{"id":144491,"date":"2024-05-22T21:50:28","date_gmt":"2024-05-22T14:50:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/property-news\/romans-in-togas-shepherds-in-saunas-and-the-bridgerton-garden-in-bloom-my-wild-day-at-chelsea-flower-show\/"},"modified":"2024-05-22T21:57:01","modified_gmt":"2024-05-22T14:57:01","slug":"romans-in-togas-shepherds-in-saunas-and-the-bridgerton-garden-in-bloom-my-wild-day-at-chelsea-flower-show","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/property-news\/romans-in-togas-shepherds-in-saunas-and-the-bridgerton-garden-in-bloom-my-wild-day-at-chelsea-flower-show\/","title":{"rendered":"Romans in togas, shepherds in saunas and the Bridgerton garden in bloom \u2026 my wild day at Chelsea flower show"},"content":{"rendered":"


\nHas architecture taken over the bloom bonanza? Our critic finds an elfin treehouse, a pixie grotto, a Roman villa and a \u00a3160,000 shepherd\u2019s hut (with spa) now competing with the delphiniumsA gigantic Chinese dragon made of gnarled chunks of driftwood towers over a display of bog plants, puffing steam from its nostrils and clutching a ceramic pearl that gushes with water. Nearby, men dressed in togas patrol the courtyard of a pretend Roman villa, where simulated rain pours into the garden from a pantiled roof. Around the corner, a waterfall cascades down an artificial rock face, creating an arresting backdrop to a display of luxury outdoor sofa cushions.
\n Welcome to the RHS Chelsea flower show, a surreal phenomenon that has gone from an annual fair of prized blooms to a multimillion-pound Disneyfied spectacular, where the flowers now struggle to hold their own against ever more elaborate pieces of set design.
\n Every year, in the space of just three weeks, the grounds of Christopher Wren\u2019s Royal hospital in London are transformed into an unrecognisable wonderland of horticultural fantasies. It is a place where elfin treehouses compete for attention with pixie grottos, and sculpted clay stupas loom above moss-encrusted ruins. It feels like wandering around a themed food court, with Moroccan tiled courtyards jostling with Japanese bridges, thatched Burmese stilt houses vying with Welsh dry-stone walls. The cuisine on offer might not be as international, but you can wash down the global garden safari with a \u00a315 Pimm\u2019s.Begun in 1913, in a modest marquee, the Chelsea flower show has mushroomed into a town-sized endeavour. It has become a festival of terraforming as much as flowers, seeing more than 2,000 tonnes of soil moved around the 11-acre site each year, and hundreds more tonnes of rocks, concrete, trees and scenery trucked in from miles around \u2013 all for just five days of floricultural theatre. Now, for the first time, this year there is a \u201cgreen medal\u201d for the garden with the lowest carbon footprint, which feels a bit like holding an exhibition of bonfires, then awarding a prize to the one that produces the least smoke. Continue reading…
\n
\nSource : theguardian.com
\nRead more…Romans in togas, shepherds in saunas and the Bridgerton garden in bloom \u2026 my wild day at Chelsea flower show<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Has architecture taken over the bloom bonanza? Our critic finds an elfin treehouse, a pixie...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-144491","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-property-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p75ss1-BAv","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":126825,"url":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/property-news\/beaver-themed-rewilding-garden-wins-chelsea-flower-show-top-prize\/","url_meta":{"origin":144491,"position":0},"title":"Beaver-themed rewilding garden wins Chelsea flower show top prize","date":"May 24, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"\r Unconventional garden by Lulu Urquhart and Adam Hunt features a dam and sticks pre-gnawed by beaversA garden with hardly a bloom in sight and inspired by the dramatic transformation of land through the reintroduction of beavers to the UK has won best in show at the Chelsea flower show.The\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Property News"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":107269,"url":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/property-news\/hi-tech-gardens-bloom-at-londons-chelsea-flower-show\/","url_meta":{"origin":144491,"position":1},"title":"Hi-tech gardens bloom at London\u2019s Chelsea Flower Show","date":"May 19, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"\r 3D printed soil, urban farming and artificial intelligence will all make an appearance at this year\u2019s eventWeed is not a word often associated with the immaculate gardens of the Chelsea flower show. But with hydroponics and urban farming making grand appearances at this year\u2019s event, it will be on\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Property News"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":14106,"url":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/property-news\/thousands-of-crocheted-poppies-on-display-at-chelsea-flower-show-video\/","url_meta":{"origin":144491,"position":2},"title":"Thousands of crocheted poppies on display at Chelsea flower show \u2013 video","date":"May 23, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"\r Some 300,000 handmade poppies are on display at the Chelsea Flower Show, in honour of the armed forces. Installed in front of the Royal Hospital, the individually crocheted poppies cover almost 2,000sq m [21,000sq ft]. The designer behind the display is Phillip Johnson, winner of Best Show Garden in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Property News"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":137095,"url":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/property-news\/weed-spliced-concrete-block-at-flower-show-highlights-green-space-disparities-in-chelsea\/","url_meta":{"origin":144491,"position":3},"title":"Weed-spliced concrete block at flower show highlights green space disparities in Chelsea","date":"May 22, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"\r Smallest every display aims to provide \u2018visual representation of the stark reality of inequality\u2019Alongside displays of bright flowers and cutting-edge garden design, visitors at this year\u2019s Chelsea flower show will find an exhibition featuring native weeds and plants.The display, which is part of the smallest garden ever shown at\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Property News"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":150034,"url":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/property-news\/in-full-bloom-fashionable-fun-at-melbourne-international-flower-and-garden-show\/","url_meta":{"origin":144491,"position":4},"title":"In full bloom: fashionable fun at Melbourne International Flower and Garden Show","date":"March 31, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"\r Petal patterns, purple paisleys and swirls of green leaves were in abundance at the annual Floral Fridays eventGet our weekend culture and lifestyle emailAt the Royal Exhibition Building in Carlton on Friday, flowers were in the air, on display and worn by thousands of people for the Melbourne International\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Property News"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":147498,"url":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/property-news\/talk-to-your-plants-now-the-first-ai-powered-garden-will-allow-them-to-talk-back\/","url_meta":{"origin":144491,"position":5},"title":"Talk to your plants? Now the first AI-powered garden will allow them to talk back","date":"October 25, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"\r Collaboration between leading garden designer and Microsoft to go on display at Chelsea flower show 2025Hardcore gardeners sometimes, when no one else is listening, talk quietly to their prize blooms. But at next year\u2019s Chelsea flower show, visitors will be encouraged to have a chat with its first ever\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Property News"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144491"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=144491"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144491\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=144491"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=144491"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=144491"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}