{"id":10289,"date":"2021-07-12T17:39:01","date_gmt":"2021-07-12T16:39:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/poorlittlerichgays.com\/?p=10289"},"modified":"2021-07-12T17:39:01","modified_gmt":"2021-07-12T16:39:01","slug":"lunch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/poorlittlerichgays.com\/?p=10289","title":{"rendered":"Lunch"},"content":{"rendered":"

Monday 12th July 2021<\/p>\n

Lunch was at 12.30. First of all, we met the Head of Plants. ‘A friend said to me: “You’re in charge of all the plants in Britain.” Well, I suppose I am.’ The Head of Plants and Royston are new on the Council. The little gilt chairs were out. Flowers on the table, placement and printed menu in each place: asparagus, lamb main, tea, coffee and petit fours. Dessert not mentioned. Maybe it was proposed at the planning stage but slashed out. The Head of Plants said they’re building a collection of ash trees that resist the die-back. But xylella is the big worry. The idea is to massively expand the growing of plants in the UK to avoid imports. This can be done. Very encouraging. Royston was pleased.<\/p>\n

Essentially we tended to the Nation all afternoon. Or rather Royston did with me lurking, at times hardly able to stand. Luncheon was served and was excellent. Very fresh and natural. The tent was beside the unimaginable Long Water that Charles 11 installed for Hampton Court, with the Wren facade at one end and at the other, infinity, the unknown, stretching beyond what the eye can see. Royston said that the Long Water, although Long, is remarkable shallow. \u00a0There was a Royal feel at the table with that Royal work of keeping the conversation going. My neighbour said he had an allotment at Guilford. He must have had more range than that in the allotment world but he didn’t say so. Otherwise our table was Britain in Bloom. Royston thought more could be done. One of the Britain in Bloom cohort was a former Head of Parks in the Far West and knew my minerals except not that they belong in part to me. Royston was surprised that I mentioned them. But my minerals are my only claim to importance these days.<\/p>\n

Our progress through the Show after luncheon was gruelling but superb. At times, I feared I would fail in my duty and keel on the spot. We met the Head of Royal Parks, the former Head of Chelsea Flower Show, a garden designer named Butterworth, a husband with a laser harp he’d built himself and front-of-house wife, the former editor of Gardens Illustrated, at least two huge cogs in the Royal Hort machine such as the Head of Money and the Head of IT to whom Royston urged greater unity with Britain in Bloom, some young women in frocks who wanted to have lunch with Royston – only in the toilets did we get any respite . Unfortunately it was while I was sunk in the lime grove that Royston took the opportunity to art direct the Chief Executive’s TV appearance, sending her to the far end of the Long Water, so as to be nearer the Wren facade. Displeasure might have arisen.<\/p>\n

I didn’t very much like the Butterworth garden, although it was a massive effort, brought off in only six weeks. Harsh contrasts of colour and texture. There were some charming small gardens. Maybe their budgets have been slashed hence no the beastly hard landscaping which is always horrible. A children’s corner showed flowers in jam jars and allotments (also adults), including the no-dig allotment. The absolute glory was the Tom Stuart-Smith garden, really the best show garden I’ve ever seen. Just a basic patch (no hard landscaping) with packed down paths and a scheme of silver blue with the faintest touch of orange provided by, of all things, red-hot pokers, but these ones were orange and emphasis lent by threads of Liatris pycnostachya, which is a firm fresh green upright feather, and scratchy silver trees. \u00a0It was faultless, utter utter heaven.<\/p>\n

\"The

The Luncheon Table at Hampton Court<\/p><\/div>\n

\"The

The No-Dig Allotment<\/p><\/div>\n

\"The

The Butterworth Garden, Hampton Court<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Crashed

Crashed Aeroplane: a ‘Save the Planet’ Installation<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Tom

Tom Stuart-Smith Garden: Utter, utter Heaven<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Tom

Tom Stuart-Smith Garden: Complete Heaven<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Monday 12th July 2021 Lunch was at 12.30. First of all, we met the Head of Plants. ‘A friend said to me: “You’re in charge of all the plants in Britain.” Well, I suppose I am.’ The Head of Plants and Royston are new on the Council. The little gilt chairs were out. Flowers on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10289","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-adrain-edge"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/poorlittlerichgays.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10289","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/poorlittlerichgays.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/poorlittlerichgays.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poorlittlerichgays.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poorlittlerichgays.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10289"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/poorlittlerichgays.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10289\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10297,"href":"https:\/\/poorlittlerichgays.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10289\/revisions\/10297"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/poorlittlerichgays.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10289"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poorlittlerichgays.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10289"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poorlittlerichgays.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10289"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}