{"id":11497,"date":"2026-04-13T07:56:24","date_gmt":"2026-04-13T07:56:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/?p=11497"},"modified":"2026-04-13T14:39:16","modified_gmt":"2026-04-13T14:39:16","slug":"whats-in-a-gnome","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/?p=11497","title":{"rendered":"What’s in a gnome?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Gay garden gnome\/Rocketnight\/Creative Commons<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

\u2018Well\u2019, she huffed crossly, \u2018I\u2019ve heard it all.  And Chelsea Flower Show of all places! Who decided this and why are some nearly sacred traditions being transgressed? Should we have a petition to stop it? Oh..apparently the King is behind it. Now come on Charles, we expected better from you.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what\u2019s all the fuss about? Well.. . you\u2019ll never believe it but\u2026 the august Royal Horticultural Society has lifted a 99-year old ban on garden gnomes on display at the Chelsea Flower Show.\u00a0 Yes, these cute little stone guys made in a variety of materials have not had an outing at Chelsea since 1927 for fear of \u2018lowering the tone\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So why the rule relaxation for 2026? Apparently the aim is to raffle a gnome to raise funds for the RHS\u2019s campaign for school gardening, which is an initiative to get children involved in horticulture. All well and good, but you won\u2019t believe who the King has invited to decorate a gnome for the raffle?\u00a0 Yes, it could not be more fitting \u2013 that well-known artist and style guru David Beckham.\u00a0 I guess it is on the level of \u2018Beckingham Palace\u2019, she admitted ruefully.\u00a0 As long as the gnome does not appear in tight-fitting underpants we should be safe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I gather that Beckham is not the only celeb who will be decorating gnomes this year: Cate Blanchett and Mary Berry have offered their creative services, so flower show regulars will be treated to an array of the little lads in the King\u2019s Garden.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So just how did we get here? It seems that gnomes have a mythical origin: Paracelsus, the Renaissance Swiss alchemist, referred to \u2018diminutive figures two spans in height who did not like to mix with humans\u2019.\u00a0 Small stone \u2018grotesques\u2019 became a fashionable addition to the gardens of the wealthy. By the mid-19th century the fashion had spread to many countries in Europe, starting in Germany and becoming very popular in France and Britain.\u00a0 In the early 20th century, the place to go and gnome gawk was the gardens in Henley-on-Thames of Sir Frank Crisp, a lawyer, microscopist and keen horticulturalist. He owned one of the largest collections of garden gnomes in the UK, and opened his gardens to the public on a weekly basis from 1910-1919.\u00a0 One wonders whether his collection was appropriated for the war effort, and if so, in what capacity?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But back to this year\u2019s Chelsea Flower Show. I truly hope that the decorated celeb gnomes raise pots of money from the great and the good, as schools nowadays need all the help they can get. Anything to get the little blighters off their screens, I say, but my last bit of information may raise the eyebrows somewhat: it seems that not content with lifting the gnome ban, the Show will also feature a \u2018sex garden\u2019 sponsored by a company that sells vibrators.\u00a0 It will be billed as an Aphrodite-themed pleasure garden with plants and flowers associated with love and sex.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In comparison, a David Beckham sequinned and glitter covered pink garden gnome seems to be positively highbrow.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As long as the gnome does not appear in tight fitting underpants we should be safe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":11500,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,297,298,182],"tags":[76,130,80],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11497"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11497"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11497\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11508,"href":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11497\/revisions\/11508"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/11500"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11497"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11497"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11497"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}