Chelsea Flower Show is on! Let’s first check out some beautiful pictures:
The Chelsea Flower Show is over 140 years old and was started by the Royal Horticultural Society in 1862. Every year it attracts more than 150,000 flower-plant-garden enthusiasts to visit London from all around the world. 
The issues highlighted by this year’s show (taking place on 22-26 May 2018) come in two parts: the environment and mental health. Designers this year are all aiming to create beautiful gardens that demonstrate how plants and green spaces can improve lives and tackle major environmental challenges.
Every year, the RHS gives out awards for excellent garden designs and these come in four categories: gold, silver-gilt, silver, and bronze. Among the gold awards, the RHS will also select the best of the best as the Best Show Garden.
The Morgan Stanley Garden
This year’s winner for Best Show Garden is The Morgan Stanley Garden for the NSPCC.
Designed to raise awareness of the work of the NSPCC, this garden’s design is a metaphor for the emotional transition that takes place in a child as they experience the positive impact of the NSPCC’s work. At the start of the garden the direction of the path in the woodland is unclear. As it turns a corner it leads to a more open and tranquil space, filled with soft, textured perennials. The path steps up onto a bespoke cedar wood pavilion, enclosed, at the rear, by a calm, reflective canal.
Other Gold Award Receivers:
The M&G Garden
The M&G Garden is designed for a warm, sunny climate. It expands on the idea that a wall, a tree and a seat can create an intimate and beautiful place to relax. Using Mediterranean flora and raw materials dug directly out of the earth, the space celebrates the expressive language of colour, texture, light and shadow. This is also a garden of contrasts: colour is subtle, but unexpected and dazzling.
The Urban Flow
This garden is designed with water conservation and environmentally considerate landscaping in mind, as well as a planting scheme that deflects and processes pollution and attracts wildlife. Bold design features, colourful planting and practical outdoor living space are all accommodated in this small urban plot.
O-mo-te-na-shi no NIWA—The Hospitality Garden
This traditional garden is inspired by the treasured Japanese culture of ‘omotenashi’, the concept of wholehearted and sincere hospitality, and the wish to invoke this feeling in guests to the garden. The planting is based on Ikenobo, a type of Japanese flower arranging dating from the 15th century, with the placement of plants and distribution of colour carefully considered in relation to the space
From these award-winning gardens, it can be seen that the Chelsea Flower Show is not only a show with beautiful flower and plants, it also has a far-reaching, serious theme. It is no wonder that not only flower lovers, but also politicians and celebrities, come to visit the show every year to admire its beauty and contemplate life.
