Scent Of Power At The Garden Party; Heady mix of the hip and handsome among the hydrangeas
by Victoria Mather, The Evening Standard (London)
May 23, 2000
THE HEADY scent of power is the most intoxicating whiff in the air at the preview of Chelsea Flower Show. At what other event in the British social calendar would one find the Prince of Wales, Jeremy Irons, the Governor of the Bank of England Eddie George, Julian Lloyd Webber, a covey of Hambros and Amanda Burton, formerly of Brookside, gathered together for a cocktail sausage? This party among the pelargoniums is a hotbed of such exotic species: Sir David Rowland, the head of NatWest, Lord and Lady Saatchi, Lord Strathclyde, the leader of the Conservatives in the House of Lords, and Ben Elton. Gardening may be the new sex, but the great and the good gather within the hallowed environs of the Royal Hospital because Chelsea Flower Show is at the centre of our social psyche.
The show is a national celebration of our great passion for gardening: just add lashings of champagne.
Where will it all end? Perhaps Jeremy Irons, who had flown to the Chelsea preview from the Cannes Film Festival, and was tanned like teak - sorry, iroko - could just lie down on a gravel pathway as an art installation.