The Chelsea Flower Show has sold out all 157,000 tickets in a record 16 days, prompting the Royal Horticultural Society to warn the public about touts and forged tickets. With the show not opening to the public until Tuesday, black market tickets are being offered at up to ten times the £47 face value.
The RHS attributes the surge in interest to a desire for simpler pleasures and the trend of growing one's own food. Visitor numbers at RHS gardens are also breaking records, with 19,000 new members joining the society in the past three months.
Monday sees the arrival of judges and royals, with the Queen confirmed to attend and hopes that the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge will view a new rose named in their honour. Corporate sponsors, including Laurent Perrier and M&G Investments, have invested at least £250,000 in show gardens.
Gardeners faced challenges from extreme weather, with designer Ray Drew noting the worst winter followed by a sudden hot summer. His Alpine garden, 'Between a Rock and a Damp Place', required last-minute adaptations as many plants flowered early.
Highlights include Diarmuid Gavin's 'world's first flying garden', a 22-metre by 10-metre structure designed to be lifted 25 metres into the air by a giant crane. Other gardens feature giant boulders, a half-size stone mill, and red acrylic stepping stones.
