Show and we have all really enjoyed working with Luciano and Ulf. It is always slightly sad when it's all over but it comes round again very quickly - we are already looking at detailed plans for next year although I have been sworn to secrecy about who it is....
Because it is the first time that we have done a blog, I would really like to hear from you about what you thought of it and how we might be able to improve it for next year. If you would like to, you can leave a comment by clicking on the comment tab underneath each entry.
Thanks again for following us along our Chelsea journey - see you again in 2010.
Mark

Open Day at Crocus - Saturday 30th May

2009-05-20T09:29:00.002+01:00

Lots of people ask us what we do with the plants from the Show after the gardens get taken down. Well, this year we have decided to have an Open day at our nursery on the 30th May. It starts at 9.30am and we will be selling all the plants from both the Telegraph and Laurent Perrier Gardens. At our last Open Day we had over 1,000 people so we are hoping that lots of people will come and see how we run the nursery and prepare for Chelsea. The tea is even free! Here is a link to the details about the day.

http://www.crocus.co.uk/openday/

Ulf Wins best in Show

2009-05-20T08:58:00.009+01:00

We were all over the moon that Ulf won Best in Show. It was a wonderful result and well deserved. I thought that it might be nice to show some of the detail shots of the garden.

If you click on this link, you can see the moment that Ulf received his Best in Show award.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/gardening/chelseaflowershow/5348223/Chelsea-Flower-Show-2009-Daily-Telegraph-Garden-wins-Best-in-Show.html

Luciano gets Gold

2009-05-19T18:57:00.005+01:00

Luciano's garden for Laurent Perrier got a Gold Medal which is a fantastic achievement for a first time at Chelsea. I don't know but I bet that he was seriously considered for Best in Show. The design is very strong and the garden looks magnificent from all angles. It's been a real pleasure working with him - my money is on him coming back to Chelsea soon.

The Judges decide

2009-05-19T18:21:00.005+01:00

It seems a very long time since we started this journey, building the Daily Telegraph and the Laurent Perrier Gardens. But it is now over and we can all get some rest. The judges have been and gone and I am really pleased to say that we won Gold Medals for both gardens. They only awarded three Golds and we got two of them! I always felt that both gardens could be Gold Medal winners but you can never tell until the piece of paper arrives. The other really exciting thing is that Ulf's garden won Best in Show, which is a wonderful achievement. I would imagine that it was a close decision between Ulf's and Luciano's garden but sadly there can only be one winner of Best in Show. Anyway, a great day - we are all off to the Swedish Embassy tonight to celebrate.
Ulf has spent most of the day in front of the cameras but spent some time with Mark Straver, from Crocus, who was responsible for growing the plants and getting them absolutely right for the show.

Alan Titchmarsh visits the Laurent Perrier Garden

2009-05-18T13:11:00.002+01:00

Alan Titchmarsh came round the Laurent Perrier garden this morning as part of the BBC filming. Luciano gots lots of coverage on the BBC Chelsea Flower Show programme last night so it looks as if they might be more to come over the next few days. In this photo, he is discussing the garden with Inge Grimsey, the Director General of the RHS.

The Judges arrive...

2009-05-18T13:01:00.005+01:00

I find that the only time I get really nervous at Chelsea is for the ten minutes before the Judges come round. It seems to bring together all the energy and work that has gone into the garden over the last year and focus it on just a few minutes. Their decision means everything and it will only take a small mistake somewhere to make the difference between a Gold and a Silver-Gilt medal. We will only find out tomorrow morning but it would be nice to be put out of our misery and to be told the result.

We say goodbye to our new friends from Sweden

2009-05-17T15:51:00.005+01:00

Chelsea is such an intense couple of weeks that friendships can be made or broken quite easily. We all get fairly tired and it doesn't take much for tempers to fray. But it has been a real pleasure to work with Ulf's colleagues. They have all come from various parts of Sweden and they have got really stuck in to the work. And I believe that they really enjoyed themselves. Some of them left today and it was a sad moment when we all had to say goodbye.

The BBC start filming

2009-05-17T15:25:00.002+01:00

We had Alan Titchmarsh and Joe Swift on the garden this morning. They were filming for the BBC which is likely to be shown this evening. It will be interesting to see what they have to say about the Telegraph and Laurent Perrier gardens. There were lots of film crews around today from all over the world but the main Press Day is tomorrow.

The Judging starts

2009-05-17T15:01:00.005+01:00

Most people focus on the judging that happens on Monday morning when the full collection (about 15 people) of judges go round the gardens. However, in my opinion, the assessing that happens on the Sunday (today) is the more important. The photo shows the three assessors (Andrew Wilson, Bunny Guiness and Tom Stuart-Smith)sheltering from the rain in Ulf's building. It is their recommendation to the full panel of judges that starts the whole process and culminates on Tuesday morning.

The rain comes and some gardens are not quite finished.....

2009-05-17T14:39:00.004+01:00

It had to come at some stage, but when it did, it really chucked it down. The rain hit the Flower Show hard this morning and we were lucky not to suffer any serious damage to the plants. The irises and paeonies are particularly vulnerable to wind and rain but they managed to survive. It certainly did not help the gardens that are still not finished.

The wind causes us some problems

2009-05-16T16:49:00.004+01:00

It has been very windy on site this morning and it has had quite an effect on some of the taller plants - especially the irises. However, the plants that could have suffered badly are the enormous eremurus joanna that we have been growing at the nursery. They normally don't flower until June/July time but we have been really pleased with their progress this year. Several of them are two metres tall and are looking magnificent. This will be the last plants that Ulf places today and then it's time to sweep up, tidy up all the beds and paths and then go and have a drink. The judging starts tomorrow morning so we shall have to see what happens.....

The Laurent Perrier garden gets finished

2009-05-16T16:39:00.003+01:00

We spent the morning putting the finishing touches to the Laurent Perrier garden. There always seems to be lots of little things to do but when the turf goes down around the garden you know that the end is in sight. You also know the end is in sight when the PR people and the film crews start arriving. We all have to go through this mental process of 'letting go'. It's actually quite hard - you work so hard to get the garden to where it is and then it's no longer yours. I have got quite used to it over the years but it still is quite a painful wrench.

The other Show Gardens

2009-05-16T16:16:00.002+01:00

I went round this morning and photographed all the other 11 show gardens. I have also included the description of each one that is on the RHS website. As you will see, quite a few of them are not finished! However, I thought that it was better to show you what they look like now. Tomorrow I will go round and photograph them when they are finished so you can get a feel for the final thing.

The QVC garden

2009-05-16T16:12:00.002+01:00

The RHS website describes this as:

Created for a couple who have rekindled their love of gardening after their children have left home, this personal space is full of romance and beauty - a place of contemplation and quiet away from everyday cares. Sheltered beneath the protection of field maples (Acer campestre), a seating area is furnished with timber benches around a fire pit and raised herb bed, conjuring up warm summer evenings spent lingering over an outdoor meal.

Surrounding this central point are gentle waves of grasses, astrantias and irises, dotted here and there with the romance of classic roses including ‘Gertrude Jekyll’ and ‘Winchester Cathedral’. Beneath the trees, ferns, foxgloves and cranesbills create a natural feel, and structural cubes of box scattered at random throughout the garden lend unity and rhythm to the planting. Twin waterfalls slip down the walls into rills, and paths of warm and inviting brick bridge the water and lead to relaxed seating set amongst the trees and woodland planting. To the rear, two stone walls bear lines from poems by Keats and Tennyson carved into the stone.

The Quilted Velvet Garden

2009-05-16T16:10:00.001+01:00

The RHS website describes this as:

The Quilted Velvet Garden, created by garden designer Tony Smith, brings to life Quilted Velvet’s message of a little bit of luxury every day.

The garden is based on a dream, taking the form of a long, arduous journey through the everyday world of work and domestic chores, eventually arriving at a place of comfort and luxury.

The foreground invites the onlooker into a sunken bed of lavender busy Lizzies, punctuated by rising stepping stones winding around a central seating area filled with oversized quilted cushions which provide a haven of comfort to reflect Quilted Velvet’s softness.

A raised area behind the protective purple slate walls creates a strong contrast with this softness, densely planted with spiky yuccas, palms and cordylines, while the surrounding asymmetric walls create varied perspectives into the garden.

The design is completed by three cypress trees standing between the stepping stones in the garden, with just one tree appearing behind them. This reflects Quilted Velvet’s commitment to ensure that three trees are replanted for every one it uses.

The Marshalls Living Street

2009-05-16T16:07:00.001+01:00

The RHS website describes this as:

This garden features a modern, urban street design where the community has embraced the theme of creating better landscapes for towns, cities, public spaces and private gardens.

Featuring the fascias of four contemporary terraced dwellings with garden frontage, each space reflects the residents’ diverse lifestyles, aspirations and practical needs, including a couple keen to maximise their space to ‘grow their own’ and a young family who need a parking space but have offset this by creating a stunning vertical garden.

Marshalls’ permeable paving system is also displayed. This allows rainfall to percolate directly into the subsoil rather than running off to drains. In one garden this is harvested to replenish its water feature.

In the street, ornamental pear trees are chosen for their pollution tolerance and long season of interest. Even the public paving is specially formulated to improve air quality. With its unique blend of components, Marshalls Noxer Paving makes it the greener choice to pave our streets, towns and cities.

After the show the entire garden will be donated to Living Streets, a charity campaigning to improve streetscapes across Britain.

The Perfume Garden

2009-05-16T16:04:00.001+01:00

The RHS website describes this as:

Four hundred years ago, Elizabeth I ordered a perfume to be specially created for her and the Perfume Garden represents an olfactory journey through time, from that earliest of perfumes to the modern day.

The journey starts in Grasse, south east France, where Elizabeth’s perfume was recreated with the help of Jean Patou, one of France’s oldest and best-known perfume houses. The development of perfume through the ages is traced from the plants used in this early scent combined with more modern ingredients.

Clipped conifers form the backbone of the garden, which sweep up and around a stainless steel shroud. This is the perfumery, where visitors can try the recreated perfume for themselves. Delicate spires burst from its heart and hold aloft petal-like canopies disguising photovoltaic cells and rainwater harvesting systems.

Every plant in the garden has a function in the creation of scent. Some are familiar, like Lavandula stoechas, but there are unexpected ingredients too, like the male fern, Dryopteris felix-mas, whose rhizomes yield an oil used in earthy, masculine fougère scents.

The HESCO Garden

2009-05-16T16:00:00.002+01:00

The RHS website describes this as:

Leeds City Council has brought a rain garden to Chelsea that focuses on raising awareness of the problems caused by flash flooding – a topical subject following our recent wet summers - and offers gardening solutions.

A recreation of a stone cottage stands in the shelter of a wooded, rocky bluff, complete with a typically rainy day - pulses of water running from the cottage roof through stormwater planters and down into the garden.

The bowl-shaped design directs surface water down into a main pond flanked by shallow overflow pools, planted with moisture-loving irises, hostas and Primula beesiana. Steel gabions produced by sponsors HESCO Bastion filled with reclaimed, locally-sourced stone are densely planted with ivy, making living walls which further absorb water.

Because rain gardens direct water away from certain parts of the garden, they can also create free-draining areas even in wet climates – and the lush, romantic planting capitalises on this, with geraniums, geums and aquilegias in relaxed, natural pastel tones.

Foreign & Colonial Investment's Garden

2009-05-16T15:57:00.001+01:00

The RHS website describes this as:

Wetland gardens are rarely seen at Chelsea, but here Tom Hoblyn has taken as his inspiration the bogs of both East Anglia and North Carolina in a garden celebrating one of the world’s most fragile habitats.

From a pool surrounded by trees rises a sloping bog garden featuring a mix of British and North Carolina native plants, many of which are rare and endangered. Bog oak, swamp cypress and pitcher plants are all highly specialised plants, here intermixed with successful British species such as spikerush and common rush. Collectively they highlight vulnerability versus adaptation in the plant world.

A stylised wave form undulates through the garden, reflecting the environmental and economic instability of a tumultuous world. Watching over this world is a female sculpture, representing idealised humanity poised to cope with and adapt to the waves of change. Much of the garden is made of recycled materials, with sheep’s wool furniture and both the wave form and boardwalk being made from a giant redwood that fell in a storm. After the show, the entire garden will be reconstructed within a 12-acre garden in Suffolk.

Eden Project - The Key

2009-05-16T15:54:00.001+01:00

The RHS website describes this as:

The Key garden is the product of a unique and ambitious collaboration between the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA), Communities and Local Government (CLG), the Eden Project, Homeless Link and the London Employer Accord (LEA).

Homeless people and prisoners around the country grew most of the 10,000 plants needed for the garden. The idea behind it is that it echoes the life journeys that people make. It is a catalyst for long-term change and ongoing work, by increasing employment prospects for the participants who have gained new life skills and training through their involvement in the project.

Designed by Paul Stone of the Eden Project with Architecture sans Frontières-UK, it highlights the work of Places of Change, an £80m capital improvement programme funded by CLG and managed by the HCA, which seeks to improve services for people who are homeless. It also reflects the support and involvement of the LEA to create greater work opportunities for homeless and excluded people.

The Key aims to be completely sustainable. All the materials used are from recycled or sustainable sources. After the show the garden will be broken down and re-used.

Cancer Research UK Garden

2009-05-16T15:51:00.001+01:00

The RHS website describes this as:

The design takes as its theme the notion of the continual impact Cancer Research UK has on the search to develop better ways to prevent, diagnose and treat the disease, and uses it to create a dynamic garden full of movement. At its epicentre is a sculpture by Simon Thomas, which appears to have crashed into a reflecting pool. The shockwaves ripple out into the garden, radiating across and from the water and spilling onto the paving and lawn. As they travel, they metamorphose from plant to stone and back again, and their sinuous curves are reflected in low stone walls layered through the planting.

The garden is dominated by multi-stemmed sumach (Rhus typhina), creating a canopy of dappled shade, below which richly-textured sculptural evergreens and groundcover plants are interspersed with grasses and perennials in pale shades of white, blue and yellow. It may be playful, but this garden has a practical side. The ‘ripples’ have a secondary purpose as urban drainage, and the small lawn is planted not with high-maintenance grass, but with Leptinella squalida, a tiny herb from New Zealand.

The Canary Islands Spa Garden

2009-05-16T15:48:00.002+01:00

The RHS website describes this as:

Inspired by the rugged volcanic peaks and bizarre endangered flora of the Canary Island archipelago, this garden invites visitors to rediscover the forgotten face of this remote island chain.

This thoroughly modern garden is designed to be set within the collapsed crater of an extinct island volcano. At its heart lies a moated pavilion, which houses a thermal spa fed by naturally-heated spring water that rises up from deep within the crater. Here rough, black volcanic rock flanks sheets of thermal water, all surrounded by lush exotic planting. Cascades at the rear of the pavilion create an open-air spa shower, with a mineral jacuzzi lying sunken within the moat.

Embracing local plants and materials, the garden aims to contrast hefty blocks of volcanic hard landscaping, with exuberant naturalistic vegetation - including several endangered island species that are found nowhere else on earth - to create an unashamedly escapist retreat as unexpected as the islands themselves.

The Barakura English garden

2009-05-16T15:45:00.001+01:00

The RHS website describes this as:
Kay Yamada, who in 1990 opened the first authentic English garden in Japan (Barakura English Garden), has designed a garden which fuses English and Japanese gardening styles. It commemorates the 150th anniversary of the Treaty of Amity and Commerce between Japan and Britain. The garden is also part of the ‘Japan-UK150’ events relating to this anniversary. The fusion between the two countries is achieved through the use of indigenous Japanese plants planted in an English style, together with a pair of Japanese traditional ‘Sui-Kin-Kutsu’(water harp caves) which create beautiful echoing sounds. Inscribed in the white sand is a ‘Seikaiha’, a wave crest pattern, often found on kimonos and in Japanese art, this is echoed on tiles. Gilded glass ornaments float on the gentle stream.

Ark Design Management Garden

2009-05-16T15:41:00.002+01:00

The RHS website describes this garden as:

This garden presents a number of practical solutions that can be used to create a new type of drought-resistant urban garden especially suited to underutilised city spaces. Its central message is, that by using a combination of any of the garden’s features coupled with careful plant selection, anybody, using simple planting methods and avoiding irrigation except with stored rain water, can create a colourful and naturalistic garden. It aims to both help alleviate pressure on the urban drainage infrastructure in wet weather and maximize the use of water during increasingly dry summer months.

Key features of the garden include: a green roof to help reduce surface water runoff as well as enhancing biodiversity; storm water planters and pools to retain water from the roof; a living tower holding drought-resistant plants; butterfly mounds and insect towers stocked with colourful but drought-resistant planting that provide wildlife habitats in a brownfield environment.

Tea time at Laurent Perrier

2009-05-15T21:02:00.007+01:00

To celebrate finishing the garden, we gave Luciano a cake today, decorated in the colours of the Italian flag! Spirry finished the work on the paving and the team cleaned out the water features and got them running exactly how they should. However, we did have a last minute panic with the sculpture. It has been lent to us by the artist, Nigel Hall. It is worth tens of thousands of pounds and one of the people working on the garden put a sponge, dipped in mild acid, on the sculpture which had the effect of removing the patina on the circle. Not good at all but luckily Andrew and the team found a soultion. A typical last day Chelsea panic. The last photo is of the team that built the garden - Terry, Graham, Mark and Garry.

More Chelsea faces

2009-05-15T20:09:00.006+01:00

This is probably the last of the 'Chelsea faces' for this year. Graham is relaxing admiring his work. Also, I have been told that I have to put my photo on the blog. So it seems only appropriate that I am pictured doing what I do most of the time - leaning against a trolley of plants.

Laurent Perrier garden is nearly finished

2009-05-15T12:56:00.003+01:00

Luciano and the team have done a great job and have nearly finished the planting. It is looking so peaceful and the colours all seem to blend in well. I meant to put lots of photos up on the blog last night but I left my laptop behind (shows how tired I have become!) so I apologise for not doing more. I will put lots up tonight.

The Three Degrees

2009-05-13T23:53:00.004+01:00

When I last wrote about Spirry and Vicki, I called them our answer to the Sugar Babes. But the team has grown with the arrival of singer song-writer, Megan. So it seems only right that they should be the Three Degrees. They are looking relaxed after finishing a major section of planting in Luciano's garden. The plan is to finish the last major section tomorrow. Although this is quite early, we have looked at the weather forecast and it's no fun planting in the rain. So, if we can finish tomorrow, then we have a couple of days to do the final changes and it lets the plants get established and looking natural.

Tea time

2009-05-13T23:37:00.003+01:00

The team have taken over one of the trade stands for our tea breaks. No doubt the people who have rented the trade stand will turn up soon but for the meantime it is a convenient place to relax. We took delivery of some of Ulf's furniture today. It looks wonderful against the backdrop of the building.

Ulf's interview with the Telegraph

2009-05-13T12:14:00.003+01:00

Jess Salter, from the Telegraph, came to site yesterday to interview Ulf about progress. You can see the full interview by clicking on the link below.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/gardening/chelseaflowershow/5314786/Final-touches-made-to-The-Telegraphs-Chelsea-Flower-Show-2009-garden.html

Cleaning up

2009-05-13T08:52:00.006+01:00

We aim to fill the pool on Wednesday night so we have been busy cleaning in side the steel structure. We have a photographer coming down on Thursday morning so we need to get it looking as good as possible. Some of the garden is looking nearly complete with Ulf and his team working hard.

Pleased with their day's work

2009-05-13T08:46:00.004+01:00

Spirry and Graham are looking rather pleased with themselves after their day's work. Spirry has been planting the grasses while Graham has been clipping the buxus hedge. Dont forget that you can click on the photos to enlarge them.

The evening light on the Laurent Perrier garden

2009-05-13T08:41:00.003+01:00

Just as we were about to go home last night, the sun cast some wonderful shadows over the LP garden. Andrew Ewing commissioned the water features and the whole garden started to look like a finished job. There is still a lot of work to do but you can get a good feel for how it will look in the end. The irises and paeonies arrived today as well although we probably won't plant them immediately if the forecast is right and the rain is on its way.

The Cornus makes it and the Telegraph planting is already half done

2009-05-13T08:36:00.003+01:00

After many weeks of wondering if the Cornus would flower in time for Chelsea, I am pleased to say that they are looking great. Some of you came to our open day a few weeks ago and would have seen the Cornus in one of our glasshouses as a way of trying to force them on. It seems to have done the trick and they now form an important structural part of the garden. Ulf seems happy enough getting stuck into the planting!

Luciano and the team get planting

2009-05-13T08:30:00.005+01:00

We expected rain yesterday but it was fine for most of the day and we got started on the planting for Laurent Perrier. Luciano is keen to only use a small number of varieties in order to keep it clean and simple. Sometimes we have to resort to fairly drastic measures in order to get the plants - hence Vicki is using a saw to cut a plant in half!

Leif finishes the building

2009-05-11T18:11:00.005+01:00

Leif and Lars have been working hard on finishing the building at the centre of the garden. Lars was supposed to fly back to Sweden a couple of days ago but Ulf has refused to let him go! But they are nearly done now with Leif just putting the finishing touches to the paintwork. The glass is in and will need some serious cleaning but it won't be long before the furniture and Arts & Crafts arrive.

Here come the girls.....

2009-05-11T18:04:00.003+01:00

Here are our equivalent of the Sugar Babes - Spirry and Vicki. They have been working with us at Chelsea for the last five years and usually work with Tom Stuart-Smith. However, he is having a rest this year so they are helping Luciano with his planting. Although the grasses have been picked over at the nursery, they are giving them another check before being planted. As you can see, there are a lot of them. The planting in the Laurent Perrier garden will start in earnest tomorrow.

Luciano's sculpture

2009-05-11T18:00:00.004+01:00

Luciano's sculpture get unveiled today and looks wonderful. It is made of coreten and looks stunning against the travetine stone. The last big slabs of stone were also put in today so the serious planting starts tomorrow.

Ulf gets serious...

2009-05-11T17:55:00.003+01:00

There was a determined air about Ulf this morning. The first wave of plants started to arrive and he was determined to get stuck in. As each day goes by more and more Swedish horticulturalists arrive and it was gloves on, knees on the ground and plant, plant, plant. One of the problems of working at Chelsea is that all the show gardens are under a row of mature plane trees and at this time of year they throw off tons and tons of seed. It can get so bad that some people have to wear masks. It's not great for the plants either so we try and cover up some of them, like the pinus in the photo.

The team starts preparing the plants

2009-05-11T17:42:00.002+01:00

We have six days to go and we now move from the heavy construction side of building the garden to the planting bit. Pat and her team are working hard down at the Crocus nursery preparing all the plants. Each one (and there about 20,000 of them!) need to be checked and cleaned up before being sent to the show. The team were all working throughout the weekend and will be working long hours throughout this week, especially if the designers start changing their minds!

The other Show Gardens

2009-05-10T19:13:00.002+01:00

So far I have spent all the time talking about the two gardens that Crocus are building. However, there are another 11 show gardens. Please let me know if you would like to see some of the other gardens. If so, I will try and take some photos tomorrow and post them tomorrow night. You can get a full description about each garden from the RHS website.

Both gardens get ready for herbaceous planting

2009-05-10T19:04:00.003+01:00

We have a self-imposed rule that we have to start the shrub and herbaceous planting on the Monday - this gives us about 6 days before judging. Some gardens leave it until later but it's important that the plants have lots of time to get established. The longer they have, the more established and natural they look - leaves and flowers turn towards the sun and generally look happier. So today we spent most of the time tidying both gardens up and getting the planting beds ready. We had one last tree to plant in Ulf's garden. It was the cornus kousa that we had been leaving down at the nursery to try and force it on but it was time to get it to the show. We had already left it fairly late which meant that we had to do the last bit by hand and as you can see from the photo, it's not small. It took six of us to lift it and it's moments like this that I realise that I am getting a bit old for this game! The Laurent Perrier garden will also start planting tomorrow. We have a bit more paving to do but the planting team of Vicki and Spiranella arrive tomorrow, as do the firsat wave of plants.

The Laurent Perrier Sculpture arrives

2009-05-09T22:49:00.003+01:00

Luciano has arranged to have a dramatic work of art on the garden. It is designed by Nigel Hall and is made of coreten steel - a steel that is specifically designed to have a rust like finish. We spent the day trying to get it set exactly right on the travetine wall which was not that easy as it weighs about 85 kilos. It took most of the day but now looks wonderful. At the same time Andrew Ewing has been working on the three water features in the garden. Andrew has worked on many of our last gardens at Chelsea and has always produced very dramatic water features. This year will be no exception.

Laurent Perrier

2009-05-09T22:35:00.005+01:00

We are working hard on the LP garden to get as much finished as possible by Sunday so that we can start planting on Monday. It will be hard work getting it all finished but Graham finished the buxus planting today while Mark started the paving. The paving is from the same stone as the wall and will look lovely. It's difficult to describe what it looks like but my daughter Alice visited site today and said that it looked like the inside of a crunchy bar!

The ivy wall

2009-05-09T22:27:00.004+01:00

All around the back of the Telegraph garden there is an ivy wall set into the boundary wall. One of the challenges is to make it look established as quickly as possible, which is not easy given that we only have a week. But we have come up with a solution that do should the trick. We have used a metal frame into which ivies have been planted last year. We have kept the ivies in one of our polytunnels over winter and they have put on lots of growth. The first photo shows the ivy wall in the process of being installed while the second photo shows the metal frame we are using.

Father and Son at work

2009-05-09T22:21:00.002+01:00

Tony is the person responsible for building the Daily Telegraph garden and, as in previous years, his son Adam has come to help him. The malus tree that they are working on has just arrived from Sweden because our malus have flowered and are past their best. Luckily these trees had just been planted in someone's garden in Sweden and Ulf managed to persuade them that we needed them more than him. So they were sent over by aeroplane and will go back after the show.

Ulf has a change of heart....

2009-05-08T21:22:00.004+01:00

A very important aspect of any Chelsea garden is the Brief. It is written by the Designer and is a crucial part of the judging process. The Brief describes the concept behind the garden, what materials we are going to use and the type and style of planting. The judges will evaluate what we build against this Brief. One concern that Ulf had today is that we might be planting one of the trees in the wrong place. So after a few minutes of soul searching, we decide to change the position of one of the trees. That sounds simple enough but it is at the back of the garden and the tree weighs about a tonne and we no longer have a crane. Anyway, we will find a way - a challenge for tomorrow. We are on schedule so we can afford to spend some time getting it right. I have found over the years that the good designers, once they have an idea in their head, don't let it go - there is something in their eyes that tells you that they badly want it. We got on to the nursery immediately and they will start preparing the trees to come up in the afternoon. We are lucky that the Crocus nursery is so close to London. I don't think that we could do Chelsea if we wern't so close. The photos are of Ulf explaining his thinking behind the change. Fortunately we all get on well together so we smiled and got on with it!

The LP gardens takes shape

2009-05-08T19:58:00.005+01:00

As you might have gathered now, the Laurent Perrier garden is all about shape and form. Graham and the team have been busy planting and you can really get a feel for the atmospheric nature of the garden. Tonight the low sun really showed the garden off to its best potential and that's 10 days before judging!

More Chelsea faces

2009-05-08T19:43:00.008+01:00

The first photo is of Peter Harket. Pete is responsible for co-ordinating all aspects of both gardens - not an easy job. Luckily he worked out many years ago that the best way of organising anything is to write it down so he is always equipped with notepad and pen - and blackberry. He tells me that he has three batteries for his phone to keep him going throughout the day! Pete and I have worked together for many years and he realises the importance of sticking to a schedule, which is why some of our more wayward suppliers get hassled quite a lot by him! The second photo is of Simon. It's his first year with us and he had done a great job of surveying both gardens. As I have mentioned before, it's crucial that we accurately position everything in each garden so it's important that he has a clear head and get's it right.

The building takes shape

2009-05-08T19:28:00.003+01:00

It seems a long time ago that we were in a very cold village in Sweden looking at Ulf's timber structure for the garden. It is the latest variation of a design that he has been developing over the years and will look magnificent when it is complete. In true Swedish style, it all arrived flat packed but luckily we didn't have to try and read the instructions to put it together - the builder, Lars, seen waving his hand in the photo, has come over to put it all together. Leif is helping him and they should have it finished tomorrow.

The Travetine stone

2009-05-07T19:06:00.004+01:00

We have just started building a large wall at the end of the Laurent Perrier garden out of travetine stone. It's a remarkable stone and will look stunning. The structure we are building is steel and wood and we clad it with the stone. I have shown a close up of the stone because I think that it is so beautiful. Luciano came to site and seems very happy - he bought the team some cakes which always goes down very well.

Our crane!

2009-05-07T19:02:00.003+01:00

I have talked about the crane in the section below but I thought this photo gives a good idea of the size of the machine and how easy it makes moving two tonnes! Don't forget to click on the photo if you want to enlarge it.

The granite goes in by crane

2009-05-07T18:52:00.003+01:00

Yesterday was a really important day for us at the Telegraph garden. We had to position the granite slabs prior to building the timber and glass structure on top of them. Given that each slab weighed 400 kilos and had to be accurate to 4mm, then you can understand that we need a crane. But first we needed to prepare the base - as is so often the case, if you get the base right, the rest is made much easier. So we constructed a hardcore base with a sand covering and this formed the platform on which to lay the paving. As you can see from the photos, we took it very carefully. The interesting this is that the machine that we used to lift the granite is a vacuum. We position it over the slab, turn the vacuum on, and it's strong enough to hold 400 kilos. The crane does the rest of the work.

Luciano's hedging goes in

2009-05-07T18:42:00.007+01:00

We have been really busy on the Laurent Perrier garden. We need to finish the planting of the hedging by tomorrow in order to start the paving. Also, we have started building the stone wall at the end of the garden which forms the centre piece of the water feature. Lots to do but still time for Mark Osborne to have a cup of tea. Meanwhile his colleague Gary gets on with the work. The buxus plants need to go in level before Graham Hoyle clips them. If they don't go in straight, then the angular effect that Luciano is looking for will not be achieved.

Ulf visits the nursery

2009-05-07T18:34:00.003+01:00

Ulf took some time off site to visit the Crocus nursery and to make sure that all the plants were looking their best. We have a few concerns on some of the varieties but the cooler weather has helped slow some of the plants down. So far we have not had any major casualties but there is plenty of time yet1

The Water Feature gets craned in

2009-05-05T19:21:00.003+01:00

It was an important day on the Telegraph garden. The water tank that had been produced in Sweden arrived on site in the morning and we had arranged a crane to lower it into place. It's important that the tank is lowered at the right level - pretty much to the right millimetre. Luckily it all went to plan and the tank is happy in its new home. The rest of the day was spent connecting up all the pipes and pumps. One of the problems of working at Chelsea is that the mature plane trees at the back of the garden throws off lots of seed which float on the surface of any water feature and makes it look really messy. Last year we developed a really good system of filtering the water so we will be using that again this year.

Finishing touches to the Laurent Perrier Hornbeam

2009-05-05T19:16:00.003+01:00

Graham spent the morning clipping the hornbeam trees. We needed a cherry picker to get high enough. Whilst he was up there, he took a photograph of the garden - you can already see the structural elements of Luciano's design.

The Telegraph Garden - Bank Holiday Monday

2009-05-04T21:09:00.005+01:00

Although it was a Bank Holiday for most of the country today, you would have struggled to realise it at the Chelsea Flower Show. Everyone was working as normal and although it was windier and colder than the previous few days, we managed to make good progress. One of the time consuming tasks is to tie together the hornbeam espalier trees - we managed to persuade Ulf to do that job. We also got Leif and Tobias, who have come over from Sweden to help Ulf, to start work on the metal edging. It has all been manufactured in advance in Sweden and shipped over last week. The final photograph is of Tom - he has been helping us at Chelsea for the last few years - when he is not working at Chelsea he is a policeman!

Progress at Laurent Perrier

2009-05-04T20:00:00.008+01:00

It's taken a while but finally the Laurent Perrier carpinus trees are all in. The problem that Graham and his team faced is that carpinus (hornbeam) tend not to have straight trunks. So it makes it really difficult to get them all lined up. But now Lucinao has said that he is very happy with the way they look and we can now move on to the next thing to do in the garden. Tomorrow is a big day with the crane putting the large water feature stones in place. Pete Harket and Mark Osborne also managed to get the metal frame in place - this forms the structure for the stone wall that goes at the end of the garden. it's been quite a challenge to get the design exactly right. Given the weight of the stone involved, we can't risk having it falling over.

Ulf seems happy....

2009-05-03T17:52:00.005+01:00

Ulf visited site this morning to check on progress. We spent quite a lot of time going through his drawings to check where the trees are going and to make sure that the excavations for the pool are correct. The steel pool is being put in place on Tuesday by crane and it is vital that the work that we are doing now is correct. The first photo is of Ulf and Peter going through the drawings. Peter is responsible for co-ordinating all aspects of both gardens so plays a vital role in making sure that all people and materials turn up at the right time. Detail is everything. The second is of Ulf making some final alterations to his drawings and the third is of Tony(far left), Simon and Tobias. Tony is responsible for building the Telegraph garden while Simon is the surveyor for both gardens. If Simon gets his calculations wrong, we are in deep trouble! Tobias has recently arrived from Sweden and has worked closely with Ulf over the years on various projects. His experience with handling granite will be vital over the next few days.

Some of the Team

2009-05-03T17:35:00.007+01:00

Here are some of the team who are building the Telegraph and the Laurent Perrier Gardens. The first photo is of Les. Les likes machines. Les likes digging holes with his machine. As long as we are digging holes, Les is happy. The second is of Andy. Andy is working on the Telegraph garden and is spraying the recently rendered wall. One of the problems of the heat we are getting at Chelsea this year (nearly 20 degrees) is that the render is drying too quickly. This can result in cracking which is bad news so we spray it with water - that way it dries out more slowly. The final photo is of Terry, who is part of Graham's team building the Laurent Perrier garden. He is working on one of the water features in the garden.

The Laurent Perrier Trees

2009-05-03T17:27:00.003+01:00

I should have put these photos on the blog last night but I got home, had some dinner and a few glasses of wine, and fell fast asleep. Sorry! Anyway, progress has been good on the Laurent Perrier garden. The warm weather has really helped. Usually it is raining at this stage which really slows progress up but this year has been great. The challenge with the trees is to get them all lined up in a perfect row - easy in concept but not so easy in practice.

Ulf visits the Crocus Nursery

2009-05-01T12:43:00.003+01:00

Ulf came down today to look at all the plants and make sure that everything was coming along as planned. In addition to all the plants, we also have the granite and timber structure in the nursery which has just arrived from Sweden. As far as the plants are concerned, they are making good progress although so much depends on the weather over the next 10 days. Ulf's axiometric drawing shows what the garden will look like when it's finished.

The trees start to arrive at the Show

2009-05-01T12:31:00.004+01:00

The trees need to be very carefully packed in the trucks in order to avoid any kind of damage to the trunks or heads. Although the Crocus nursery is only just outside London, we have to be really careful in moving them. We always have a few spare trees just in case. It is Nicki's job (on the left) to unload them and Keith's job (on the right) to drive the trucks. Both have been working at Chelsea for many years.

Some Chelsea faces

2009-05-01T12:20:00.006+01:00

The first photo is of Graham Hoyle, who has been building gardens at the Chelsea Flower Show for over 30 years - we have lost count of the number of gold medal winning gardens he has worked on. The second shows Gary (holding the staff) and Mark Osborne. They work with Simon, the surveyor, and use the laser and staff to get the levels absolutely right before pouring the concrete. If the base is right, then the construction of the pools should be reasonably straightforward. The final photo shows Alex Baulkwill and Paula. Alex (on the left) is the Show Manager - if she tells us to do something, we stand to attention and do what we are told!

Day 2 at the Show

2009-05-01T11:57:00.002+01:00

We were threatened with lots of rain today but we managed to escape it. As a result, we got a lot done and we are nicely on track. Both gardens are taking shape with the wall going up in the Telegraph garden and the hedging going in at the back of the Laurent Perrier garden.

Luciano's Axiometric Drawing of the Laurent Perrier Garden

2009-05-01T11:54:00.003+01:00

The axiometric drawing gives you a really good idea of what we are trying to achieve with the Laurent Perrier garden. You can see the importance of shape and form in his garden amd how the quality of the trees and the hedging will be critical to achieve the end result.

Other Photos of Day 1 at Chelsea

2009-04-29T20:36:00.007+01:00

Most people only get to see the Chelsea Flower Show when it is finished and open to the public. So I thought that I would include some photos of what the site looks like during the build-up. I will include quite a few photos like this over the next few days. If you click on the photo, you can enlarge it.

Day 1 at Chelsea

2009-04-29T19:45:00.005+01:00

The sun shone and we started on site for the first day. The first thing we always do on the first day is to set up our shed - without a shed we can't make a cup of tea! Most of the morning was spent setting out the two gardens. This can be quite a time consuming process but it's really important that the key dimensions of the garden are accurately marked out. If you don't get it right at the start of the show then it can create lots of problems for you later on down the line. By the afternoon we were starting to place out the large taxus that are going at the back of Luciano's garden. We also starting building the wall in Ulf's garden. Ulf is flying in tonight from Sweden and will be coming done to the nursery first thing to check on the plants. Luciano came to site and seemed very happy with the taxus hedge. We had a last minute change from the original plan of having a hornbeam hedge but he felt that it was too tall. Luckily we had some taxus hedge left over from another project so we were able to make a last minute change. It's always important to have aback-up plan!

Luciano's Travetine stone arrives from Italy

2009-04-28T19:11:00.005+01:00

Luciano's garden will be characterised by simple, clean and symmetrical design. The hard landscaping will be mainly a wonderful travetine stone from his home coutnry of Italy. The photograph shows Luciano and the quarry manager inspecting a magnificent block of stone that will form the centre piece of one of the water features. In order to position it we will need to move it by crane - very carefully.

It's raining so it must be Chelsea...

2009-04-27T14:28:00.006+01:00

Luciano came to visit us today to go through the final details for the garden. We also started loading the plants for his garden in anticipation of starting on site on Wednesday. After the beautiful weather we have been having recently, it was slightly inevitable that it should start raining on our first day but we are very used to it. Last year we had torrential rain on our first day.

Will the Cornus flower in time???

2009-04-24T13:45:00.012+01:00

One of the big challenges for the Daily Telegraph garden is to try and get the Cornus Kousa in full flower by the time the judges come round on the 18th May. Cornus tend to come into flower in June or even July, depending on the weather. So in order to push it forward, we have got the two Cornus in one of our glasshouses. The photograph shows that the bract (it may look like a flower but it actually is a bract) is quite well developed but is still very green. Although this warm weather is really helping in pushing things forward, it be will touch and go whether it comes out in its full glory by the 18th. The second photogarph shows what it needs to look like!

2009-04-23T13:46:00.003+01:00

The hot weather over the last week has really brought on the plants - a bit faster than we had expected. We are busily moving plants out of the polytunnels into the shade areas. There is about an 8 degree difference in temperature and the shade cuts out most of the sunlight. Hopefully this will slow them down enough to keep them in flower over the next few weeks.

Horticultural Espionage!

2009-04-23T08:55:00.003+01:00

If anyone tells you that gardening people are not driven, competitive beasts, then I suggest you don't believe them! Last Saturday we had an Open Day at Crocus. It's an opportunity for people to look round the nursery, buy lots of plants and to see what we are preparing for this year's Chelsea Flower Show. The sun shone and we were amazed by the number of people who turned up - well over a 1,000.
During the day Mark Straver and I gave a series of guided tours around the nursery showing people around the Chelsea Tunnels. Out of the corner of one eye I saw the designer of one of the Chelsea Show Gardens (not one that we are working with) having a good snoop around the tunnels trying to find out what we are growing for Ulf and Luciano. Given that I know the person quite well, I was quite surprised that they did not come up and say hello! Garden designers up to dirty tricks - whatever next!!

Ulf's first truck arrives from Sweden

2009-04-20T15:54:00.003+01:00

Despite the best attempts by the French fishermen who have been blockading Calais and other ports, Ulf's first truck arrived from Sweden. On it was the metal frame for the pool structure. Weighing over 3 tonnes, we needed to use a crane to unload it and position it on one of our own trucks, ready to go to Chelsea next week.

The Telegraph's Interview with Crocus's Mark Fane

2009-04-17T16:19:00.003+01:00

Cassandra Jardine interviewed Mark Fane, the person at Crocus responsible for building the gardens at Chelsea and described him as the Control Freak's Control Freak!

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/gardening/chelseaflowershow/5130187/Chelsea-Flower-Show-2009-Meet-the-master-builder.html

The Daily Telegraph's article about our trip to Sweden

2009-04-17T16:13:00.002+01:00

Jessica Salter joined us on our trip to Sweden and in this article she describes the work that has been going on in Sweden in preparation for Chelsea this year.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/gardening/chelseaflowershow/5061590/Chelsea-Flower-Show-2009-Counting-down-to-gardenings-big-week.html

The warm weather brings the plants on

2009-04-17T16:06:00.006+01:00

Ulf visited us this week to go through the last few details of the garden and to see how the plants are growing. The warm weather over the last few weeks has pushed the plants on well with some of them being put into the shade tunnels to slow them down.

Luciano's plants arrive

2009-03-21T12:56:00.007Z

The cold weather and snow in Europe has delayed the arrival of the taxus and buxus plants for Luciano's garden. The plants are shipped on pallets and then containerised in the nursery by us. Luciano's garden has a taxus hedge around the outside with various lines of buxus running alongside the taxus.

The Laurent Perrier Garden

2009-03-18T13:58:00.007Z

This is going to be our 10th garden for Laurent Perrier. This year we are working with Luciano Giubbiliei who has designed a fantastic garden around the theme of Composure & Seduction.

The intent of the design of the garden is to show how a spatial arrangement can evoke a certain state of calmness and how the elements that make up the garden can invite and seduce the viewer to enter and experience the space.

The garden explores the theme of composure through its linear design, symentry and proportion, while the layout reveals its seductive quality through its strong sense of orientation.

www.lucianogiubbilei.com

Adventures in Sweden

2009-03-14T11:23:00.007Z

We have just got back from 2 very cold days in Sweden with Ulf Nordfjell, the designer of the Telegraph Garden. We flew to Goteborg and then travelled along the coast to Lysekil. The stone for the garden is coming from this wonderful granite quarry which looks more like a James Bond film set than a quarry. The tractors in the photo can pick up a 50 tonne piece of stone! The paving slabs are cut in the quarry and weigh 400 kilos each.