Chelsea Flower Show

Saturday, 28 May 2016   "Health, Happiness and Horticulture"

Open 8am - 5:30pm

 

The Rubens Palace Hotel is a 30 minute walk to Chelsea.

Weather permitting, we will be making the stroll to this extravaganza (otherwise we will take the Victoria Buckingham Palace Road shuttle at BPRZ5 (outside the Grosvenor Hotel) or stop 11 since public transportation is highly recommended, cost of 10 pounds per person round trip not included). Our tickets are for the entire day, Saturday, the final day of the 5 day annual event. This is definitely a bucket list visit! As a reference, it's also an easy walk to Green Park as well as Hyde Park...but remember, comfortable all-day shoes are a must!

Excerpts from the official website: 

• The Chelsea Flower Show has been held in the grounds of the Royal Hospital Chelsea, London every year since 1913, apart from gaps during the two World Wars....
• (It) is the place to see cutting-edge garden design, new plants and find ideas to take home. 
• A cap of 157,000 was placed on the number of visitors to the showground in 1988. 
• In 1927 there was a campaign to get the RHS to ban foreign exhibits from RHS Chelsea to reduce competition with British firms. The RHS refused saying, ‘horticulture knows nothing of nationality.’ 
• The theme of this year's show will champion the health and wellbeing benefits of greening-up our grey spaces.  Features in the ‘RHS Greening Grey Britain Garden for Health, Happiness and Horticulture’, designed by leading garden designer and BBC presenter Ann-Marie Powell, provide ideas for visitors to take home to their own gardens.
• In the Great Pavilion more than 100 specialist plant breeders, nurseries and societies will create breath-taking floral exhibits with plants at the peak of perfection. 

On the map below, our hotel is mere steps from Victoria Station and north of the Thames River see the district of Chelsea.  The green strip adjacent to the River Thames is the show grounds.

 

There are multiple venues for a wide array of dining options from a snack to a meal: choose from sandwiches, salads, pizza, fish & chips, or afternoon tea on the grounds of the flower show. These are available on your own.

All exhibitors have now been selected, and their ideas are posted at:

 Show Exhibitors sketches

Here are a couple!

The Garden of Mindful Living

The Harrod's Eccentric British Garden