The Chelsea Flower Show is the largest and most important flower festival in Great BritainOne of the oldest and most popular flower shows in the world, the famous flower show is organised annually by the Royal Horticultural Society and takes place at the Royal Hospital Chelsea, Londonas one of the events of the season.
Chelsea Flower Show 2017: discovering the most prestigious flower show in the UK
The idea of afloral display national character arose in the mid-19th century; the first Royal Horticultural Society Great Spring Show was held in 1862 in the Kensington Gardenswhere it remained until 1888, when the Royal Horticultural Society decided to move it to the heart of London.
It was thanks to Harry Veitch, an eminent English naturalist, that the exhibition moved in 1913 to the Royal Hospital Chelsea, where it is still held today: originally founded as a hospital, the facility now houses a retirement home for elderly British soldiers, not far from the centre of London.
Fragrances and suggestions at the Flower Festival 2017
The Chelsea Flower Show is one of the most important and most visited flower and plant exhibitions in the world: it is a festival completely dedicated to floriculture, considered from multiple points of view. It starts with the display of plants peculiar to the British tradition, to the setting up of precious gardens by the garden designers the UK's most distinguished musicians. Performances for educational purposes accompany the event, which consists of several lectures on specific topics, selected from year to year by a team of experts.
During the Chelsea Flower Show, in addition to the display of tens of thousands of plant specimensworks of art such as paintings, photographs, as well as sculptures and installations tracing the history of the gardening British, treating the green element in an innovative way or, more simply, representing it in its natural freshness.
But the Chelsea Flower Show is also renowned by virtue of the awards it gives out each year, each associated with a specific category, attracting industry professionals from all over the world.
The five categories are:
- Florawhich concerns the composition of gardens and floral displays;
- Hoggwhich brings together the arboreal displays;
- Knightianwhich rewards compositions of vegetables and herbs;
- Lindleyfor all educational or scientific initiatives in the sector;
- Grenfellwhich rewards the production of paintings and photographs depicting floral compositions.
The event is part of a series of exclusive summer season events to which the UK's most prominent families are invited to participate, from the film jet set to the upper middle class, not forgetting of course the Royal Family: in 2013, on the occasion of the centenary of the Chelsea Flower Show, for the first time a member of the Royal Family exhibited a garden of their own: at the inauguration of the Prince Harry Queen Elizabeth, Prince Philip of Edinburgh and Prince Charles were present.
The 2017 edition of the Chelsea Flower Show
This year's event was held from 23 to 27 May, in a summery and decidedly sultry climate for the English capital; stunning as usual, the gardens of the Royal Hospital Chelsea proved monumental and complex, sometimes to the point of being incomprehensible to most; however, the organisation surrounding the event was simply perfect, a well-oiled machine that has been giving the public the genuine wonder of the awakening of nature.
The gardens of the 2017 edition evoked therapeutic, decidedly cathartic atmospheres, without indulging in excessive technical virtuosity; beautiful plants of excellent quality, enriched by the inclusion of architectural and artistic elements, in a whirlwind of colours and scents. Each with its own philosophical or metaphorical message, or a simple memento of facts and characters from the past, closely connected to the transience of the human being and the continuation of naturewith an invincible vitality that renews itself every season.
Find out more about the 2017 edition of the festival: rhs.org.uk
If you are passionate about this sector, discover the Master in Garden Design and the Flower Design Course organised by Italian Design Institute.
