I have been pouring over all the coverage of Chelsea Flower Show that ended over the weekend….I soooo miss being able to hop on the tube and head over in person…..

As usual, there are lots of ideas and interesting tidbits to study and learn from and take away as inspiration.  I am going to start with my own collection of favorite plant combinations.  I have lots of other things that I loved too, but will pair them up for a series of post-show round-up’s all week.   Did you go to chelsea?  What was your favorite planting combination? ….from the pictures, these are the most interesting to me.

 

 

 

 

 

This is hands down my favorite.  I love Scandinavian design, meadow flowers and this natural look created with Himalayan blue poppies, Black Barlow columbine and soft grasses.  From the Naturally Norway Garden.

image by helly – b

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This combination of verbascum, penstemon, irises, grasses, salvia, alliums and a few others, for the Victorian Aviary Garden is interesting on it’s own.  I think it plays ok with the (somewhat not so nice) blue trellis in the back ground — It is very country casual to me — quite the opposite of the gold plated aviary inspired structure.  Sometimes putting casual with formal can work — and sometime is just isn’t quite right….for me this is the later, but the individual elements are great. Do you think it works?

image by helly – b

 

 

 

 

This combo is intriguing (tulips and either dill or fennel, I think) but I am not sure it is entirely achievable….not that I have the expectation that Chelsea displays the achievable, but at least where I live, there is no way that dill or fennel will be this big when the tulips are blooming….but nonetheless, the idea of chunky thick flowers like tulips floating in a misty froth of foliage is certainly interesting.

image by drDimages

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cardoons, euphorbia, iris, fennel, phormium and whatever that purple leaved plant is….are a mix that I think lots of my clients would like.  It is rich in gem tones (which, for some reason, I get a lot of requests for) and texture, and is pretty sophisticated without being too complicated.  The white border…well, it doesn’t do it for me, I rather prefer this mix with the wood tones of the upright.  Would you agree?