Build-up news
Post categories: Sally Nex
| 12:58 UK time, Sunday, 18 May 2008
Arriving at the Chelsea showground, less than 24 hours before its official opening, it's hardly possible to believe that all those crates of plants, teetering piles of compost, beeping tipper trucks and lines of people painstakingly trimming tulips in the Great Pavilion will have magically vanished by this time tomorrow.
Down Main Avenue, where most of the show gardens are, it feels like the day before exams. Some lucky designers have pretty much done all they can do and are starting to slope off for a chat with their mates (and a sneak peek at the opposition) - Cleve West is going around looking remarkably chipper, and I noticed Tom Stuart Smith smiling serenely, looking supremely calm and in control (mind you, I don't think anyone's seen him otherwise).
Others are in flat-out panic mode. The Flemings Trailfinders Australian Garden is frantic - with lots of intricately-planned hard landscaping, this year capturing the spirit of Australia in burnt ochre, it was always going to go up to the wire. You know you're at Chelsea, though, when you find yourself watching a muscle-bound Australian bloke, complete with wraparound shades, polishing a table to mirror-like perfection with a chamois leather.
The finished gardens are emerging now, though, and everyone's trying to second-guess which are in line for medals - and of course Best-in-Show. Word is that this year will be a clash of the Titans, between Arabella Lennox-Boyd's understated masterpiece for the Daily Telegraph, and Tom Stuart Smith's assured performance next door.
The finished gardens are emerging now, though, and everyone's trying to second-guess which are in line for medals - and of course Best-in-Show. Word is that this year will be a clash of the Titans, between Arabella Lennox-Boyd's understated masterpiece for the Daily Telegraph, and Tom Stuart Smith's assured performance next door.
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