Thursday, 17 MayEarly spring changes planting plans With just four days to go until judging day at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show, the showground is buzzing with activity as plants arrive for the show gardens. Everywhere you look there are trolleys laden with thousands upon thousands of flowers; pots teeter on just-laid hard landscaping and line up like soldiers, waiting for planting to begin. This year it’s been even more of a Herculean feat than usual to get these plants here in good condition. The hot, dry spring meant Chelsea stalwarts like tulips, paeonies and wisteria were over by mid-May; then the recent cold, wet snap meant plants held back in fridges stubbornly refused to take off again. "We've lost some lavendars and sages," says Robert Myers, designer of the Fortnum and amp; Mason garden. "It’s meant we’ve had to do a lot of last-minute running around." Gabriella Pape and Isabelle van Groeningen, designers of the Daily Telegraph garden, were forced to find replacement wisteria after theirs flowered weeks ago. Jinny Blom has had to re-think her planting scheme after the umbellifers she hoped to use in her Laurent Perrier garden flowered weeks ago. And Ulf Njordfell has resorted to wrapping his crab-apple trees in plastic to encourage them to flower for his Garden for Linnaeus. “The idea was they would be in flower, so they’ve been in the cooler to keep them back,” he says. “But it’s a bit too much now. We need some sun!” But as many beleaguered exhibitors admit, there’s always something Chelsea throws at you at the last minute. It just means that this year, it’s going to be all the more remarkable when they pull it off again. | 
