Hot weather an 'absolute catastrophe' for Chelsea Flower Show

Their world-famous show gardens, which can cost up to £250,000 each, are planned months ahead of the Royal Horticulture Society's annual showpiece, which kicks off on May 22.

But record temperatures this spring have seen many plants being grown in nurseries for the prestigious gardens dying.

Popular flowers such as iris, lilacs, wisterias, delphiniums, lupins and euphorbias are all blooming weeks earlier than normal. Designers, who have already submitted their garden plans to judges, now fear they may not be able to deliver.

Jinny Blom is one of the favourites to land the coveted Best Show Garden award for her Laurent Perrier-backed display, 'A Moment of Reflection'. But the designer, who has Prince Charles as one of her clients, said the long spells of sizzling sunshine had been an "absolute catastrophe" for her preparations.

She had been hoping to feature up to 15 different types of umbellifer (cow parsley).

She said today: "Chelsea is our Oscars when you know the eyes of the world are on you. I've been preparing for Chelsea since August last year and it was all going so well but now this hot weather has thrown everything. It's been an absolute catastrophe.

"I fear the heat more than anything else. No-one has a magic method for dealing with heat. All you can do is put things in the shade. You can only really hold a plant for three weeks.

"I went to look at my plants last week and the umbellifer, which are normally a dead cert to flower in May, had gone in a flash and are in an appalling condition now.

"I've cancelled everything I was going to do this week to drive round nurseries looking for substitutes. I hope the judges take into account that we've had the hottest April since records began when they see that certain plants aren't there."

Kelways, the UK's largest grower of peony and iris, is supplying Blom with flowers for her display.

David Root, general manager of the Langport, Somerset-based nursery, said: "Things are a nightmare at the moment.

"The hot weather has been unrelenting. It's the most challenging Chelsea in 15 years of me exhibiting without a doubt. If there's cold weather in the build you up can always warm things up. But when the weather is hot and dry options start to run out.

"The worst scenario is there's not enough irises for Jinny and she'll have to find other plants - there's no other option."

BBC Radio gardening expert Trevor Tooth has designed Lloyds TSB's garden at the show. Mr Tooth, who is based in Faversham, Kent, also said that the unseasonal heatwave was proving a "nightmare" for his best-laid plans.

He said: "Plants are doing things that I don't want them to. We've got a lot of plants that have started to flower. We've had to get them in the shade and slow them down.

"It's never been like this before. It's been a nightmare. Our delphiniums and lupins are starting to bud up too quickly. The lilacs have all flowered too early. I've got to cut the flowers off and bring them on again."

Peter Thomas, chair of the Society of Garden Designers, said: "When you want plants to flower just for a couple of days in a particular week, it is a fine art.

"It is now highly challenging because a lot of plants have flowered a month earlier than we are accustomed to. We're working with an unreliable climate.

"Designers planning to use them as a feature are desperately trying to hold them back or having to look for alternatives. Everyone is concerned because show gardens are a whole palette and if one of the plants is missing, such as lavender not being in flower, you get difficult areas which affect the whole visual relationship between plants.

"The really big names might have to resort to panic flying in of plants." But Bob Sweet, organiser of the show, said he was sure designers would come up trumps.

He said: "Throughout the history of the show, exhibitors have had to contend with ranging weather conditions - from unseasonably warm winters to snow in April.

"And every year the show features some of the finest displays of horticultural excellence in the world. The spectacular displays are always testament to the nurseries and growers specialist skills and expert knowledge."