Today is official Royal Day at the Royal Horticultural Society’s Chelsea Flower Show, with most of the British Royal family spending a few pleasant hours in the morning touring the show gardens, the floral marquees and meeting the designers and contributors who help to make this show THE best horticultural event of any in the world today.

Founded in 1804 as The Horticultural Society of London by Sir Joseph Banks and John Wedgewood, its mission was to collect and categorise plants from around the world and to encourage the practice of horticultural science. The template for today’s huge international event however did not start until the late 1820’s. Whichever inauguration date you look at, this event has “pedigree” stamped all over it. With over 200 year’s experience, the RHS has fine-tuned their selection criteria for what makes a medal-winning garden.

Chelsea, like much of our economy in these hard-pushed times has not been spared the depressing Crunch. There are only 13 main show gardens that were successful in attracting sponsorship this year and many of the most notable garden designers will be absent from the show. However, this should not dampen the show’s appeal or degrade the exhibitors’ efforts to secure a much-coveted Gold medal.

Medal day and the first open Public day is Tuesday, 19^th May and for most of the designer’s and exhibitors, tonight will be the most sleepless night yet…..I can testify to this with first-hand knowledge of the procedure. First arrival at Chelsea and before the show opens; the coveted medals will be displayed on each exhibit. For some it will be elation, others disappointment after a year’s worth of time, care and planning will seem worthless for anything less than a Gold medal.

I have not yet seen all the designer gardens taking part this year; however of those I have seen, the following stand out as being particularly stylish, the Laurent-Perrier Garden, the Cancer Research UK Garden, the Daily Telegraph Garden and the Canary Islands Spa Garden. These must be in the running for a Gold. You can click the links above to view their designs; opens in a new window.

Don’t forget to check out the smaller Urban Gardens here and the Courtyard Gardens here. Often, these small gardens prove themselves to be the most innovative. No more than approx 20M² (215ft²), the gardens offer ingenious use of spaces that city dwellers and owners of tight, unpromising plots are often faced with. Often these little show-pieces give insight into clever tricks that can be taken home and modified for your own small awkward garden space.

Although designer numbers appear to be down at Chelsea this year, it’s clear the quality of this year’s successful exhibitors are maintaining the highest standards. Tuesday will be the real acid test!