Chelsea Flower Show in pictures today
MORE than 1,000 photographers applied for permits. Only a fraction made it through the gates. But, as his video and pictures show, persistence, and a helping hand from seasoned show man and Guernsey Press correspondent Bruce Parker, paid off for our picture editor Peter Frankland who spent Monday at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show.
Peter captured the beautiful, the brilliant and the just plain barmy for a four-page picture special inside today's Guernsey Press, as well as the video, above, which features an interview with Guernsey's clematis king Raymond Evison.
With the predicted gold medal for Mr Evison and his Guernsey Clematis display – plus a Spitfire nose sneaking into one exhibit by way of a timely nod towards the 70th anniversary Liberation celebrations – it was a day packed with horticultural wizardry, showmanship and the type of typically British rain which clearly knew its place: it cleared up just in time for the Queen's mid-afternoon arrival. Smiling and serene in aqua with accents of blue, she was hatless – but there were plenty who weren't.
Highlights included one model's exuberantly foliaged headdress – try balancing that for a day – and an equally extravagant serpent skullcap. Celebs, too, were out in force. 'Darling,' said Joanna Lumley when invited by Peter to nip across to Raymond's stand for a snap, 'I'd love to. But I'm being paid to stand here...'
The four-page picture special is free inside today's edition of the newspaper.
