The Show must go on...

Chelsea Flower Show 2023 had echoes of past treasures as well as fascinating spectacles with weeds

- Toby

HAVE you ever had that feeling, when meeting someone for the first time, that you’ve met them before? I get it all the time, especially with plants at the Chelsea Flower Show.

This year, it was a multi-stemmed Persian Ironwood in Charlie Hawkes’ National Brain Appeals’ Rare Garden. I was sure I’d bumped into it in Richard Myer’s Perennial Garden in 2022.

Then there were walls of yew, box balls and (that designer’s favourite) the hornbeam hedge. Like minor royals, the same potted plants turn out every year, either because they’re rented or resold back to nurseries to be grown on for the next designer who requires a living screen. And good thing, too… ‘Waste not, want not’ is in the DNA of all gardeners, even Chelsea designers!