Celebrities call for permanent end to gnome ban at Chelsea flower show | Chelsea flower show
Celebrities who painted mythical creatures for the king’s garden at this year’s event say garden gnomes should make a permanent return to the Chelsea flower fair.
“Tasty” statues have been unwelcome since 1927 at the high-profile event, which begins in the grounds of Chelsea Royal Infirmary in south-west London on Tuesday. Speaking at the show’s press day, comedian and musician Bill Bailey and gardener and writer Alan Titchmarsh called on the Royal Horticultural Society to permanently lift the dwarf ban.
This year the show made a one-off decision to ease the ban on raising funds for the RHS’s school gardening campaign, an initiative to get children involved in gardening. The gnomes will be auctioned off throughout the week.
Brandishing a painted lawn ornament with an attractive purple and gold striped hat, Bailey said: “The origin of gnomes, as you well know, is of Latin origin. dwarfIt means living in the soil. The Romans used them as guardians of the garden and to ward off evil spirits. That’s why I think they are slandered so much.”
Titchmarsh, who painted his little one in a neat blue suit, agrees: “I don’t think there’s any harm in the little ones sneaking out now and then to remind us that you can have some fun.”
Speaking from the king’s garden, which includes an organic vegetable garden and a shed full of “garden curiosities,” the pair described their ornaments.
Titchmarsh said he adorned himself to match his outfit: “Mine’s in a blue suit to match me and he’s got a red and white striped tie but you can’t see him because he’s got a big beard.” He added that it took “years” to paint it.
Bailey said of his gnome: “Mine is a take on AI. When my gnome was delivered to me, the top of his hat was broken, and I fixed it with gold acrylic. This is kintsugi, the Japanese art of fixing with gold that celebrates imperfection, which is what AI can’t do.”
King Charles is said to have been willing to have the dwarf ban lifted so that some of them could be displayed in a private garden he designed with Titchmarsh. The monarch is a fan of fairytale characters and has one on his estate in Gloucestershire.
David Beckham, who designed the garden with the king and Titchmarsh, also painted a gnome for auction and chose pink and glitter to decorate it. Other celebrities who painted dwarves for auction at the show include Dame Mary Berry, Sir Brian May and his colleague Floella Benjamin.
Titchmarsh appears to have been persuaded by the king to make a U-turn on his views on rewilding the gardens. There has been a trend in recent years to plant wildflowers, considered weeds by some traditionalists, rather than mowing lawns to encourage wildlife.
Titchmarsh has in the past derided this as an “ill-conceived trend” that could “deplete the botanical riches of our gardens”.
However, the king requested that nature be given wildflowers and wild herbs, including nettles, to encourage butterflies to flutter around the garden.
Gardener and author Frances Tophill, who also designed the garden, said: “I was a bit nervous about putting weeds in there.”
But Titchmarsh said: “Those are wildflowers! I love nettles, they’re good for butterflies. No, we need them in the garden, we want to attract wild animals.”
He said he enjoyed working with the king and that it was a very enjoyable experience, adding: “Our ideas were very compatible.”
One of the things he wants to ban in gardens, especially on Sundays, is noisy machines such as leaf blowers. Titchmarsh said: “I think when you suddenly hear something mechanical it kind of takes away from the natural world as you know it and I would ban anything noisy on Sundays.”
He added that he never mows his lawn on Sundays and that others shouldn’t either: “I haven’t used a power tool on Sundays for years, not from any religious standpoint, but just because I think people should have one day a week of peace and quiet.”
