South Africa lights up London and the Chelsea Flower Show

The sea of humans flooding the lanes and stands at this year’s Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) Chelsea Flower Show was overwhelming. Think of it like the mass of supporters at a Pirates versus Chiefs derby or Springbok test match, only with a lot more linen suits and Panama hats.

As newbies to this cult botanical event, it was astounding for us to witness the sheer scale and support that the five-day gardening and flower extravaganza garners. A Ferris wheel of fuchsias in every pink imaginable, a display of sweet peas that you could smell across a massive tent and exotic pineapples from the Antigua and Barbuda were just three small novelties that we spotted in the verdant mix.

We bumped into the brilliant Anja Joubert, who runs the strategic foresight platform and consulting operation, Department of Trend, and she summed up a couple of the main threads running through the show:

“The standout themes included the celebration of raw beauty and anti-manicured aesthetics at Humid House a studio ‘committed to championing the entire spectrum of plant life that our climate is able to sustain with a particular affection for the unusual, the unruly and the uncultivated’. Their Chelsea display referenced the history of botanical display and explores hybrid plant worlds that blur the line between natural and imagined, reflecting anxieties about climate change and AI’s impact on reality,” says Joubert.

“Almost literally talking to nature was explored in the Avanade Intelligent Garden, designed by Tom Massey and Je Ahn. Urban trees are under threat, with 30% dying within the first year of planting and they bring attention to the issue with an app on which you can talk to trees to find out how they are doing. 

“Last but not least, mushrooms were celebrated through display (and grow kits) at Caley Bros mushroom drinks, powders and supplement company collaboration. Their mission is to cultivate connections between people and the powerful potential of mushrooms. 

“Even fungi architecture was explored in the pavilion structure at Avanade Intelligent, with its mycelium-grown facade. Mycelium bonded the waste pulp wood together acting as a non-toxic glue, that can be composted back into the soil without harm.”

Homegrown high points

We might sound really biased when we say this, but we think an important part of the heart of the show was South African. Koos Bekker’s English hotel and estate, The Newt in Somerset, has been the sponsor of the show for the past four years, and they’ve brought undeniable cool to this pretty patch of London. It felt deeply comforting to be able to grab a class of Babylonstoren rosé in between sauntering around, but that was topped by being met by one of their team for a big, warm kuier. Visting celebrities like David Beckham and film icon Bianca Jagger were just as charmed by this, we hear.

The sister brands of Babylonstoren and The Newt were both represented at the show by actual staff members – a big contingent flew over from the Cape for the gig. This included a sizeable group from their respective gardening teams, who produced the spectacular Karoo Succulent Garden at the centre of the show. There is, it turns out, something wonderfully trippy – and pride-inducing – about standing in the red-earthed, rocky terrain of home, flanked by the sky-high plane trees and stately Christopher Wren-designed Royal Hospital Chelsea buildings.

And then to saunter a few metres along and come across the staggering South African stand – well, you can imagine how the levels of patriotism ticked up exponentially.

For it, designer Leon Kluge and artist-gardener Tristan Woudberg led a team of passionate volunteers who painstakingly prepared and arranged up to 25,000 stems of fynbos. This year’s display explored the fynbos of a multitude of South African indigenous habitats, from species typical of the regions of the Cape to the more subtropical greenery of KwaZulu-Natal.

RHS president Keith Weed CBE also presented Kluge and his team with the Lawrence Medal, which is awarded to the best floral exhibit over all the RHS shows throughout the calendar year. South Africa has not received this award before.

This was the final year of The Newt sponsorship, but we hope that the lekker local influence continues to be a marker of this global horticulture hotbed.

_{Image: Simone van der Colff, Retha Erichsen, Anja Joubert, supplied.}