No comparisons please
Post categories: Louise Danks
| 11:46 UK time, Friday, 27 June 2008
It always seems unfair to compare anything, but I often hear people doing just that with The Chelsea Flower Show and The Hampton Court Palace Flower Show "Oh I prefer Hampton because..." or "Chelsea is far superior to Hampton because..."
I found myself guilty of this at the weekend when someone asked me which show I liked best. I ended up talking myself round in circles, listing the things I love about both shows and in the end I hadn't answered the question at all! Very unhelpful.
Hampton's setting is beautiful and it is lovely to have a little more space to enjoy the stunning Show Gardens, you have the added bonus of the Water Garden category and the fairly new and often controversial Conceptual Gardens, not forgetting the gorgeously executed Small Gardens. I sometimes think it must be harder to distil a garden's spirit into such a small space than to design a Show Garden, but then, does a larger space equal more stress (there I go again, talking myself round in circles!)? Having never created a garden for a horticultural show I can't answer that, maybe one day...
My downfall at Hampton is the fact that you can buy plants, at any time. You don't have to wait for the bell like you do at Chelsea. There's still the big sell off of the gardens and the floral marquees but there are nurseries selling tempting morsels at every turn. This year I have a very valid excuse, I literally HAVE to buy plants because now I have my own garden, perfect, no one can argue with that surely?
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