Chelsea Flower Show episode 8 2022: Monty Don and Joe Swift take a look at the smaller gardens of the Chelsea Flower Show. Carol Klein reveals the winner of the Platinum Jubilee Award, the biggest award in the Great Pavilion.
Nick Bailey showcases the new plants launched at Chelsea that we will all want to buy for our gardens, and in a special look back into the archives, Rachel de Thame reveals how gardening tastes and trends have changed at Chelsea since the beginning of the Queen’s reign in 1952.
Chelsea Flower Show episode 8 2022
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.
