Chelsea Flower Show: Shops for everyone

Just as exhaustion struck on the hottest day of the year, a young man popped off the Tregothnan stand and handed me an instant Cornish Cream Tea. From leaves grown on the Tregothnan estate, a cuppa has never tasted better.

I turned round to see

the coolest plant containers from Bronzino (above right). Made from

solid copper and zinc they put any other pot I've seen in the shade.

Meanwhile, my old friend The Allotment Shop still has the best garden string in town and a variety of must-haves for any allotmenteer.

(photographs: Edwina Sassoon)

During Chelsea Flower Show week, ANYTHING GOES as Cartier in Sloane Street showed us...

How cool is being such a prize winner outside the show ground?

(photographs: Edwina Sassoon)

Top Hat at Chelsea Flower Show, Old Hat at the Allotments

The ingenuity of Chelsea Flower Show hats leaves Royal Ascot's attempts at the starting gate. My fav (above) comes from Kate Bainbridge of Simply Flowers

At the allotments, multi-tasking hats from around the world get put to good use (above right)

(Flower Show photograph:

(c) Edwina Sassoon)

Chelsea Show Flower Arrangements

Interflora's Progression gives Pom-poms

a whole new meaning - no wonder they are Gold Medalists this year; Florigene's stunning Moon-series gives carnations a whole new colour.

Down at the allotments, our black and yellow sunflowers are as stylish as the rest of them; blue bottles recycled into specimen vases.

Photographs: (c) Edwina Sassoon

Chelsea Flower Show and Allotments support the B(ee) word

"If the bee disappeared off the surface of the globe, then man would have only four years of life left," said one of the world's most famous allotmenteers, Albert Einstein. Global Stone socks this information to us by engraving the quote on the wall (see above) of their Bee Friendly Plants Garden designed by Janey Auchincloss

The Royal Horticultural Society's Biodiversity Display offers bugs stylish apartment accommodation designed by Andrew Fisher Tomlin and Stuart R Thomas (top right)

Meantime, lacewings (gobblers of aphids who like to take refuge in hollow sticks & canes) can relax in high-rise living courtesy of the Bradstone Biodiversity Garden (right)

But if you really fancy a country cottage best, slope off to the allotments and create an authentic, completely recycled bug hotel.

Photographs (c) Edwina Sassoon

Chelsea Flower Show style/Allotments style

Places of Change garden. Eden Project

in partnership with

HOMES & COMMUNITIES AGENCY,

COMMUNITIES & LOCAL GOVERNMENT,

HOMELESS LINK

Almost the first garden we saw included this wonderful full-size recycled 'plastic bottle greenhouse', the bottles linked and supported by canes. Per chance, I've been collecting used bottles all winter with a more modest version in mind, but who knows now I've seen this!

Down at the allotments, our greenhouses come in many shapes and sizes; some seedlings have their own individual homes.

Photographs (c) Edwina Sassoon