I love the excitement of the Chelsea Flower Show and, even if it sometimes seems more about show biz than gardens, the Royal Horticultural Society’s premier show still reigns supreme in the garden world. Here are ten things you should know about Chelsea Flower Show:

1 This year there are lots of ideas for keeping gardens environmentally-friendly. Even if you don’t believe in global warming you have to face up to the fact that our weather has changed. Drought – or flooding – annihilates gardens that aren’t prepared. Look closely at the show because the green theme isn’t only about rainwater collection, composting and chemical-free weed and pest control. This year every exhibitor has had to meet exacting green standards set out by the RHS. Exhibitors cannot use invasive plants, non-sustainable timber or petrified timber fossil stone. And designers have had to give a commitment about how and where their gardens are disposed of at the end of the show.

2 Topiary is also big this year and it goes beyond using box. Chelsea veteran Tom Stuart-Smith is using cloud-pruned hornbeam; cubes of Calamagrostris and Buxus feature in Clare Agnew’s garden and Robert Myers is using myrtle panels.

3 Sloane Square, the tube station and the area around the show always gets a little green and flowery around show time and, this year, fashion designers have caught Chelsea fever. Manolo Blahnik has made a limited edition of rose-smothered shoes; Liberty’s has come up with an ‘enchanted garden’ silk scarf for the show while LK Bennett is using its own floral collection to inspire it’s show garden by Rachel de Thame.

4 This is the Chelsea Flower Show design forum’s second year. James Alexander Sinclair and I will be chairing, as we did last year. Tickets are free in the Great Pavilion - it is a great opportunity to put your questions to some of the world’s greatest designs and plantsmen and women. And this year, at 3pm on Thursday I’ll be going head-to-head with The Times' Stephen Anderton and The Garden magazine’s Chris Young for a discussion about whether design is more important than plants.

5 Nurseries and growers use Chelsea to launch new varieties of plant. Some of these introductions are great – others aren’t but you can judge for yourself in the Great Pavilion. Details are sparse because growers like to keep their new plants secret until the last moment. The clematis king Raymond Evison is introducing ‘Rebecca’; Matthewman Sweet Peas and Eagle Sweet Peas have new varieties; Dibley’s Nurseries has come up with a yellow streptocarpus ‘Alissa’ and David Austin has three new roses.

6 Up-and-coming designers include Trevor Tooth who is making a garden inspired by Frank Lloyd Wright. I’m going to be watching last year’s winner, Sarah Eberle, who won Chelsea’s top award for her controversial Mars garden last year. I loved it. Many didn’t.

7 Are gardens art? In the eighteenth century Alexander Pope and others reckons that they were and, at this year’s show, the Chinese artist Shao Fan suggests the same with a garden showing the connection between fine art, landscape and urban planning

8 Vertical planting has always been the answer for tiny gardens and in the 1990s the idea was reinvented by French designer Patrick Blanc who made walls of planting with pockets of plants dangling as well as climbing up high buildings. Pip Probert is one of several designers at this year’s show to experiment with Blanc’s ‘living walls’ and use them to deaden noise and improve the look of inner cities.

9 Make the most of this year’s Chelsea because a ho-ha from local residents may force the show’s organisers to apply for planning permission next year. Which could mean that the show doesn’t happen. I have a sneaking suspicion that nobody’s going to let one of the jewels in London’s crown (it brings in about £500 million a year) disintegrate over a planning law - but who knows?

10 If the razzmatazz, the cameras, the celebs and politicians start getting you down, head for show stalwarts such as Hilliers in the Great Pavilion who have won 62 consecutive gold medals for their plants – a well-deserved record.

Early morning is the best time to visit the show – before the crowds get overwhelming. If you haven’t already got a ticket, try the ticket line on 0870 842 2234 or www.rhs.org.uk/chelsea

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