Be inspired and Plant a winner!

Chelsea’s Plant of the Year competition recognises reliability as well as innovation, and provides some of the best options for our gardens

- Tamsin Hope Thomson

 

EVERY year in May, Chelsea fever hits the gardening world, filling the TV schedule with coverage of incredible

gardens and numerous celebrities. But Chelsea is not all about glamour: at the heart of the event are some truly showstopping plants that anyone can use to transform their gardens.

It’s easy to think of Chelsea as being several steps away from normal life. There have certainly been some dramatic show gardens: Diarmuid Gavin’s Irish Sky Garden, the first airborne garden with a pod flying high above the showground, or a recent Best in Show, A Rewilding Britain Landscape featuring a beaver dam, to name just two. Even the less outlandish options, with their streams, waterfalls and stone sculptures, are hard to imagine trying at home. But within these gardens are invaluable planting ideas and colour combinations that can be recreated, albeit on a smaller scale, outside our own back doors.

Even more useful is Chelsea’s Plant of the Year competition, which shines a spotlight on plants that are unusual, new, reliable and foolproof. Since 2010, the competition has recognised shrubs, flowers, climbers and trees that offer real value to gardeners. The list of winners, runners-up and nominees is pretty extensive, and we should all be able to find room for at least one of them in our gardens – even if it’s in a pot beside the front door.

When it comes to picking a winner, the judges have three criteria: innovation, excellence and appeal, which means those that claim the coveted title usually offer something gardeners haven’t seen before, in addition to being dependable.