Fifteen live piranhas in their underwater hunting ground and a bikers’ garden of true grit should bring a frisson of nervous excitement to this year’s Chelsea.
Designer and ‘This Morning’ TV gardener David Domoney’s Aqua Hortis in the Grand Pavilion (which took Silver Gilt last year) features five biotopes of underwater gardens from all over the world including a Piranha Hunting Ground. “They’re the size of your foot and some mean fish,” says Domoney who has special permission from the RHS to bring the piranhas to the show. “They’re a definite ‘first’ for Chelsea.”
Another ‘first’ is his Urban Garden ‘Ace of Spades’ inspired by listening to the Motorhead record of the same name whilst working on his motorbike. “It’s the bikers’ anthem and I thought that as they love the countryside and the freedom of the open road they ought to have somewhere to relax behind the garage,” he explains.