Chelsea is the most famous garden event in the world. It is the place to be seen and has become a big part of the social calendar of London. In this quick article we take a look behind the scenes of press day.
It's 5am when we arrive at the show gates and are asked for our wrist bands and press passes to enter the grounds. We walk into the Chelsea Show area. The Chelsea Flower Show is held in the grounds of the Chelsea Hospital each year since 1913. This is a landmark year as it's the centenary of the event.
Inside the grounds we walk past a row of garden stands that have been beautifully displayed with products. Although there are few people in the grounds there is certainly a feeling of anticipation as huge numbers of street sweepers clean the roads and rubbish trucks take away the last of the refuse from all the set up of the show.
We ask a very well dressed man with a top hat where the show gardens are. He replies in a very high class english accent 'It's this way, you won't find it down there, thats just the restaurant, I was hoping to get some breakfast but it was closed'. He shows us to where the main part of the show ground is and tells us that he is particularly keen on the Australian garden. He said it's wonderful when the water is turned on.
At the show gardens we find a lot of the press photographers have already started to gather and set up tripods and cameras with big lenses. They are particularly jolly but are not too impressed by the chilly, grey cloudy start to the day.
There is still a huge amount of activity in and around the gardens. It's the day that the gardens are judged so they must look their best. Gardens are being frantically scrubbed, watered and manicured so that they are at their best when the team of RHS judges arrive. We even saw someone vacuuming between the moss of a garden.
At this time you have to watch you don't get run over on the main pathways as there is a constant parade of street sweepers, trucks and broadcasting booms.
The first of the TV presenters are also out. We see a lot of regional weather girls who look extremely bright and chirpy doing their pieces to the camera in front of the gardens. They then move on to the next garden and do the same piece to camera for the next hours weather. These weather girls and their team are particularly quick at this and usually get it right first time every time. We speak to a Scottish TV presenter who is finding one of the gardens names a bit of a tongue twister and particularly difficult to remember. She has her 2 miniature gnomes with her so that she can tell everyone at home that Chelsea has made a one off decision to lift on its ban of gnomes for this special centenary show.
We visit all the gardens to take our photographic shots of the show. It is quite amazing that some of the yet unattended gardens have left some of their bits and pieces in key spots of the garden especially as you have some of the leading photographers and press coming to visit your garden to take pictures.
It's now 9:20 am and we are happy with our initial batch of photographs so we head towards the press tent. The atmosphere is now quite different. We start to see a lot more press. The main entry for Press day is 9:00am.
Inside the press tent there is a swarm of activity. On the left are shelves with all the days press releases telling journalists about the gardens and offering everything you need to know about the show. By the end of Chelsea these bits of information will be collected, translated, rewritten and shown in publications across the world. On the right are tables and chairs that have been set up for everyone to use. These have been quickly filled up by people keen on producing the first news content of the day.
It's now 9:30am we head out of the press tent and head towards the Trailfinders, Australian Garden. We start to see out first crop of celebrities of the day. Jamie Oliver has a photo with Phillip Johnson and Wes Flemming in front of the Australian show garden. Also nearby we quickly see Charlie Albone an Australian celebrity gardener who has obtained his fame from the show Selling Houses Autralia who is obviously keen to get a closer look at this antiodipodean garden. Diarmuid Gavin, Irish garden designer and television personality is also active nearby with his assistant discussing what they should cover.
During the day there is a schedule of photo calls at various places around the showground. This gives the press an opportunity to get the photos they need and ask their own questions. A lot of the celebs have a show chaperone. The chaperone will take them to where they need to go and also help select who can interview them to prevent people constantly asking the same or non appropriate questions. This schedule does feel a bit like disneyland where you get to have your photo with a fluffy character at various parts of the park but in this case its the brightly dressed celebrities.
The celebrities are easily spotted with their colourful clothes that reflectthe the Chelsea vibe. They also want to be seen as they are often an ambassador for brands at the show.
However for this event it is the garden designers themselves who are the celebrities. They are the people everyone wants to talk to and have a photo of. They are in demand and are constantly being asked to discuss their garden. It's a competitive event to get your piece with these people where the TV crews come first, the newspapers and glosses second and then everyone else.
Please come back soon to www.homeandgardening.co.uk for more coverage of the Chelsea Flower Show 2013
