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Chelsea faces gardens
  
Garden-heads at the Chelsea Flower Show
Outdoor video screen in Shanghai
Balloon 'garden' in Istanbul
Garden pyrotechnics in Paris
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Chelsea Fringe Flower and
Garden Festival
The Chelsea Fringe
Flower and Garden Show Festival ('The Chelsea
Fringe') was proposed in 2005 and is modeled on the
Edinburgh Fringe Festival .The idea came from the editor
of the Gardenvisit.com website, Tom Turner. For ten years he was a
neighbour of Robert Kemp, who gave the
Edinburgh Fringe its name. The first significant event on the
fringe of the Chelsea Flower Show was the 2006 Sloane in Bloom
display and competition, held in and around Sloane Square (the
nearest London Underground Station to the RHS Chelsea Flower Show).
See 2007 Chelsea
Fringe, 2008 Chelsea
Fringe
| London is
sometimes claimed to be the World's Financial
Capital - a claim can that be supported and disputed
(London has the most international business; New York has higher
volumes, Chicago leads in derivatives; Hong Kong had the largest
volume of IPOs in 2007). Still, the Lord Mayor of London announced
in 2006 that "We are the international finance and business capital
of the world, the world's greatest global financial center, without
question". Doubtful, but.... |
London
is the World's Garden
Capital
Which city
could possibly contest the claim? Rome? Paris? Berlin? Moscow?
Washington? Delhi? Beijing? Tokyo? The more capital cities you
list, the more evident London's supremacy becomes. London has the
world's greatest flower show (Chelsea) and is the capital city with
the largest number of garden-mad residents. A famous book
(Rasmussen's London, the Unique City, 1934) argued that it
is London's love of private gardens which makes the city unique -
other capital cities favour apartment blocks. Also, England's
climate is suited to an exceptionally wide range of plants. There
are flowers throughout the year; it is rarely too cold for
gardening; it is rarely warm enough and dry enough to sit still for
long in a garden.
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But
London lacks good gardens to
visit
Gardenvisit.com receives
many enquires of the type: "Which are the best gardens to visit in
London?" "When is the best time to visit them?" "What are the
opening times?" "Can you help me see gardens?" Our page on London garden visits and
tours provides some answers, but most of the gardens are
outside London, because most of London's gardens are privately
owned. England, however probably has as many gardens open to the
public as the rest of Europe combined.
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What London
needs is a focus event for
garden tourists
Chelsea Week is the obvious
candidate but the Chelsea Flower Show is always booked solid long
before it opens to the public. Most of the tickets go to members of
the RHS. Visitors to London have to be very well organised if they
are to get a ticket, unless they wish to turn up on the day and pay
double the ticket price to a tout outside Sloane Square Underground
Station! The Chelsea Fringe was launched to cater for London Garden
Visitors. They can visit Chelsea Fringe events and spend their
evenings in hotels watching the BBC's TV blanket coverage of the
event - usually a full week of 1-hour live broadcasts + another
hour of interactive TV. Or they could watch on a giant screen in
Trafalgar Square.
International
Garden Festival Comparisons
The Chelsea
Fringe will be pleased to borrow ideas and make twinning
arrangements with international garden events.
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Toscana Esclusiva -
Cortili E Giardini Aperti
Firenze: an
event when private gardens and courtyards in Florence, Italy, are
open to the public
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Florence
Courtyatds and Gardens
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Luoyang Peony
Fetival
The world's
greatest peony festival, in Luoyang, China
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Luoyang
Peony Festival
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Cordoba Patio
Festival de los Patios Cordobeses
Cordoba: a floral event and
competition when the patios of Cordoba, Spain, are open to the
public
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Cordoba
patios
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"Gardeners of the world
- unite, you have nothing to lose but your
prejudices"
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*Coming from the Orkney
Islands, Robert
Kemp loved scenery and
once sent a telegram, then an expensive means of communication, to
a neighbour saying 'Isn't it a lovely day!'. His friend telegramed
back 'Yes it is!'.
The Chelsea Fringe
is sponsored by Gardenvisit.com and ...
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Edinburgh Fringe Festival
(See Wikipedia on Edinburgh
Fringe)
'Flowers of Scotland' promoting a show as part of the
Edinburgh Fringe
Floral display in Edinburgh
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