JULY TALK REPORT

– Andrea Benn

Saturday 16 July, our AGM: David Davidson, designer of the SA stand at the Chelsea Flower Show, spoke about his experience at the Show.

July talk

The annual Chelsea Flower Show, organised by the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS), was held in May this year in the lovely grounds of the Chelsea Pensioners Hospital. These attractive brick buildings were designed by Christopher Wren and this year were enhanced by many thousands of individually knitted red poppies displayed on both sides of the road leading to the Hospital. The poppies were knitted and crocheted by people in New Zealand.

The highlight for us Overstanders was the SA Exhibit designed by David Davidson and Ray Hudson depicting our own Harold Porter Gardens in the Kogelberg Biosphere Reserve. Before showing us the actual exhibit, David took us on a pictorial tour of the Show.

The Chelsea Flower Show has something for everyone who enjoys plants and sometimes gets their hands dirty. Outside are the main plant gardens where top-class designers endeavoured to represent this year’s theme of Greening Grey Britain for Health, Happiness and Horticulture. More than 1200 people have already pledged to plant up an area of grey to green, helping the RHS to reach its target of 6000 promises by the end of 2017.

Several designers used their plant palettes to pay tribute to geographical areas remembered from childhood. There was a garden from Yorkshire, a Jurassic Park, a dry plant habitat from Jordan, and a stream and boulders evoking a scene from Exmoor. These gardens were placed on the original flat lawned area, so creating height and depth became a real challenge. The British Eccentrics garden needed both for their revolving flower beds and box balls that bobbed up and down!

The main theme was continued in the small courtyard gardens. A Garden Bed showed how easy it is to move a hospital bed into a garden space. The Meningitis Now Futures Garden had five 3D wooden sculptures of young people whose lives have been changed by their meningitis experience. The prize winner was the Garage Garden, housing a small, real-life Mini with stairs and roof planted up, a small seating area and a vertical waterfall.

Most exciting was seeing our own Kogelberg with stunning coastal road, Leopard’s Kloof Waterfall on screens and the arrangements of proteas, ericas, restios and some bulbs that brought ooh’s and wow’s of wonderment from the numerous visitors. Some were so keen that they asked, “Is it real?”, “When can we visit?”, and “Can we grow them here?” – reflecting their amazement at our beautiful exhibit.

We have much to be grateful for in this tiny Biosphere. I am glad that the Chelsea visitors did not get to see the invasive aliens like acacia, New Zealand Christmas trees, myrtle and others that are choking our indigenous plants.

The talk and slide show were much enjoyed by a large audience, warmed by a glass of gluwein and a crackling fire set up by Ebrahim Hull. Our gratitude to David for giving us such a treat.