The perils of an autumn Chelsea Flower Show

Once upon a time, the Royal Horticultural Society staged a Great Autumn Show every September in their two Horticultural Halls off Vincent Square in London. It was a fine mixture of colourful nursery trade exhibitions and fiercely-fought amateur competitions, involving fruits, flowers and glowing foliage (Who could forget the amusing annual battle between the Dukes of Marlborough and Devonshire – or rather their head gardeners – over the prize for the best bunch of glasshouse grapes?). The Great Autumn Show was almost as much a draw to Londoners as Chelsea Flower Show in May, and to those ‘in the know’ it was as fashionable, but the last one was staged in 2007, after which the RHS successively downgraded its metropolitan shows, then moved them out to provincial centres or its gardens in the country.

I had high hopes, then, for the first Chelsea Flower Show ever to be held in September (it runs this week from Tuesday until Sunday), the RHS having made the brave decision in January to put on a show in the grounds of the Royal Hospital Chelsea, even though existing Covid restrictions ruled out anything in late May.