At four o’clock yesterday afternoon, the oldest Chelsea Pensioner rang the bell, and exhibitors at the flower show began to sell off plants and stock which they didn’t want to take home.
A canny gardener snaps up a bargain
Our Transit of Venus garden is going back to New Hall to be re-erected in the college gardens, so we were amused observers of this bargain-hunting phenomenon. Contrary to the usual media hype, it wasn’t anything like mayhem; indeed, orderly queues formed at the stands of rose and delphinium growers as visitors patiently waited to negotiate prices with the nurserymen.
Sometimes, it was hard to see why anyone would bother to pay for wilting cut tulips, say, but there were plenty of canny gardeners after perennials and bulbs in pots, particularly lilies, standard fuchsias and other expensive flowers. For those with real ambition, who took away tall plants like delphiniums, there were tricky moments as they negotiated the turnstiles at Sloane Square Tube station or climbed into a double-decker bus, and I imagine many plants were the worse for wear by the time they got home.
I was left with a feeling of mild melancholy that the enormous communal effort which put this remarkable show together in the three weeks before it opened last Tuesday, should then be directed at pulling it down in a matter of hours on Saturday night and Sunday. But there we are.
Our New Hall team have had a wonderful few days, as the public stood several rows deep to look at the garden, and we had the chance to explain to many what a transit of Venus was, and why it was historically important. They responded so positively to Sue Goss’ design, it was a pleasure to see.
I can’t deny that I was also extremely gratified at how popular the ‘prismatic’Â planting was, which it had been my job to devise and plant. With so much purple and dark colours around at Chelsea this year, the rainbow planting was invigoratingly different, and literally brilliant when the sun shone. Perhaps the best thing of all, however, was the way that this garden brought together a number of people involved with the college – the gardeners, the College Office, the Development Office, the Fellowship, present students, and alumnae (‘old girls’ to you and me), in a collaborative and successful project.
Vignettes stand out:Â Philip Heywood packing up the plants at New Hall so beautifully for dispatch to Chelsea, Peter Kirkham taking the utmost care to see that the grasses were trimmed of all dead leaves, Liz Pearson, the College secretary, deploying the troops for duties during the week with great aplomb and skill, Dr Owen Saxton, the Senior Tutor, explaining parallax to intrigued and receptive show visitors, the President, Anne Lonsdale, cheerfully doing her stint handing out leaflets wearing a stylish straw hat, and Steph Le Chevalier of Specialist Aggregates (another alumna of the college), who gave the beautiful white Jura limestone mulch and crushed shells, arriving to see how they looked on the garden.
Now comes the fun task of re-creating the garden at New Hall …
