Last week's Chelsea Flower Show produced all sorts of weird and wonderful display – we sent photographer Charlie Hopkinson along to record his favourite sights.

It’s always the same at these exhibitions: there are always a few wooden actors around…

Not the result of a lengthy queue, but rather a Royal Navy serviceman at the CWGC Centenary Garden

Topiary temptation for anyone hoping to capture a different view of the displays

The wooden animals on display were extraordinary…

…such as the horses…

…and the clashing stags showing that sticks and stones really can break bones…

If you go down to the Chelsea Flower Show today, you’re sure of a big surprise…

Nigel Slater caught up with Country Life’s gardens editor, Kathryn Bradley-Hole

Oriental influences were in evidence as always

It was hard to believe that some of the gardens were merely temporary creations…

“I couldn’t BELIEVE it when I saw someone else wearing the same dress as me!”

The prettiest tuk-tuk we’ve ever seen…

Anyone for ice cream?

James Alexander-Sinclair poses in front of the Zoe Ball Listening Garden that he designed

Some of the gardens brought the indoors outdoors

The Breast Cancer Now Garden, designed by Rith Willmott

Oranges were not the only fruit. But there were plenty of them in evidence.

The overall winner of best show garden was James Basson’s M&G Garden, an evocation of a disused quarry in Malta

The Morgan Stanley Garden by Chris Beardshaw