Chelsea is not the centre of the world!

It's that time of the year again, when the horticultural world turns its attentions to a small patch of London. The Chelsea Flower Show is hailed as the greatest flower show on Earth, and is the highlight of the horticultural year. Anyone who's anyone in gardening will be there, and if you want to call yourself a gardener then you must be there too.

But is this entirely true? Certainly there is a lot of attention on Chelsea, and it's the only time the media really makes much effort to represent gardening. Is it the greatest flower show on Earth? Well it's certainly the most famous. Do you need to be there? No.

People go to Chelsea for different reasons; nurseries go for the prestige of [hopefully] a Chelsea gold medal, designers go because they're being paid to design and build gardens, and a load of wealthy people with no interest in gardening go to get trollied in the hospitality tents at a big social event, one would hope to come home with a coveted 'I got wasted at Chelsea' t-shirt.

Why thousands upon thousands of ordinary gardeners spend quite frankly ridiculous amounts of money (non members day tickets are £99!) to be crammed into a small space with so many other people I simply do not know. I know lots of people who smile and tell me they've been to Chelsea, but when you get past their boasting they've actually seen a fraction of what they wanted to see. Some hardcore Chelsea veterans have learnt to barge their way through the crowds so they see everything, but most seem to just 'soak up the atmosphere' (wander around without being able to see anything).

My advice to gardeners? Avoid the crowds! Think what you could do with the money saved by not buying an all day ticket (yes, you can get cheaper tickets if you only want to be there for an hour or two); you could spend the money on some new plants, and maybe a tree for your garden? Maybe you could put the money into buying a new piece of equipment to make life easier in the garden? Or maybe, just maybe, you could spend that money getting inspiration from one or more of the great gardens looking absolutely fantastic up and down the UK right now?!

I don't mean to belittle the hard work that goes into making Chelsea what it is. Thousands of people are involved in growing plants, setting up displays/gardens and taking it all away. Many nurseries and design teams spend the rest of their year planning (albeit at the back of their minds) what they want to do to create the biggest spectacle and get their coveted gold medal. What you mustn't do is feel inadequate because you're not there. If you want to go and see some extremely expensive gardens built by armies of people and paid for by large corporations then by all means go for it. Failing that, save your money, enjoy your own garden and watch Chelsea on TV!

True gardening neither begins, nor ends, at Chelsea.

If you would like to experience the buzz of a major flower show the I would recommend the other RHS shows, including the Malvern Spring Flower Show, Hampton Court, and Tatton Park. For gardeners in London (and those who are happy to travel to London) there are well regarded flower shows held frequently at the RHS Halls. If you just want to buy plants for your garden then there are hundreds of smaller regional plant fairs across the UK, and there will certainly be one near you!