RHS Chatsworth, a grand day out!

This was my first visit to Chatsworth, both as a venue and for an RHS show there. Given I visit a lot of gardens I have been extremely remiss in not seeing this iconic Capability Brown landscape before now.

This is Chatsworth’s second year hosting one of the RHS monumental shows and it is an incredible feat of organisation and logistics, as are all of their shows! The planning for these events takes real skill and for the designers and nurseries attending it can be the pinnacle of months of planning.

So, what did I have on my ‘must see’ list?

Naturally Orchids, there is  a huge instalment of over 5ooo, grown by Double H Nurseries in Hampshire.

Chatsworth was once home to one of the most extensive and rare Orchid collections in the world. John Gibson was instrumental in collecting many new varieties from the wild for the Duke of Devonshire and his Head Gardener Sir Joseph Paxton. So this display is something of a homecoming for Orchid lovers.

Their display of Phalenopsis and other exotic Orchids  has been designed by Jonathan Moseley. There will also be talks and advice clinics to look forward to throughout the week for those of you who love these exotic beauties. For those of you wanting an insects eye view theres also a chance to try out a virtual reality experience of how insects see things!

What I hadn’t realised, and this is incredibly exciting, is this would introduce me to a brand new series of scented Phalenopsis that have been 25 years in the breeding! I feel very honoured to now be the proud owner of 2 of their 3 new scented varieties. There are 3 which will soon be launched into supermarkets near you and they really are mouth wateringly gorgeous. Look out for ‘Diffusion’ with purple/pink petals, this beauty is a holder of the RHS AGM. Along with ‘New life’, another RHS AGM holder, whose petals are a delicate pink with a yellow lip. Finally ‘Sunny smell’ who’s blooms have a tropical, cheerful feel in yellow with shades of pink.

Next up on my ‘must see’ list

Paul Hervey-Brookes  has designed the Brewin Dolphin Garden, which I’ve been following with interest on Twitter for the last few weeks. For the last couple of years I’ve followed Paul’s journey, you’d have a harder heart than mine not to be touched by the sorrows hes been through yet his courage throughout it all has been inspiring.

His credentials both as a horticulturalist/botanist and a designer are utterly stunning! His work seems to consistently reinvent itself. He takes each new challenge and seems to look at it in an entirely different manner from the last, totally ignoring the idea that a garden designer has to develop a ‘style’ which can often box a designer into a corner, their popularity dependent entirely on the whims of fashion. If I seem a bit of a fan girl here its because I am, even if you ignore the fact he’s one of the Pershore club like myself, its his ability to seamlessly slip from cottage garden frothiness to brutalist modernism with incredible ease and always picking exactly the right plants to complement the hard landscaping involved.

 

This garden has been inspired by a lost Chatsworth village, a disappeared part of local history that stood in the way of Capability Browns plans. The village now just a ghostly memory that haunts the land reappearing when weather conditions allow the grass to dry out and its streets and houses are laid out once more in the turf, only to vanish again when the rains come.

The hard landscaping reflects local traditional building materials and methods, whilst the planting uses many plants we will all be familiar with. One comment made, not by myself, was that he manages to stitch them together in such a way that the plants themselves look new and exciting, which I thought was an excellent description!

Inside the cathedral like space, which seems so hard from the outside there is a feeling of warmth and serenity, its like hiding in plain sight. You get glimpses of the world beyond but are totally hidden within its structure. Its also worth mentioning the finishing detail for an area which few will actually see up close is absolutely stunning even down to the beautiful vases of flowers on the tables.

The insect life also loved the garden giving me the best view of a Mayfly I’ve ever had!

I also have a new favourite fern, sadly I don’t know its name but it looks stunning with this Astrantia

Surprises from around the show

I had a look at the show gardens where I fell in love with this one by Phil Hurst called “The Great Outdoors”. I loved the planting of bright colours giving it a feel of vibrance. The hard landscaping includes dark wood decks which appear to float over deep pools of water. The main path is a beautiful ochre that looks a bit like crushed sandstone. This leads to a wonderful structure, that I hesitate to call a pergola purely because of its jaunty shape, in a restful green oasis. For a small space there is so much movement going on here yet it doesn’t feel overly busy and its something that could easily be transferred to a small urban garden.

Next up were the long borders where combinations of plants stole the show

And of course the plant marquees and nurseries around the site, I did succumb to one or two beauties!

One of the main things that struck me as being distinctly different to Chelsea and Hampton was a feeling of inclusivity, if you used to go to the Malvern shows about 10 years ago this is how they felt. It truly does feel family friendly, its not a set for people to pose for the press, it has educational, fun stuff. Large spaces for your wild things(children) to run free. Lots of gorgeous stalls selling art, fabrics, jewellery… pretty much everything you could ever think of! Yes there are beautiful show gardens and installations, yes there are amazing nurseries but there’s something very different, very special about Chatsworth and I think I’ve found my new favourite show!