The 100. RHS Chelsea Flower Show - finally...

Anne and I liked visiting the Chelsea Flower Show so much - so why do I write so late about it?
We were lucky: on Saturday the sun shone. Masses entered - and no: we didn't see so many hats as on this picture:

To be true: we didn't see any hats - though no umbrellas either. But lots and lots and lots of people - two third women, I guess, sometimes with a tired, helpless husband in tow. "Ah! Look! There! Wonderful! Beautiful! Oh!" So many people were there that sometimes you were just able to take a photograph - and look at it at home! ...
First there were a row of theme gardens - some good, some kitsch - and a lot of stalls for buying something:

What do I remember especially? "The Secret Garden" (Ye Olde English Country Garden - style...);

and "The Garden of Enlightenment" (because we thought at first: Oh no - not again an old chestnut of  New Age-Things - but it was fun: a garden with books!

The Big Tent: an abundance of flowers, people, colours and scents. Here three examples in pictures.

I really, really enjoyed it - but you know: I am a (disciplined) Chaos lover, so I have to confess that I prefer a "living" garden or park. Here in the Show everything on display was oh so perfect, immaculate - it made me think of the old Zen story, where the Master told his pupil to go into the garden and take a rake and do away all the leaves from the  maple that had fallen onto the gravel. The pupil worked till everything was immaculate. Then the Master came, looked at it, shook the bow of the maple, and a few leaves fell on the gravel.
"Now it is right", said the Master.