Alan Titchmarsh's love of the flower show is still blooming after 30 years covering it for the BBC
Alan Titchmarsh calls a spade a spade ? a puzzling phrase, what else would you call it? Having said that, they probably do have other names for spades at the Chelsea Flower Show ? known for its pretentious flourishes as much as its high horticultural standards. Might Chelsea nowadays clash with Titchmarsh's hardy, down-to-earth Yorkshire approach? Apparently not: Britain's best-known television gardener has been covering Chelsea for the BBC for almost 30 years (he winces when reminded of this). And his enthusiasm, although professional, is unfeigned. I find myself, slightly to my surprise, warming to his sunny-side-up personality. He argues that the standard of gardening at Chelsea, always good, is better than ever and he reminds me of The Devil Wears Prada, where "Anne Hathaway laughs about the colour of a belt and Meryl Streep explains why it is important". Chelsea sets the trends and "pushes boundaries", he explains.
I have Titchmarsh to myself (a situation many a middle-aged woman would envy) in an oak-panelled room at Chawton House, Hampshire, where Jane Austen's brother once lived (Titchmarsh avoids interviews at home). I inquire about his waxwork at Madame Tussauds, which is apparently kissed so often (melting kisses?) that staff have regularly to clean the top of its head. Genuinely embarrassed, he says: "It is not in my interests to deny it."
He is married to Alison, a dance teacher, and has two grown-up daughters ? Polly and Camilla. I ask which plants ? or plant ? have been like family members, old flames or a dependable wife?
"The old flame I've loved for 50 years is the humble pelargonium. You can neglect them and yet they are good, shapely plants." He and I go on to bond unexpectedly over "Attar of Roses" (a pelargonium with a gorgeous, old-fashioned talcum powder scent). And what of new loves? "My head has been turned by Annabelle, a summer-flowering hydrangea, with floppy heads of creamy white, fading to palest green." But like many new loves, Annabelle is high-maintenance: a prop is needed to keep her upright.
Titchmarsh has 40 acres of land surrounding his Georgian farmhouse in Hampshire, where he employs two gardeners and gardens every day. "I was pulling out nettles this morning." His greatest ? and presumably rarest ? pleasure is "pottering". He is super-energetic, producing as a second career a crop of bestselling books. The latest novel is out in September and his collection of Gardeners' World columns, Tales from Titchmarsh, is out next month. On his ITV show, he has launched a competition to find the People's Novelist with HarperCollins. The goal is to make people "want to turn the page", he observes. He wonders aloud about popular fiction. What, after all, might "unpopular" fiction be?
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2011/may/22/alan-titchmarsh-chelsea-flower-show
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