Bloomin' Marvelous Business

Horse racing at ascot, rowing at Henley, tennis at Wimbledon — and the Chelsea Flower Show? Among the lite fixtures of Britain's summer calendar, gardening might seem somewhat out of place. Not to Britons. A centuries-old national passion for this pastime has ensured that the annual Royal Horticultural Society show is greeted with as much interest and social frisson as Ascot's meet for the sport of kings.

This week's four-day event, now in its 81st year at Chelsea in London, attracts Europe's social and business establishment, hours of daily TV coverage and, for the second year running, Prince Charles as...

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