On Thursday 25 May I visited the Chelsea Flower Show with my Mum. It’s a garden show by the Royal Horticultural Society. One of the sponsors of the show, Brewin Dolphin, had kindly given two free tickets to United Response. 

I love gardening, it’s my main hobby, and it was a fantastic surprise when United Response nominated me to receive the tickets. I’d always wanted to visit Chelsea and I was very excited to have the chance to go.

We went on the train and arrived at Victoria Station in the morning. We got on the shuttle bus from the station to the show.  The weather was beautiful and I was amazed how busy it was there. I’m not used to being in big crowds of people but once I got used to it I was okay. 

We saw some Chelsea Pensioners in their uniforms. Chelsea Pensioners are former soldiers who live in an old building called the Royal Hospital. The Royal Hospital has a massive garden and that is where the show is held.  

Nature gardens, champagne and afternoon tea

I bought a guide book with a map in it. We started off by following the map and walking around, looking at the 36 show gardens. 

Different gardeners and horticultural companies create the gardens and compete to win medals in different categories. Some of them were very nature friendly, filled with wild flowers with bees buzzing around. 

We sat on a wall and ate our packed lunch.

One of the many beautiful gardens at Chelsea Flower Show

We had a lovely surprise to find that our tickets included refreshments in the Brewin Dolphin marquee. We could even have free champagne which we really enjoyed! 

We also went there for afternoon tea which was brilliant – we couldn’t believe how lucky we were!

Philip enjoying a delicious afternoon tea

Spotting Monty Don

Later, I noticed a big crowd of people looking at one of the show gardens, and then I saw a huge film camera on wheels. The BBC were filming something so we hurried over to join the crowd. 

It was Monty Don in a garden being filmed for the Chelsea Flower Show programme which was going to be on TV that evening. Everyone in the crowd was excited to see him and he looked just like he does on Gardeners’ World!

Later, when we went back that way, he was being filmed with another presenter called Joe Swift. 

When I watched the programme the day before we went, I had seen the presenters sitting at the top of an open air studio, where there was a view of the show in the background.  We found where it was and Mum took a photo of me standing nearby.

Philip stood outside where the BBC film their Chelsea Flower Show programmes

The Great Pavilion is an enormous marquee which is filled with displays of all types of plants and beautiful flowers. We wandered around looking at them. 

It was extremely busy in there in the middle of the day but later people started going home so then it was quieter and there was more room to see the displays.

Philip at the Great Pavilion

Is footballer Sol Campbell a gardening fan?

The show didn’t close till 8.00pm but we had to leave at 6.00pm to catch our train. Just before we left we saw the football manager Sol Campbell being interviewed, which was a surprise. Maybe he likes gardening as well as football!  

We caught the shuttle bus back to Victoria Station. The traffic was very heavy and it took a long time to get there. There wasn’t much time to spare before our train left.

Philip and his Mum, who had a lovely day at Chelsea Flower Show together

We had a great day at Chelsea and I am very grateful to Brewin Dolphin and to United Response for nominating me to receive the tickets.

Would you like to go to the Chelsea Flower Show next year? Find out more about it at: https://www.rhs.org.uk/shows-events/rhs-chelsea-flower-show