How the Chelsea flower show taught me to love my imperfect plants
Cacti on display at the Chelsea flower show. Photograph: Jane Perrone.
The Chelsea flower show has been a fixture in my diary since 2009, and this year is no different. I'll be there for the press day on Monday May 22, when it's not unusual to be sniffing a particularly perfumed rose in the Great Pavilion only to find you're standing next to Lorraine Kelly, or Benedict Bumberbatch's mum, or some footballer you only half recognise. I'll be recording for On The Ledge podcast as well as writing a quick reaction piece for Gardens Illustrated online.
Equally excitingly, I'll be at the show on Friday May 26, appearing on stage at the display at the Monument in the Great Pavilion at midday and 3pm, talking about Legends of the Leaf, women and horticulture, and more. Please come along if you are at the show that day.
I'll round up some houseplant highlights in next week's edition of The Plant Ledger newsletter, but if you don't have tickets and are in the UK, check out the events section below for other planty happenings coming up this week.
It's worth remembering that Chelsea is not the be-all-and-end-all when it comes to horticulture. The show has only recently started to embrace the world of houseplants (see also last week's edition of the Plant Ledger about the way houseplants are sometimes belittled by the larger world of horticulture), for one thing. And people are often surprised that you can't actually buy many plants at the show, unless you have tickets for Saturday when the mad scrum of the sell-off happens on the last day.
I must issue my annual advice that your garden (indoors or out) is never going to look like a Chelsea show garden, and that's ok. I originally wrote that piece because seeing all the planty perfection was making me feel terrible about my own far-from-perfect garden, not to mention my houseplants.
As someone with a book, a newsletter and a podcast about indoor gardening, I sometimes feel immense pressure to have a flawless houseplant collection. In reality, it's a curate's egg - good in parts. I probably have too many plants relative to the time I have to care for them, and I still crave the very temporary dopamine hit of a new plant purchase when I should be reaching for the deeper satisfaction of caring for the plants I already have.
Yet when I look back at old pictures of my houseplants, or of my garden for that matter, I am always surprised by the way the passage of time allows me to realise it was actually a lot more beautiful and rewarding than I thought it was at the time. So, I am trying to live in the moment with my plants and enjoy them now, as they are, warts and all. Or more accurately, pests and all. It's something to remember as I tour Chelsea next week.
This blogpost was taken from The Plant Ledger, my twice monthly email newsletter about the houseplant scene. Subscribe here and get my free in-depth guide to fungus gnats.