2009 May » robertmealing.com

Chelsea Flower Show 2009

May 212009

I was lucky enough to get to go to the Chelsea Flower Show yesterday. It was everything I expected, and more. I could have easily spent a week there just taking photos, and would have loved to have had more time (and energy!) to have looked at everything in more detail, but at least I was able to see most of the things I had hoped to. I enjoyed every minute of it.

The big highlight for me was to get to see the four new roses introduced by David Austin. I wasn’t surprised to find that I really liked The Wedgewood Rose, it was the one I was looking forward to seeing:

The other 3 new roses introductions were less attractive to me:

The Lady of Shallot Rose:

Tam o’Shanter Rose

Kew Gardens Rose

Some of the show gardens were stunning:

And some of the collections of flowers displayed by vendors were remarkable:

And there was one floral designer in particular whose work I really loved, Zita Elze:

The entire gallery of photos can be found in my Chelsea Flower Show 2009 gallery.

Oxford in the Springtime

Oxford No Responses »

May 122009

Winter in Oxford was wonderful, but Spring has been full of surprises, and absolutely breathtaking.

It was a delight to see the first snowdrops burst from the ground, followed by daffodils, and then tulips. What I wasn’t prepared for was the trees to go into flower… wow! In California, the trees simply don’t put on a display anywhere like they do here, it looked like the entire city was painted with flowers.

Another delight was the lilacs that also came out in bloom, and the amazing scent filled the air while walking down Oxford’s charming streets.

The graveyard at nearby Church of St. Thomas the Martyr that had been covered in snow in February, now was so full of flowers, sometimes you could barely see the graves.

February:

May:

On May Day morning, there is a long standing tradition that everyone stays up all night to welcome in May Day at dawn at the Tower of Magdalen College. I’ve been looking forward to this since we moved here, and it was wonderful to be a part of the tradition.