As I said last year, I enjoy the Grand Pavilion more and more.  Once upon a time (and I have been coming to Chelsea for a good 20 years) I really couldn’t see the attraction.  All that peering at new introductions and admiring stiff rows of tulips or delphiniums.  And now?  I’m peering with the best of them, and loving it.

The dahlia above was new on me – Dahlia coccinea ‘Great Dixter’, what a fabulous pink with a good sized blooms (ie not too big) and darkish foliage.

Another dahlia I admired was Dahlia Twynings Revel, below.

Of the bulbs, I liked Tulip Havran,

Tulip Sky High Scarlet (didn’t look very scarlet to me, and all the better for it)

and on the beautiful Avon Bulbs stand, this gorgeous Ixia, Ixia Mabel.

There were two Verbascums which caught my eye, with a view to adding them to the Bronze Bed – Verbascum Clementine                      

and new on the Hardy’s stand, the rather peachier Verbascum Firedance.

The OH is always trying to persuade me to grow the blue Meconopsis but think if I was going to go to the effort, it would be this one I’d try – Meconopsis punicea ‘Sichuan Silk.’  Great name too!

Another exotic bloom was provided by this Leucospermum – L. lineare x glabrum ‘Tango’.  

There were two climbers to share from the Tynings stand – this one, Actinidia kolomikta I hadn’t seen since I visited a garden over 10 years ago and I saw it growing with a perfectly matched pink clematis growing through it.  Now where’s a spare wall where I could recreate that?

And this fabulous coloured Black Eyed Susan, Thunbergia ‘Orange and Red’

This Anthyllis, was also a wonderful firey colour

Another plant with local Duver wild relatives, was this super coloured thrift, Armeria pseudoarmeria ‘Joystick Red’.

The only shrub that stood out for me was this one, Indigo himalayensis ‘Silk Road’, with dainty pink pea flowers.

And to finish, three plants from the RHS Plant of the Year.  Whilst the winner, Viburnum plicatum f. tomentosum ‘Kilimajaro Sunrise’, was lovely, my two picks were the fabulously scented Harkness rose, Rosa Susie

and the gorgeous coloured, salvia from Dyson’s, Salvia ‘Love and Wishes’, which was placed third.

Yet another plant to add to the shopping list I fear!