The Chelsea flower show 2022 - a preview

RHS Chelsea may not be the biggest plant show in the world, but it is the most famous. As a journalist, I'm privileged to have been getting in for free on press day for more than a decade, along with other hacks and a fair few celebrities* on press day. So I am in a good position to reassure you of this: your garden - indoors or out - cannot  and should not be compared in any way, shape or form to a show garden or exhibit. 

So, when you're watching Chelsea coverage on TV, or if you're lucky enough to have a ticket to the show, ditch all the shame and just enjoy the spectacle. I explain more in this blogpost entitled 'why your garden (indoors or outside) is never going to look like the Chelsea flower show - and that's OK!)

That warning aside - what can we houseplant lovers look forward to when the show opens to the public next Tuesday (it runs til Saturday May 28)? The Houseplant Studios are five wooden structures dressed with plants galore: I'm most excited about seeing The Plant Clinic, designed by my friend Sarah Gerrard-Jones aka The Plant Rescuer, in a collab with shop Happy Houseplants. It promises "an interactive space for people to learn how to care better for their plants" - and I am all about the planty education. I'm intrigued that there's going to be a jacuzzi "that acts as a propagation tank with bubbles of oxygen"... woop! 

I am also really looking forward to seeing The Aroid Attic's exhibit, which has a theme of social media vs reality. *Nods sagely*. You can read about the other studios here.

My other major Chelsea delight is hanging out in the Great Pavilion: among the houseplant exhibitors are Begonia and Streptocarpus specialists Dibleys, Craig House Cacti, Ottershaw Cacti, bromeliads from Every Picture Tells a Story and Grow Tropicals, whose terrarium display wowed visitors last year. 

I'll be rounding up my visit to the show in next Friday's episode of my podcast On The Ledge, so do check that out (you can sign up for my weekly On The Ledge newsletter here). 

*My favourite sleb Chelsea encounter ever has to be Bill Nighy, who offered to take a photo for me and Alys Fowler. What a gent. 

This blogpost was taken from The Plant Ledger, my email newsletter about the houseplant scene. Subscribe here and get my free in-depth guide to fungus gnats.