The Chelsea Flower Show has taken place annually since 1913, though it took a few years off for the 20th century’s two world wars and was held virtually for the COVID-19 pandemic. For most of her 70-year reign, Queen Elizabeth II was an enthusiastic attendant, donning bright pastel suits to take a look at the newest floral trends. She would often attend with both the Queen Mother and her sister, Princess Margaret. The trio’s outing at the 2001 version of the show was one of their last public engagements together before both Margaret and the Queen Mother died in 2002.
The younger generation has also gotten in on the action. In 2015, Prince Harry installed an African-themed garden at the show to raise funds for his HIV/AIDS charity Sentebale. Kate Middleton made her debut at the Chelsea Flower Show back in 2016, when the show had a special exhibition in honor of Queen Elizabeth’s 90th birthday, and in 2019, she collaborated on a “Back to Nature” themed garden.
The king is an avid gardener himself. In 2002, when he was still the Prince of Wales, he contributed a themed garden that was inspired by the setup at his own home, Highgrove Estate. His contribution to the flower show was called “The Healing Garden,” and it sparked a bit of controversy after Charles accompanied it with an opinion piece for the Daily Mail about Britain’s National Health Service potentially covering the sort of alternative medicine that nature “provides through countless plants, flowers, and trees.”
According to the RHS, the tradition of private royal visits actually dates back to the 1930s, when Queen Mary and King George would visit to learn about new flower varieties. Prince Albert, Queen Victoria’s consort, also became the RHS’s patron in 1858, more than 50 years after its founding. Before his death in 1861, Albert helped the society raise funds for a new garden in Kensington. When it opened, Victoria populated their ponds with carp.
This is one of the few royal traditions that has attracted this much interest from aristocrats, corporate tycoons, and average citizens alike. Celebrities started attending the show in the 1920s, attending tea parties thrown by neighborhood residents. Over time, the Charity Gala Preview party became a highlight of the English social calendar for the aristocratic set. In the 1980s, this was the place to see the Sloane Rangers, a cheeky name for the upper-class women of Sloane Square who captivated the contemporary press; the future Princess Diana was once among their ranks.
During the 20th century, after gardening became a hobby for the middle class, the appeal of the Chelsea Flower Show broadened. For decades, the BBC would feature hours of programming following Titchmarsh as he gave viewers an inside look at the show. In her 2013 book The Season: A Summer Whirl Through the English Social Season, writer Sophie Campbell noted that in more modern times, the crowd that comes for the charity preview is less posh and more corporate because it appeals so strongly to executives’ wives.
“Without the corporate wives and their distaste for blokey sports, the Chelsea Flower Show would be nothing like the size or standard that it is today,” Campbell wrote. Nevertheless, the show still has its appeal. “Every year I buy an evening ticket for the Chelsea Flower Show, though I don’t have a garden, because I like the summery English atmosphere.”
Comments are closed.