Chelsea Flower Show episode 14 2021: Sophie Raworth and Joe Swift celebrate the end of a wonderful week at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show. They reveal the winner of the BBC RHS People’s Choice Award 2021, Arit Anderson shares some top design tips from the showground, and Joe takes a look at the new plants everyone will want in their gardens in 2022.
The world-famous show is normally held in May, but this year it was delayed due to coronavirus restrictions. Holding it in the autumn means the show will have a different look, featuring blooms such as asters and dahlias, trees full of fruit and berries, grasses and seed-heads, and autumn bulbs such as nerines.
Chelsea Flower Show episode 14 2021
The first Royal Horticultural Society Great Spring Show was held in 1862, at the RHS garden in Kensington. Before this date the RHS had held flower shows from 1833 in their garden in Chiswick, which themselves had been preceded by fetes. The Kensington Garden was chosen as a site because the flower shows in Chiswick were experiencing falling visitor numbers due to problems such as poor transport links. The Great Spring Show was held at Kensington for twenty-six years but in 1888 the RHS decided to move the show to the heart of London.
The site chosen was the Temple Gardens, situated between the Embankment and Fleet Street, which had a recorded history dating back to 1307 and which were said to date from the time of the Knights Templar. The roses for which these Temple Gardens were famous were alluded to in Shakespeare’s Henry VI Part 1.
Highlights to the Chelsea Flower Show include the avant-garde show gardens designed by leading names with Floral Marquee at the centrepiece. The Show also features smaller gardens such as the Artisan and Urban Gardens.
The RHS Chelsea Flower Show, formally known as the Great Spring Show, is a garden show held for five days in May by the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) in the grounds of the Royal Hospital Chelsea in Chelsea, London. Held at Chelsea since 1912, it is the most famous flower and landscape gardens show in the United Kingdom, and perhaps in the world. The show is attended by members of the British Royal Family and attracts visitors from all continents.