Another re-issue and still a question worth considering?
Well, I know which one I’d vote for.
You might think too that the new Chatsworth show is a missed opportunity. I like Chaumont’s mix of makers too – it is no simple designer’s showcase. And I like the interest in ideas and words … Go and see!!!
Yes, that was me – once!
Anne Wareham, editor
Catharine Howard:
“Have issue. You were so adamant that you wouldn’t go to Chelsea again. Discuss, please”.
This text came through the day I was at this year’s Flower Show and looked like an essay question.
The best way to answer it is probably to compare Chelsea Flower Show with the Chaumont sur Loire International Garden Festival- as follows. This takes place in the grounds of the Chateau of Chaumont, which sits in a well built and rather self satisfied way high above the languid reaches of the Loire.
Chaumont
A rather different affair to the hurried mayhem of Chelsea and other RHS spin-off regional shows in that it opens in April and runs for 7 months of the year. The process works like this: about 300 designers submit a design and from a shortlist, via technical drawings and interview, the number is whittled down to 30. This bunch then have a budget – now about 12K in euros – awarded to them and get given a plot on the festival site.
After the grand opening, the individual gardens are maintained by the gardeners of the magical Domaine of Chaumont sur Loire. As for Domaine, it translates as Estate but is more than that as it gathers under its umbrella action, thought and influence. The Domaine raises the funds, promotes the festival, looks after the grounds.
Back to those gardeners, they keep the whole area of chateau gardens, parkland and sculpture park in a delicious state of good gardening – so that the visit we made in September found it well burnished but scintillating too. One day I would like to meet the formidable Chantal Collen-Dumond who has been the leading light behind making Chaumont a place of “nature and culture, artistic creation and landscape intervention”.
A tall order but the brief is fulfilled. Last year’s crop of designers included that irrepressible bunch of Domaine gardeners and included lighting designers, architects, sculptors, set designers and painters and horticulturalists. There was a duo who described themselves as “gardener and landscape designer” and the second as “landscape designer and gardener”.
A leap over the fence into horticulture seems to happen very readily. Here’s the description of the career of one participant, Adrien Ohlmann who co-designed LES COULISSES DES ATTRACTION (pic below) “peppered with discoveries of a wealth of unique, out-of-the-ordinary and prestigious places, château grounds, private townhouses and Parisian terraces, including work at Château de Versailles and in two Zen gardens. Such experiences have served to confirm his vocation for the art of gardens”.
COULISSES DES ATTRACTIONS
I like the way that gardening marries up with a commitment to the other arts. One garden took a poem from Rimbaud to bring alive a post-diluvial garden. Another, this time by Anna Rhodes, a landscape architect from Edinburgh, used her garden called TETE A TETE to bring these words of Matisse alive:
“There are flowers everywhere for those who bother to look.”
TETE A TETE
She engulfed us in her garden; we were invited to stretch up, lie down, get close and uncluttered in the mind, to scrutinise and observe. We lay on coloured mats and stared up at the petals of the echinacea. The various show gardens all beckon you in and invite you to take part, catching your own reflections in mirrors, parting a way through giant tresses of hair, distorting a view by walking backwards or getting very close to the frogs that must have been imported as a job lot in LA PLANÈTE EN ÉBULLITION. From the point of view of pollinating insects, PUISSANTES IMMOBILES by a father and daughter team , Nicholas and Marlise Fillon, was a really good immersive experience.
PLANETE-EN-EBULLITION
PUISSANCE IMMOBILES
And so this week I had a chat with Anna, who works for Harrison Stevens, to get the low down. Selected in February of last year, Harrison Stevens gave themselves 10 days to set up their garden of 250 square metres with 3000 plants. “The budget stipulated 12 plants per square metre and we ordered all the plants from French local suppliers. We shipped prefabricated steel elements and gravel stabilisation crates in I think two shipments and then the install team flew in with tools in hold luggage. The Domaine kindly lent us larger tools such as wheel barrow…”
The staging had been designed for quick assembly on site. While setting up they were put up by the Domaine in the stable block of the chateau – three square meals a day provided to keep up flagging spirits. There were many materials on site that could be recycled from the previous year: soil, mulches and so on and the organisers scrutinised the submitted plant list and reported back that plenty were available from the Domaine. The local nurseries supplied the rest.
Had she been able to keep within the budget provided by the Domaine? Pretty much so apart from the travel and accommodation on the way. The Festival was live from April through to November. The floriferous display on TETE A TETE’s stand was still pumping out colours when I visited in September. Anemone x hybrida Queen Charlotte, Sedum Matrona and Echinacea White Swan in full and jolly spate. Anna did say that a beady eye had been cast over the plant choice to ensure continuity of display.
And there I think we have it. The small budgets, the longevity of the display which make demands of horticultural possibility, the walking within the gardens, the recycling element. These and perhaps a subtle Gallic variant on gardening status. It makes a huge difference that the plants on display really are growing as they should – by season and subject to the vagaries of correct planting and co-habitation with their fellow specimens. This does not happen at the English shows. The Chelsea show garden plant fantasy is something that I have never liked.
But the very great difference between Chaumont and Chelsea is underscored by a walk round the rest of the Domaine, from Land Art artfully placed in the best of site specific ways:
CHRISTIAN LAPIE LA CONSTELLATION DU FLEUVE 2015
– a visit to contemporary art exhibitions housed in the stables, a wander through the courtyards and to the chateau. During this peregrination you will see the sort of gardening that is surely done and perfectly executed – from bedding exuberance round the castle and outbuildings to flower beds round the garden festival site. We examined it all, even the box topiary emerging from hoggin in the courtyards.
BEDDING OUT
PLANTING ROUND SHOW GARDENS
SITE PLANTING
As you stroll you will not see one single banner for sponsorship, or gift shop with memorabilia of your trip, or concession selling garden equipment. The relationship that the Domaine has with obtaining its funding seems much calmer than the RHS approach.
On discussing Chelsea Flower Show with my business globe trotter of a sister in law – her verdict: “ it’s a trade show isn’t it?”
Catharine Howard
I have yet to see either Chelsea or Chaumont, mostly due to what I hear about the crush of the crowds there from friends, I find I am less interested in visiting the show, although I do enjoy seeing it vicariously through photos. Chaumont, on the other hand, has so intrigued me that it has been on my bucket list for years. Next year we are considering a visit to that area of France, in part due to my interest in Chaumont. It seems to be more in tune with a smaller version in Sonoma, California called Cornerstone.
Thank you for writing such a useful, informative article about a garden festival I knew nothing about. I couldn’t agree more about the awfulness and artificiality of the “Chelsea experience”. Perhaps we could have more articles and information on innovative gardens and festivals in Western Europe? They may provide a counterbalance to the rather rigid format and blinkered approach of RHS shows. Yes, Chatsworth was a wasted opportunity, just a variation on existing shows rather than a radical rethink of the whole visitors’ experience.
I feel a trip to Domaine de Chaumont sur Loire is now unavoidable!
Gave up on Chelsea many years ago also, too crowded and not a pleasant experience. Watch from my sofa now. Prefer Chaumont’s ethos, budget ideas, space and that it there for months…
Mary the sofa is the best place, I agree.
The names of the two events speak volumes. One is a flower show, the other a garden festival. Chelsea has such a strong international reputation that people yearn for the day they can attend. And when they do, they either buy into the project and love it or find it disappointing or frustrating, often because of the crowds and they way the show gardens force plants unnaturally. On the other hand Chaumont celebrates what a garden can be. There is an openness to ideas that I rarely see at Chelsea, a willingness to accept experimentation and a setting that allows real gardens to exist in real time.
The International Garden Festival at Métis, Quebec does the same thing. Based on the example of Chaumont, the festival started in 2000 as a one-time event. It was so well supported by the local community, the municipality (which is tiny) and the provincial government that it has continued annually. Like Chaumont, the gardens are in place for an extended period — from June to October. The budget for each project is similarly small, encouraging innovative approaches in both concept and execution. I’m a fan!
Dear Pat
Thank you for mention of Metis – this name has spread very far and I would love to visit. I am not sure that I entirely buy into the “Show” bit making such a difference – if you visit flower shows up and down the UK round about now you will see the best that horticulture can serve up. Best 3 potatoes, dahlias, delphiniums etc. Chelsea Flower Show has strayed far from this.
The Festival of Gardening at Westonbirt was a joy to visit on a September day when there were few people to jostle with. The gardens and the sculptures were clever, thought provoking and sometimes amusing, it was so refreshing to be able to really be a part of each display. As Anne says, the RHS has missed a trick, or maybe it knows that the public seem to want more of the same.
Chaumont was my inspiration for Westonbirt.
I first saw it in 1999 and longed to try and stage an event in the same genre in the UK
The rest is history
The key was the freedom the designers has as they received a bursary.
No pressure to secure a sponsor.
It has left a huge gap.
One of the most exciting projects I have ever done and The Forestry Comissin had the vision to back it.It also put glorious Westonbirt Arboretum on the map.
Yes. Xxx
Lovely reading Catharine, it explains your Chelsea frustrations perfectly.
This piece gave me such a strong sense of nostalgia for Chaumont. I started taking pics for publication there in 1999 and went every year for about 10 years. I loved the place. The site is superb and the gardens sufficiently separated by hedges and paths that it never felt overcrowded. And I agree, the pieces in the park are well placed, too. I remember one shop selling things and the restaurant was good. That’s it for commercialism. One thing that was striking, always, was that children were present – by the bus load and with their families. The imagery of the gardens was both accessible superficially and then layered with interpretation. Such interpretation! It made me giggle at times. One might say pretentious but I think we are dealing with cultural differences, here. Chaumont is so utterly different from any of the RHS shows. Book yourself into the charming hotel in the village, relax and have the weekend there; a weekend at Chelsea would be a nightmare.
It has been a long time since I have had a passionate urge to go to Chelsea, in fact I have not been to any RHS show for 2 years. I would quite enjoy a Chelsea day out of course…and my reaction to the show gardens there range from quiet delight, through ‘oh yes, of course more ‘Geum Totally Tangerine’ to downright distain.
But Chaumont – oh yes please….several times in one season – REAL gardens in time and space and no ridiculous build budgets…and no trade stands.
while we are on the subject of shows, can we have a night time garden show? Innovation in garden lighting comes on in leaps and bounds – classes for seduction gardens, night scented gardens, party gardens, and best lighting scheme…just saying….
Love the idea of a night time show, what a great idea.
Perhaps in late summer – when there’s enough dark and for all the garden pleasure that late summer offers.