This year’s RHS Chelsea Flower Show was certainly brimming with wild ambition, from majestic speckled foxgloves – in the palest of buttery lemons – and delicate fuchsias – through to the statuesque cypress trees incorporated into Thomas Hoblyn’s Italian-inspired design for Arthritis UK. In fact, foxgloves were so popular at this year’s show that the exotic-looking rare perennial Digitalis ‘Illumination Pink’, a hybrid developed by Thompson & Morgan, was crowned RHS Plant of the Year 2012.

Marden-based garden designer Jo Thompson’s show garden (above), created for the Caravan Club, shone in the style stakes with its centrepiece: a sparkling 1950s aluminium caravan named Doris, complete with a rather sleepy inhabitant. Jo’s celebration of British holidaying revolved around a palette of pink and cream planting punctuated with mature birch trees, a trickling stream and sandstone paths. Blush-pink cow parsley and juicy wild strawberries emerged from multi-level lush greenery, whilst strung in the shade beneath a cluster of trees, an enticing hammock swayed softly in the wind.

Meanwhile, The Great Pavilion was packed with a mouth-wateringly colourful display of vibrant blooms. A simply stunning dark velvety ‘Paul Black’ iris and frilled ‘Rococo’ tulip particularly stood out, as did the subtle beauty of fiery Potentilla ‘Flamenco’, claret-spotted Digitalis purpurea ‘Primrose Carousel’ and delicate Aquilegia Vulgaris ‘William Guiness’.

Following on from their spectacular display last year, McBean’s Orchids filled their generously proportioned stand with an incredibly varied selection of plants. We loved Oncidium ‘Chantos’, and Cypripedium kentuckiense ‘Southern Lady’s Slipper’, a woodland orchid from the USA.

• words: Lucy Fleming
• pictures: Lucy Fleming

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