From the Chelsea Flower Show to King Charles’s Private Garden at Highgrove
A Passion Pilgrimage for My Mother
From the Chelsea Flower Show to King Charles's Private Garden at Highgrove
I’ve never had a green thumb, despite multiple attempts to keep trees alive in my NYC apartment, despite having a rare city terrace on which to plant a nice enough garden. Each spring I try with both plants and flowers; each year, I have to start anew.
My mother, on the other hand, always had a keen interest in gardening, taking pleasure in planting all sorts of flowers in our yard. To have memories of rose bushes, tulips, and petals of blossoms from cherry trees romantically drift onto our lawn as part of my childhood, is something I only realize now that I’ve taken for granted. For years she had talked about one day going to the Chelsea Flower Show in London and visiting a true English garden. This past May we traveled to England together, just the two of us, to cross that off her bucket list.
The Chelsea Flower show is an annual show in the heart of London at the Royal Hospital Chelsea, visited by British enthusiasts passionate about gardening and outdoor living, by horticulturists, and by plant and flower aficionados from around the world. This is not your average garden show however; I monitored the moment tickets were available to buy, something I don’t even do for coveted concert tickets. The event is inaugurated every year with a visit by British royalty, people attend often dressed up to see and be seen, and the surrounding neighborhood of Chelsea— its shops, its hotels, and its streets— are adorned with floral arrangements and sculptures, most of them entered in formal competition in celebration of the show. An absolute floral delight.
Places like the new Chancery Rosewood hotel that opened in the former American Embassy featured a special menu for the week, tea time with pastries designed as flowers, rosebuds brewing in our teapots…
