They say the sun shines on the righteous – which is why, in defiance of the forecast, the weather stayed dry and the tube strike was called off for the day that the Garden Visits and Explore London Groups joined together to visit Chelsea in Bloom.
Produced by Cadogan, in association with the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS), the world class alternative floral art show sees the streets of Chelsea transformed breathtaking displays made of fresh flowers, this years theme being “Out of this World”.
Whilst time prevented us from seeing all the exhibits, by concentrating on the Sloane Square and Kings Road areas, we did manage to see the vast majority.
Some were spectacular, other less so – the Lloyds Bank “Black Horse” oozed personality, whilst it seems M&S didn’t get the message with a rather lack lustre garland around the main door in which some of the flowers were already (on day 3 of the event) rather the worse for wear.
We saw five of the six “central displays”, our favourites being The Mythical Dragon and the Floral Globe – the latter being a tribute to David Attenborough as he celebrates his 100th birthday.
Many of the exhibits referenced the nature of the business – the space rocket made out of cooking pots at David Mellor and the vegetable “planets” at Whole Foods and the aforementioned black horse. being examples.
The standard was high and we found ourselves becoming a little “picky” when we felt that corners had been cut, but equally there were displays with amazing attention to detail such at the Mermaid at Les Nereides.
Although most of the designs were by professional designers, it was a joy to see the contributions from the pupils of Holy Trinity Primary School – a unicorn, dragon, Pegasus and Medusa were among the creations that they helped to create with the aid of a local florist and which were proudly displayed in the hedge of the school grounds.
