Many of you will be watching the week long coverage of the RHS Chelsea Flower Show on the BBC all this week. This year was the first year I decided to brave the crowds to see it for myself and see how it compares to the other large flower shows around the country.

The first big difference really are the show gardens, many more than you will see elsewhere and with much more complex landscaping and lavish expense. Some of the gardens like the Yorkshire garden look like they have been there for centuries but in reality have been put in in the space of a few weeks.

It is also wonderful to walk around and speak to many of the designers themselves. John Everiss from the Myleoma Garden spent a long time talking to us about how the garden was constructed, the challenges they faced and what will happen to it after. For celebrity spotters we seemed to be followed around by the BBC with James Wong and Sophie Rayworth and the delightful Reverend Richard Coles who had just been interviewed.

For plant lovers if you are inspired you can pick up plant lists as you go round the gardens and many of the plants will be shown again by suppliers in the enormous floral marquee. This year the floral marquee was covered by sumptuous irises and lupins which were heavily featured in the gardens as well as more unusual South African plants, tree ferns and ferns, tropical and carnivorous house and conservatory plants.