The most important garden show of the year arrived with it's usual sense of excitement, despite being preceded by a worrying period of drought followed by a torrential downpour.

The weather this morning was not too bad, with only a light shower later in the day. However, I didn't have my camera with me, so the combination of having to use my phone for photos, the grey weather and the fact that it isn't that easy to take pictures at a busy Chelsea, meant that the pictures I did manage to take aren't that great

There are some very attractive show gardens on the main parade this year, including the winner of the coveted Best in Show award, 'The Laurent-Perrier Garden', designed by Luciano Giubbilei. However, I particularly liked some of the Artisan Gardens, including this one designed by Marylyn Abbott: 'The Topiarist's Garden'.

A lot of Lupins around this year at Chelsea.

The 'DialAFlight: Potters Garden' designed by 'Nature Redesigned' had a potting shed that looked like it had always been there. The clever design used a variety of mosses, aged tiles and bricks to look like an old abandon potting shed. It also had an attractive cottage style planting scheme with a wide variety of Aquilegia, Astrantia and Foxgloves.

I like the bold shapes and effective blue and lime green colour palette used by Tommaso del Buono & Paul Gazerwitzin for their 'Telegraph Garden'.

My favourite show garden of Chelsea 2014 is the 'M&G Garden', designed by Cleve West. His modern take on an ancient Persian Paradise Garden was deservedly awarded an RHS Gold Medal. I loved the idea of a cool oasis-like sanctuary set against the arid desert conditions. (Main picture above).

The impressively detailed central fountain almost seems to act as a barrier between the lush greenery of the shaded area on one side and the encroaching sand on the other. Yet even the 'desert' area was planted with bright display of herbaceous plants that thrive in hot dry conditions.