Our Gardening Group met on Wednesday 27 May 2026 to have a report on all things Chelsea. Following on from Nick Dobson’s talk on “Londing in the Swinging 60s”, a review of Chelsea and what could be seen there seemed most appropriate.

What many of us were surprised to see was the effort put in by the shops, in and around the Kings Road, Chelsea. Many of the shops had arranged floral displays on their street frontage, and these displays were as stylish and as inspiring as the main RHS Chelsea Show in the Royal Hospital grounds.

There was an “Out of This World” feel to many of the displays in the surrounding streets and in Sloane Square.

Many of the flowers in the displays were real flowers, and members were keen to find the individual species. The telephone box pictured above led into a grocery store, so on this occasion it was much bigger inside that the outside!

We then went on to see a selection of the gardens in the RHS Chelsea Show, and there was much discussion over the winning entry which had included a carved fallen tree depicting Gaia, the primordial Earth goddess in Greek mythology

We closed with a video on how to wake up dahlia tubers for those that are having difficulty persuading them to start into growth.

Our next session will be Wednesday 10 June 2026, and will include a visit to the garden of one of our members.