“Can regular people go the RHS Chelsea Flower Show?” I asked Wil as we watched a BritBox recording of the flower show. “What happens to the plants when the show is over?”

“If you pay and I don’t know,” was his response to my questions. We haven’t been to the Chelsea Flower Show, but now that I know I can go, I've added the event to my calendar: 2026 RHS Chelsea Show, May 19-23.

And about the plants after the show? According to the BBC Countryfile site, “Every year at 4pm on the last day of the show, a bell rings. This marks the 'great plant sell off' when exhibitors sell any plants they don't want to take home with them . . . All of the flower show gardens in the Chelsea Flower Show must have a plan to relocate, reuse or repurpose the garden after the show finishes.”

Even after applying to the Royal Horticultural Society to have a garden at the show, even after submitting documents and drawings of your design, even after spending thousands of dollars and getting a sponsor and working for about three weeks to create your garden on the grounds of the Royal Hospital Chelsea in London, all those beautiful, spectacular gardens are uprooted and gone. A bit of a letdown to the five-day flower show that is graced with a visit from royalty!

That first garden God created was even grander than Chelsea until Adam and Eve heeded some bad gardening advice. God still held out the promise of a visit from royalty. This king's visit was met more with curiosity (and a good share of animosity) than with fanfare.

We see this curiosity one day when large crowds gathered around Jesus, who began telling a story: “A sower went out to sow . . . .” I can imagine potential Chelsea Flower Show gardeners edging closer as Jesus talked. They recognized this language of sowing and planting; what they didn’t recognize was the one telling the story nor its eternal truths.

Even his disciples needed the story explained, so Jesus did. “Hear then the parable of the sower: When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what has been sown in his heart. This is what was sown along the path. As for what was sown on rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy, yet he has no root in himself, but endures for a while, and when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately he falls away. As for what was sown among thorns, this is the one who hears the word, but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and it proves unfruitful. As for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands it. He indeed bears fruit and yields, in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty.” (Matthew 13:18-23)

It's easy to stroll through beautiful gardens of the here and now with no thought of the eternal or with too many thoughts of worries and cares, and both are unfruitful pursuits. Instead, may we cultivate the wisdom from above that is “first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere.” (James 3:17).

May our lives overflow with abundance of fruit perfectly entwined around the Vine that gives life forever.