UNTIL IT GOT a fringe festival, the Chelsea flower show used to put off some people because of the middle-class, middle-and-older-aged image of its supposed attenders.
For the fifth Chelsea Fringe, however, even edgy East London plays a big part in the alternative garden festival that links design, food, art, poetry, music poetry, science and music to horticulture for three weeks from Saturday 21 May 2016-Sunday 12 June 2016.
Showing the way again has been the Dalston Eastern Curve Garden, which this year hosts “The molecular cube: a hidden garden”.
Two women present a garden that combines art and science. Eva Galante and Christian Capelli say: “Look through microscope lenses to enter a microscopic and macroscopic world.”
Other free Chelsea Fringe 2016 events in Hackney environs:
* What’s the buzz?: learn which flowers bees most love. Lauriston School’s award-winning vegetable garden will run workshops alongside stalls offering plants, cream teas and gin. Lauriston School, Lauriston Road, Victoria Park E9 7JN, Saturday 21 May, noon-5pm
* Perfume in Georgian London: antique store Town House presents some talks by horticulturist Stephen Nelson on the English garden and its link to perfume over the past four centuries. Town House, 5 Fournier Street, Spitalfields E1 6QE, Tuesday 31 May, 3pm-4pm
* Perfume: a century of scents: still on scent and scent ability,
Lizzie “Odette Toilette” Olstrom, pictured at top, will talk about 20th-century perfume and its simulation of nature. Olstrom, who has worked with Aesop and other brands, is, as it happens (hmmm), the author of Perfume: a century of scents, which may well be mentioned more than once. Town House, Sunday 5 June, 3pm-4pm, booking essential
* Pick a flower, paint a flower, plant a flower: a chance to visit another award-winning food garden, this one on the modernist Cranbrook Estate in Bethnal Green. Organisers say: “Pick a flower from the garden or choose one we have already picked and create an artwork based on it. Afterwards plant wildflower seeds in the grounds of the community centre, in the garden, or in a pot to take home with you.” Cranbrook Estate, Mace Street E2 0RD, Sunday 5 June, noon-4pm
There are many events outside NE London, including Robert Bradford’s “Flower Poodle” at the Rebecca Hossack Gallery, 2A Conway Street W1T 6BA. It’s mentioned because my editor liked the dogginess of the artwork.
* Pick a flower, paint a flower, plant a flower: a chance to visit another award-winning food garden, this one on the modernist Cranbrook Estate in Bethnal Green. Organisers say: “Pick a flower from the garden or choose one we have already picked and create an artwork based on it. Afterwards plant wildflower seeds in the grounds of the community centre, in the garden, or in a pot to take home with you.” Cranbrook Estate, Mace Street E2 0RD, Sunday 5 June, noon-4pm
There are many events outside NE London, including Robert Bradford’s “Flower Poodle” at the Rebecca Hossack Gallery, 2A Conway Street W1T 6BA. It’s mentioned because my editor liked the artwork. Sad?
Hamish Scott 060516
* Best check Eventbrite in advance for take-up of any event that interests you.