At Chelsea, the English garden art

To probe the morale of our neighbors across the Channel, nothing like the Chelsea Flower Show. This contest of gardens as the Royal Horticultural Society organizes every spring in the heart of London, in the upscale neighborhood of Sloane Square, lets take the pulse of British society. And this in a much more entertaining than going to see pollsters and experts of the Office for National Statistics. Vintage 2011, which closed its doors on May 28, was no exception.

The number of spaces reserved for the competition is a first indicator. This year they were seventeen, four more than in 2010 and 2009, at the time of the "Chelsea of ​​the recession." But still five fewer than in 2008. To read in the flowers, so the worst of the crisis is past, if the home will not be found.

It should then look at the works of candidates. And here is the return of the exuberance and daring. There is more, as in 2009, enclosures called "credit crisis", to testify to the difficulty of exhibitors to find sponsors. Or "Artist's Garden in the open," referring to the appetite of the English credit for the City plummeted in the throes unprecedented since 1929.

Instead, we could see a "garden wheel" that the Irishman Diarmuid Gavin imagined after seeing the film by James Cameron, Avatar, a sort of shuttle-shaped eyes, invaded by the green, which takes a half-dozen passengers and 25 meters in the air. Or a hymn to Yorkshire's industrial past with the recovery by the city of Leeds a stone mill with a waterwheel true diameter of 3 meters to irrigate the surrounding land covered with flowers. And even the radius practice, the garden chain B & Q, the specialist national "do it yourself", leaves you speechless: a wall 9 meters high, with six floors on which grow as many tomatoes as salads, represents the future of urban ecologist.

One might think that it is time to euphoria. But this overlooks the fact that the marker of the Chelsea Flower Show, to be reliable, must be accompanied by a reduction coefficient. For if the phlegm of our neighbors is not a myth, it is forgotten when we talk about gardens and institutions, two British passions that fills the Chelsea Flower Show.

And it takes more than a deep recession followed by a recovery couch potatoes to spoil the party. Even the first world war is not fully reached: the show has not only broken two seasons in 1917 and 1918. During WWII, the Royal Horticultural Society has instead had to give up immediately - the army had requisitioned the land - but picked up his good habits as early as 1947, in a city where bombs had yet left gaping holes and where Food remained scarce. As for the general strike of 1926, it was just meant to delay the celebration a week.

Imperturbable as usual the Queen again opened the festivities. A discrete net in her hair, to keep the wind, very upset that day, the décoiffer Elizabeth II praised each other and, rejoicing to be at the head of a kingdom so fond of tradition. People side, the Chelsea Flower Show has also received, among others, the visit of the singer Ringo Starr, actress Gwyneth Paltrow and former Prime Minister John Major.

Not to mention the gentlemen of the City, which often benefit between a Pimm's and champagne, to advance their business: in the words of Philip Remnant, a banker at Credit Suisse, "is the most popular cocktail in London" . It also crosses the Russian oligarchs, wealthy Americans and other millionaires of Dubai, in the weeks following the call will be pleased to offer award-winning gardens worthy of the name, the English course. The empire no longer exists but the international reputation of the island of Albion is assured.

That said, in essence, that the Middle England who rushed to Chelsea. The 157,000 tickets sold for the occasion were also uprooted in sixteen days, a record. The costumes of flax, and panama branded outfits mingled with Laura Ashley dresses, miniskirts and thongs to, with a natural yet rare in this country.

"Chelsea is the spectacle," says Gavin. And the country of Shakespeare, we love. In fact, what we see nothing like the mother nature in its simplest form. Just walk along the Royal Hospital where the event takes place in the weeks preceding it to be convinced: this is a real construction site that stands before our eyes, with cranes, trucks ... Meanwhile, the flowers are preparing for the big day: some rest in the refrigerator, others tan in the UV lamp, according to their needs and climate of the time. It still does not limit itself to varieties of the season!

"People do not go to Chelsea to see the reality, but for the dream," said Tim Richardson, gardening columnist for the Daily Telegraph. He added: "They really like gardening for difficulty. And it certainly echoes the British identity."