Nothing heralds the approach of summer more than the
Chelsea Flower Show, especially in its centenary year, and tickets are selling fast. Obviously the designs for the 2013 show are still mainly under wraps, but this year promises to look to the future as well has harking back over the last 100 years.

100 Years of the Chelsea Flower Show
For 2013 we are promised 15 show gardens, 11 fresh gardens and 8 small artisan gardens to whet our horticultural appetites, accompanied by 150 florists and nurseries and more than 200 trade stands. Amongst the other exhibits will be the Evolving Garden, dealing with on-going environmental issues and of course the Floral Pavilion, which will include blooms from the original 1913 show.
Experts will be on hand to offer advice for your gardens, the gardening century will be illustrated in photographs and
Opera Holland Park will also be involved with a flower themed concert.

RHS Chelsea Flower Show
Reminding us of what an amazing year 2012 was, Delancey's East Village will be a garden modelled on last year's Olympic Park and laid out by landscape designer Marie-Louise Agius.

East Village Show Garden
This year the Royal Horticultural Society is asking the public to choose the RHS Chelsea Flower Show Plant of the Centenary. A list of 10 plants launched by the RHS from each decade of the exhibition has been selected and votes can be cast online or at the show itself. Each entrant is proposed by an amateur gardener 'Plant Champion' to argue why their choice should win the accolade. Contenders for the award include Lupinus Russell Group from 1933-1942,

Lupinus Russell Group
Geranium Wallichianum 'Rozanne' from 1993-2002

Geranium Wallichanium 'Rozanne'
and, my own garden favourite, Erysimum 'Bowles's Mauve' from 1973-1982.

Erysimum 'Bowles's Mauve'
Whether you are able to snap up the final remaining tickets, or have to settle for watching the TV coverage, this year's show is bound to inspire amateur and professional gardeners alike. It's been such a long, cold winter and I'm sure our greenfingers are all itching to get to work.