Wednesday 1 February
Empty Promises
Andy's first look at his plants for Chelsea
It’s February. The worst possible month for gardeners. And don’t give me that 'snowdrops and crocus' nonsense. The whole point of Chelsea is that it rides the rush of spring. It’s an exciting time and now is not. Sorry. I’m actually very excited about the whole thing because spring is just round the corner but if I seem a little negative it’s because this is what my Chelsea plants look like.
To use the time honoured car analogy I spent enough on these plants to buy a nice car, a very nice car indeed (make and model confidential) and this is all I’ve got to show for it. Not a great confidence boost except that there are a lot of them. Over 10,000 to be precise which is about 3 times what I really need but this gives me a plan B, C, D and probably an E and an F. If a plant of a certain colour and shape fails I have a replacement (at least in theory) so I won’t be forced to change the concept of the planting……not that I have a planting plan. The RHS are always asking to see planting plans but they are totally pointless as you never know which plants will perform and which will not. A list is all I can manage accompanied by a few ideas of what will look nice next to what and even this will probably change once I have the plants on site. But until then I just have lots of pots of compost so not much to go on.
However, a big plus is that they are being nurtured by Mark Straver, formally of Crocus and now of Hortus Loci and grower of oodles of plants for oodles of Gold Medal winning gardens including 4 of mine. So safe hands then and safe hands equal sleep filled nights. Although when he sent me this photo of pots of compost and no plants, I did half expect to see him driving round in an Aston Martin………
Andy Sturgeon
M&G Garden 2012 designer
