Billed as 'the world's greatest living masterpiece', the Chelsea Flower Show comes into bloom again from May 25-28.

The grand masters of garden design are putting the finishing touches to the final show of the century and this year the 21 show gardens concentrate on the three Rs - romance, renaissance and refinement.

As ever, exhibitors have spent millions of pounds creating stunning backdrops for blooms at the peak of perfection. Visitors to the show will be taken on a horticultural hay-ride through the romantic fantasies of the Mediterranean and sedate Italian landscapes of the 21st century, to the lush oases of Abu Dhabi.

Not surprisingly, the Millennium is a recurring theme in this year's show. Glebe Cottage Plants have created an affordable, attainable and sustainable back garden for the 21st century.

It includes a herb garden, wildlife habitats compost heaps, water storage and even a solar potting shed. And its herbaceous plants are in colour themes of blue and gold, or silver, whites, coppers and purples.

The Daily Telegraph garden also looks to the future, combining new and traditional ideas. Birches, magnolias and Platanus orientalis digitata are planted with shrubs like cercis, phormiums, photinias, rhododendrons and yuccas and herbaceous plants like euphorbias, geraniums, irises, trilliums, and ferns and grasses.

Eating your garden is ever popular and this year the Evening Standard/Laurent-Perrier plot takes the theme of a chef's roof garden, demonstrating that even confined city spaces can grow plenty of things good enough to eat.

The vegetables, fruit, herbs and flowers will include many not normally available in supermarkets. And as a further temptation, there will be cooking demonstrations in the kitchen at the end of the garden.

'Where Lovers Meet' is the name of a Mediterranean garden of romantic fantasy created by Broomfield College. Statues of a man and woman gaze at each other across a sun-drenched courtyard overflowing with herbs and tomatoes.

There is a tree canopy of cork oak, olives, palms and mature grapes growing over a pergola, and a middle canopy of cistus, lavender, phormiums and convolvulus. Beneath are alliums, verbascum, sisyrinchiums, digitalis and salvias.

Love is also in the air in the Myles Challis garden, a romantic Italian cascade which has water flowing from the head of Apollo, through a giant clam shell and down into grotto pools. Palms, phormiums, bamboos and cordylines give a tropical, exotic lushness to the garden.

The illustrations of Beatrix Potter are the inspiration for Jacquie Gordon Garden Design. Potter fans will recognise the vegetable garden, lily pond and the gate under which Peter Rabbit squeezes.

Peter, Benjamin and Flopsy Bunny scamper between box-edged beds overflowing with herbs, flowers for cutting, lots of vegetables and soft fruit.

From old-style charm, Dean and Furbisher go high-fashion, using timber decking in their garden. The Lingard and Styles Landscape garden examines the relationship between light and shadow and, unusually, takes as one of its themes the health hazards of over exposure to the sun.

Elsewhere, charities are given a high profile.

Help The Aged celebrates the UN International Year of Older Persons. The garden, designed by Naila Green, uses five fountains around a main pool to represent the five continents.

The Marie Curie Cancer Care/Yellow Pages garden uses symbolism for its theme, 'Hope Springs Eternal.'

And designer Bruce Oldfield, a former Barnardo boy, brings a high fashion touch to the Express Horti-couture garden by designing an outfit to mark similarities between garden and dress design.

l I'm a big fan of growing bags and now is the time to get moving with them. Use them to grow a huge range of fruit, vegetables and even flowers. Tomatoes, peppers, courgettes, aubergines, cucumbers, marrows, melons and strawberries are ideal.

Use a knife to cut out the planting holes and don't forget to pierce the sides to allow for drainage.

Pot-grown plants like tomatoes can be planted straight into the bag. Water them in well and keep watering regularly as bags can dry out very quickly in the summer heat.

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