ABSTRACT
In many ways not very much has changed. The size of gardens might now be much smaller, and in some cases the tiniest gardens have had the most expensive makeovers, but fashion and snobbery remain as rife as ever. This year’s favourites become obvious at the Chelsea Flower Show where, as in many shows, it matters on which day you were there. Chelsea is indeed part of the ‘season’ of open-air events that are the Establishment’s summer peek at the landscape: Henley, Wimbledon, Goodwood and the Lord’s Test are others. While it is common in gardening as all the arts for the famous proponent to pay lip service to the gardens of the poor, their versions are not for those without deep pockets. The so-called ‘cottage gardens’ in pictures by Helen Allingham are not those of the poor, whose gardens had to feed hungry mouths, but those of the wealthy ‘second-home owner’.
