Its a virtual world for Chelsea for the second year running and if you, like me, are hanging out for your flower fix here’s how to access it!
Also brag alert, the header photo was a garden I helped build back in 2007!
Given the weather maybe the fact that the Chelsea Flower Show has gone virtual again for 2021 is a blessing in disguise. Relentlessly cold, the task of bringing enough plants to that peak of perfection would have been tougher than ever! But with this being the second year of no Chelsea how will that affect a very niche industry of show gardens and what can we expect from this years virtual Chelsea?
Continue reading “Chelsea 2021 – The virtual Chelsea!”
Floral fantasia at RHS Hyde Hall with Thompson and Morgan
Set in the old vegetable garden T&M have created a wonderfully colourful display of some of their bedding plants available from seed and plug plants
Heres just a few of them on show!
Imagine an entire garden just dedicated to bedding plants, a riot of colour and scent! Literally every way you turn there is an extravaganza of shapes and forms, they tumble from towers, explode from baskets, scramble up spires, drip from containers and carpet the beds.
Well imagine no more! You can see this vision for real at RHS Hyde Hall from the 4th June to 30th September. Thompson & Morgan have created a breathtaking display using every available bedding plant you can think of and some you’ve possibly never heard of.
Its rare these days to see displays of this magnitude. Growing up I remember public spaces, such as parks, would often have such bedding schemes that were incredibly complicated. The skill, the time and the effort that would be put into designing and growing the plants for this are phenomenal. Sadly for this reason most public spaces are given over to low maintenance programmes now and if I’m honest I miss this. Yes, it can be garish and overstated. Yes, they are loud, cheerful and brightly coloured… but honestly, is that really so bad?
No, its not chic, its not thought of in polite gardening circles as stylish or understated. For me that is the joy of it though. Its fairgrounds and seaside, its sheer vivacity is uplifting! Its joyful, it shouts, its summer and ice creams and maybe its time we had more of this in our life?
Ok, maybe you don’t have to fill your garden with every colour or variety imaginable, you could just choose one or two of these gems to bedazzle your friends and neighbours. Often less is more but there is a return in interest to some of the more old fashioned flowers in the gardens around the country. Take the meteoric rise in Dahlias popularity in the last few years.
I’d like to share Some of the plants that caught my eye as I wandered round and hopefully you will see something that inspires you but Id really recommend visiting yourself as this is just a fraction of whats there.
Osteospermum ‘Blue eyed beauty’
I adore Osteospermums, they just keep going! They don’t mind drought conditions which means less watering, and come in almost every colour. My very first was a variety called ‘Whirligig’ which had an odd mutant petal shape. This one has the most glorious colour combination of a butter yellow and a deep amethyst centre with just a hint of orange on the anthers, very Christopher Lloyd!
Osteospermum ‘Berry white’
This Osteospermum is so new on the market its still protected by trademark! Part of a new range of double Osteospermums which cope well in low light conditions and unlike its single flowered relations the flowers stay open at nightfall. Its petals have a gentle magenta flush and the centre is a deep raspberry.
Calceolaria ‘calynopsis series- Orange’
For sheer oddness and prolific flowering the award has to go to the recently introduced Calynopsis series. As a child I chose a Calceolaria as ‘my plant’ and I still remember it fondly. It lasted, despite my irregular ministrations and possible abuse for what seemed like forever. My mum called it a ‘poor mans orchid’ but they go by many common names, most often slipper or pouch flower. She would carefully deadhead it on my behalf and I suspect its success was down to her care more than mine. Seeing this plant brought back many happy memories. I’ve always thought they look a bit like cheerful muppet faces but regardless of all these associations there’s no denying their impact!
Grown from seed they are a biennial but the Calynopsis series are currently only available as plug plants.
Celosia argentea ‘Kelos Fire Purple’
Another great new introduction, this member of the Amaranth family would normally be very dependent on day length to trigger flowering but extensive breeding has made this particular variety day length neutral, reaching up to 14 inches tall they make a real statement either in pots or in the border. Attractive foliage with feather like plumes held erect in great numbers, whats not to love!
Ageratum ‘High tide’
Ageratum is one of the first bedding plants I sowed and grew for myself, at the time it wasn’t often seen, the heyday of its popularity had been as a summer carpet bedding plant. Breeding has given us a taller more floriferous plant which can in fact be used as a cut flower! Much taller than its predecessor it holds up well as a border plant rather than just a bedder.
Thompson and Morgan are also putting a lot of time and effort into breeding new plants and I felt very honoured to be shown some of their new introductions both in bedding plants and vegetables!
Alstromerias have seen a massive rise in popularity and not only have they bred an extra tall variety which can hold up to the British winter but they’ve also got a new one they’ll be releasing for sale which can grow and flower to 3ft from seed in one season!
Also Begonia fragrant falls series
And last but by no means least! ‘Sunbelievable’ a sunflower with good sized heads that can produce over a 1000 blooms over a summer!! And the bees absolutely love it!
So if youre looking for this summers ‘must haves’ in bedding plants head over to RHS Hyde Hall for your inspiration!
#RHSHamptonCourt is over for another year but what did you bring home with you? Heres some of my flower choices from this years show
All the beautiful gardens at Hampton Court will have disappeared now, the only evidence they were ever there will be some slightly yellow but soggy grass, some trampled areas from the thousands of feet that have passed by and some slightly perturbed bees looking for the flowers that they were sure were there yesterday!
If you didn’t get a chance to visit heres a look at which plants caught my eye both in the gardens and the floral marquee
Firstly out in the gardens, there are always a few plants it seems that every designer includes. Last year it was a very popular dark purple, almost black Agapanthus and Achillea cassis in various scarlets and pink forms. This year it seems the must have plants for Hampton were …
calycanthus x raulstonii ‘Hartlage wine’
Aka: Carolina allspice or sweetshrub
Named after the student who created the cross, Richard Hartlage. The plants parents are Sinocalycanthus chinensis (Chinese species) with Calycanthus floridus (U.S. species) in 1991 at the JC Raulston Arboretum at North Carolina State University.
It prefers growing in a slightly shady position to get the best performance from it. Lightly prune for shape directly after flowering.
I think I saw this on about 5 gardens around the showground and on at least 1 display in the marquee and I’m now in love with it!
Senecio candicans ‘Angel Wings’
I saw this a few times last year but this year it was in literally EVERY garden! Understandable, its a striking plant. A relatively new introduction with the aid of micro-propping supplies have been bulked up to epic proportions. Its drought tolerant, handy given this years weather, and really doesn’t care what type of soil you have so long as its not sitting in a bog garden.
Its beautiful silver, felted leaves are its real selling point and also give you the clue it prefers full sun.
I always spend ages in here as this is the place you’ll see the new, the old favourites and sometimes some stunning rarities
Dibleys always have an excellent display of Streptocarpus and as houseplants go you really cant fault them. They don’t mind indirect light, in fact they prefer a slightly darker corner. If given a feed they will flower almost continuously. Easy to propagate either through division or for the more adventurous spirit through leaf cuttings!
Going through old pics of their display from previous years I see I have photographed this particular variety multiple times so its obviously one im drawn to and at present I only have 1 Strep in my collection I might have to remedy that… although it does have to be said my dad has far more success with them than I do, I think I neglect them a bit too much!
Going with the tender plant theme another house plant I love beyond words (but have little success with if im honest, I think I love them too much) are the Zantendeschias from Brighter Blooms.
There are 2 main types of Zantendeschia, the taller, hardy types with predominantly white flowers and the tender, shorter varieties with coloured blooms like these below. All will form a rhizome and I think this is where ive mistakenly given up on mine in the past as they have gone dormant and ive thought ive killed them, its also possible ive overwatered them and the rhizome rotted off. Now I know a bit more about them im inclined to try again!
They are happiest at an optimum temp of 25 °C, with growth being suppressed once daily average temperatures persist at 28 °C.
This chap, Zantendeschia ‘Memories’ with the almost black spathe and purple tinted leaf caught my eye, I think it has rehmannii parentage but happy to be corrected by others that know better.
and this one with a gentler pastel tinted tone Zantendeschia ‘Picasso’
My last selection on the tender side is this absolute beauty of a monster! This was part of the actual display so would take a while to grow to this size but its not unachievable for those of you who have a conservatory to overwinter it in, or you could just keep several small versions on the go by propagating from it on a regular basis.
Echiveria ‘Red sea monster’ certainly lives up to its name, looking distinctly Kraken like rearing out of its pot with red edged, wavy, margined succulent leaves and at such a size!! What a stunner!
In fact the whole display of cacti and succulents from Southfield Nursery was a bit special, some of the slower growing varieties being older than me.
Moving onto the hardier plants for your garden I do find myself looking not just for colour but also for scent, a rule of thumb with most scented plants is their flowers will be less showy but there are always exceptions to this rule! These 2 dainty offerings are not overstated on size, in fact elegant is how I would describe them but the scent was heavenly! In our droughty summer they would also perform with very little intervention needed.
Calmazag Nursery had a stunning display of Dianthus but the scent from these two was sublime! D. ‘silver star’ had a slightly larger semi double flower with a raspberry eye, whilst D. ‘Stargazer had a wonderful open flower with a deep purple almost black eye.
Perhaps Leucanthemums are seen as an old fashioned flower? If they are I don’t care. They are reliable, trouble free and just carry on flowering forever! They always remind me of my mum too which is nice, she used them a lot in flower arranging. Recently I’ve been seeing some doubles and semi doubles for sale which adds a whole new dimension to them. This one, Leucanthemum x superbum ‘Christine Hagemamm’ I spotted on the Hardy’s plants stall. I just love its frilly, frothy centre!
Hardy’s has always been a great source of inspiration for me *Fan girl Klaxon!* ever since I got into gardening it was always their stall I lingered at longest and asked the most questions at… and often spent the most money at! Both Rosy and Rob have always been exceptionally gracious with their time and patient of me being annoying as have all their staff. I’ve always found something that draws me so its little wonder that the next few plants I spotted on my list are featured on their display.
Campanula ‘Pink octopus’ is an adorable bonkers little plant, not a new introduction but its one ive liked for a few years now. Unlike most campanulas where the petals are fused into a bell shape these are held separately and flare outwards in a pastel shade of raspberry pink, great for ground cover in a shady area.
This next one is just insanity though!
Plantago major ‘Rosularis’ on talking to Rob I discovered this is not a new plant rather just one I’ve never seen! How I’ve missed this I’m not sure but hey, always learning! Its of the same family as the common plantain, which is often considered a weed due to its abundantly fertile habit. This is also the reason the plantagenet family chose it as their symbol. As a general rule I’m not keen on green flowers, they feel a bit pointless to me but I may change my mind after seeing this ruffled spire of loveliness!
Next up are the Salvias and if you want to see them in all their glory the Dyson’s nursery stand is where to head for. William has brought out a couple of new varieties this year despite having an awful winter by all accounts!
‘So cool pale blue’ and ‘So cool purple’ are lovely little short shrubby salvia varieties, excellent for pots and front of the border.
Now as much as I love Salvias I admit I’m finding it really hard to like this one, over the last few years we’ve seen a number of new Salvias launched ‘Love and wishes’, ‘Embers wish’ and ‘Wendys wish’ being just 3 in the series. This year sees the launch of S. ‘Wishes and kisses’ and for me it falls very short of the mark (sorry). Maybe because the last few releases have been SO special I’m now spoilt? Its flower colour is insipid, none of the vibrancy I expect from a salvia and the calyx colour jars badly with the flower. I’m sure someone out there will love it, many in fact, but I’m not a fan.
However!
And this is not a new release but an easy to grow bedder S. splendens ‘Go-Go purple’ is a real showstopper in my book! Big flowers, rich colouring, held high above vibrant green foliage, what’s not to love!
A nutty little Allium for you all now, I saw this being used a few times around the place and also at GLEE last year.
Allium ‘Forelock’ has the most unusual appearance, a tight ball of maroon flowers tipped white which gives a frosted look to the flower head, with a Mohican style effect sprouting from the top!
Reaching half a metre tall these guys are sure to add interest to your borders!
Last but by no means least!
If you’re looking for something both weird and wonderful look no further than Plantbase UK. Specialising in that something a bit out of the ordinary Graeme’s nursery is a treasure trove of the unusual.
This fabulous single leaf belongs to Sauromatum venosum, a voodoo Lilly which produces an amazing, if somewhat pungent flower every other year. If you have a shady spot that needs a wow factor this is just perfect for you!
Tell me what caught your eye this year!
Hampton Court 2018
Theres so much to see and do at this years Hampton I was plum tuckered by the end of the day
A first view of the gardens and a to do list!
I’ll be adding plant profiles later this week!
#RHSHamptonCourt
Hampton Court has always been a favourite of mine, ever since my first view, driving a lorry laden with plants across a dusty, sun bleached field with a herd of deer in the distance. That first experience of an RHS Show was in retrospect an iconic moment in my career. To see a full grown rough, tough man on the verge of tears because his Jacaranda mimosifolia had lost its one flower in transport was memorable to say the least. I often wonder who he was and how his garden got on that year, I do hope he did ok. That was my first sighting of a tree that was to become one of my top 10 trees. The atmosphere on the build was amazing and honestly it made me realise that when I changed careers, scary as that was, I had made the best decision of my life!
Since then I have visited Hampton Court many times, both on build and as a visitor, I’ve always preferred it to Chelsea if I’m honest. It feels less crowded, less frantic. The standard of displays has always been just as good, if not better in some cases. In the past 2 years the butterfly dome has been an enormous draw for visitors, seeing a little girl looking at wonder at a huge butterfly that had decided to alight on her hand was just delightful. Hopefully a memory that might turn her into a future entomologist!
Theres lots of shopping opportunities at Hampton Court too, not just for sundries, gadgets and fancy things but for plants! The floral marquee is as always a dangerous place for those of us with plant avarice. Last year I picked up some gorgeous bits and pieces. Pelargonium ‘Springfield black’ and ‘Lord Bute’ came home and are now gracing the pots in various places at Ulting Wick, performing beautifully. A Colocasia ‘Hawaiian blue’ survived this harsh winter and has grown well enough to be split and is in pots by the front door. As usual I will be keeping my eyes open for the unusual or beautiful, I feel myself increasingly being drawn towards the amazing leaves of Begonias.
Outside there are beautiful gardens to admire and take inspiration from, one designer I’ve come to admire recently has been Charlie Bloom. Her designs are accessible for most urban gardeners. Materials and plant selections that would grace any average back garden and turn it into a paradise. Last year her garden ‘Colour box’ was literally overrun by admiring visitors, crowds standing 5 deep to catch a glimpse of the cheerful simplicity which was obviously something that was easily relatable to. Come sell off time the garden disappeared in minutes!
Its worth mentioning the ethos behind her work at this point, unlike most show gardens the budget involved was minimal. The entire build was done on a shoestring! Charlie involved several suppliers, friends and volunteers to create her vision. Shes very vocal about this, praising each and every person involved. It really is a team effort, which is a beautiful thing to see. This year is no different in that sense, in fact maybe even more so with various parties such as Nickie Bonn, Stark and Greensmith, Lewis Normand, Art4Space, London Stone and possibly many others I haven’t named, giving time, materials and smiles to create ‘Brilliance in Bloom’. Having followed its creation on Twitter it’s another amazing garden which I’m sure the public will fall in love with.
One which caught my eye from its design brief mainly due to the fantastical description was the Elements Mystique Garden by Elements Garden Design. It features the work of Belgian sculptor William Roobrouck. Corten steel in gardens seems to be very in vogue at the moment! The sphere which dominates the garden is representing a fallen meteor with a planting scheme representing the heat the plants closest would have suffered, ruptured paving from the impact has a fantasy element that appeals to me.
There were 3 others which caught my eye
First the Hampton Court gardens team has produced this amazing Battlefield garden, the sheer logistics in the build are stunning as is the attention to detail. It’s not classically pretty, no, but the feat of shifting tonnes of earth to create huge trenches, phenomenal!
Even without being told you realise that as you journey through the garden you are travelling through time from a war zone, albeit a staged one, to an area abandoned by man and slowly being reclaimed by wildlife.
Huge bombcraters, littered with remnants of rusted metal bearing witness to the fierce horror the land witnessed. The wildflowers which colonise the landscape as you travel through the installation are brought to life with dragonflies,butterflies and other wildlife that have colonised the site since the build started. the blasted, dead trees standing sentinel overall.
The second literally stopped me in my tracks!
One of the most gorgeous Loquat trees I’ve seen in a long time, surrounded by gorgeous exotic foliage. Excellent use of hard landscaping and on a scale that didn’t dominate. As you travel along the garden you are suddenly treated to a blaze of colour carpeting the ground! Bizzie Lizzies!
Ok, I admit when I read the brief on this garden I turned my snobby nose up… Its true, I admit it…. I take it all back!
Firstly my snobby brain went “B&Q! Making a show garden! Pfft!”…. I am shame
Second “Bizzie Lizzies! Oh god, how 1970’s!” … I am doubley shame
The guys who created this garden have got a well deserved gold medal, hats off, it’s not a horrible dated monstrosity even in the slightest, its gorgeous. Using Buzy Lizzies in such a way as to reflect their natural environment, understory planting in a garden that gives the feel of somewhere way more exotic than south, west London!
And my final surprise is based on the quality of the plants used and the execution of the build. This one was a creeper in the sense it took me a while to realise exactly how good it was. I spent longer looking at this installation than at quite a few other more spectacular builds. Great Gardens of the USA is a garden of 2 halves
The use of plants was exquisite, from the wild rugged Oregon gardens to the chic courtyard of Charlestown & South Carolina
Once you’ve had your fill of the gardens and shopping take a moment to check out some of the workshops and talks being held throughout the week
Firstly, perhaps not one for the vegans (kidding before anyone gets annoyed), plants that eat meat!
Take the time to have a look at Matthew Soper’s display, from Hampshire Carnivorous Plants. He’s been nominated as this years Master Grower. He is a wealth of information on this fascinating genre of plants that have evolved ingenious methods of supplementing their diet using insects and mammals as food sources. I love murderous plants!
There are also various fun workshops and experiences to enjoy throughout the week. For those of you that missed the Chatsworth Orchid display there’s a second chance to see an insects eye view of pollinating an orchid! This virtual reality experience is great for adults and kids alike.
If you have kids with you there’s lots of stuff aimed at them like making fairy flower crowns and bumble bees! Also make your own bird feeders and mini gardens that you can take home with you… to be honest, that actually sounds quite fun, I get odd looks when I do these things without borrowing a friends child first, being an adult is so hard sometimes! *stamps foot*
Anyway, you can dig for fossils, forage wild food, learn how to do a modern floral arrangement then learn calligraphy! With your new found skills you could host the most awesome dinner party to show off your fossil finds. Your menu could be made up from stuff you find in hedgerows with a lovely floral centrepiece and delicately inscribed namecards and invitations… am I right or am I right!
More details of where to find all these things will be available in your programme guide.
In fact there is a ridiculous amount to do, you’re going to be hard pushed to see and experience everything, think of this like an upmarket festival so careful planning may be needed to get the most out of your day. Think of it like Glastonbury for flowers where the “must see bands” are Piet Oudolf, Raymond Blanc, Greg Wallace, The floral marquee and the Kinetic trees!…. In fact that is an awesome band name… someone should use that!
Anyway, pack your sunnys, a hat, a bottle of water and your credit card cos Hampton is on! Enjoy!
RHS Chatsworth, a grand day out!
My new favourite Flower show
I had a fabulous day at Chatsworth here’s why you would too…
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!
The anti designers, Designer! Charlie Bloom talked to me about Colour Box, her garden for this years RHS Hampton Court.
This year Hampton Court will be a busy one for me, I’m working on the Colour Box garden for Charlie Bloom & Simon Webster… well, I say working… When I asked Charlie what she would like me to do her answer was “enjoy the show!”. I will also be volunteering on Tom Massey’s garden for Perennial later in the week.
We got to talking via twitter a while back now, her irreverence & joie de vivre comes across on social media in spades, also she likes horses and anyone who likes horses is fine by me. That aside she loves plants! I mean really loves plants!
Just a glance at her twitter page will show you her work. She considers herself a gardener not a designer. In fact its fair to say she is a bit militant towards the designer culture that has grown up around show gardens in the last 10-20 years.
In the last few years though her view is starting to become one that seems to have a groundswell of support from ordinary folks who go to Chelsea, Hampton court and the myriad other shows across the UK. People want to see things they can imagine working in their own gardens, they feel alienated by the conceptual gardens. This can be plainly seen in the feedback surrounding this years Chelsea.
That’s not to say the gardens werent beautiful and exceedingly well executed but like the work of Dali when compared to say a Monet it can be a divisionist subject. Both brilliant artists but using their talents to speak different languages to the viewer. I hope for the future of our magnificent shows that the voices are listened to and room is made for both styles.
When I asked Charlie what she found to be the most stressful part of organising a show garden I got an answer I hadn’t expected. I had thought she would say the logistics of getting everything into the right place at the right time, sourcing the right plants or given the trials sent on the exhibitors at Chatsworth the other week, the weather, but no! Charlie said the part she found most stressful was the add ons to the budget, this includes feeding & watering the team behind the construction. Thinking about her concept this makes entire sense though. Charlies approach to the garden is to build a garden for the lowest possible cost, using the goodwill of people working in horticulture. It’s a team effort, she is massively behind the concept of a team, what we can achieve if we all pool resources. I love this idea!
This is Charlies fourth show garden, she exhibited twice at Gardeners World and once previously at Hampton Court so you could say she’s becoming an old hand at building gardens in this wonderfully fictitious environment that is show gardening. One thing that is important to her is making sure it’s an enjoyable experience for all involved. It can be such a stressful time especially if people’s focus is on the medals not the experience and I think that’s becoming more prevalent since I was involved in building gardens or maybe as I just wasn’t aware of it? I have a habit of swanning past drama, completely oblivious!
This year her garden, called Colour Box, is being built on an incredibly tight budget! There are some wonderful companies involved who have given their support totally free of charge which is so beautiful! It’s so good to see the different skills of horticulture pulling together to create something, warms the cockles of your heart. Some of the people involved are Burnham Landscapes, headed up by Ed Burnham and a lovely chap he is! Also London Stone, providing some their sleek materials for the hard landscaping. Last but by no means least Stark & Greensmith, you may have seen their etched panels on gardens at Chelsea recently? They are providing some of their amazing products and also helping to man the garden through the week.
The part that is actually costing the most is the actual plants but Charlie says she has already solved that conundrum by pre selling some on to her existing clients and there will also be of course the sell off on the last day, make sure you get in fast if you see something you fall in love with… im sure there will be! This will be a gardeners garden built by a team of people, Charlie is militant that the team gets the credit. After all as she quite rightly points out this is not about one person, everyone involved makes the magic happen!
Charlie also has people who she admires and happily recommended I take time out to see certain gardens whilst at the show. In absolutely no order of preference (as she was equally enthusiastic about all)
Frederic Whyte – Designing for The Centre for Mental Health, called On the Edge
Tom Massy – Designing for Perennial, called the Sanctuary Garden
Andrew Fischer Tomlin – with Dan Bowyer, Designing for Blind Veterans UK, called It’s all about Community
Will Williams – Designing for Streetscape, called Holding Back the Flood
I hope you enjoy your visit to Hampton Court this year and that the weather is kind! Let me know your thoughts
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"Le jardin, c’est la plus petite parcelle du monde et puis c’est la totalité du monde." michel foucault
tales from the farmyard, and other places
Improving people's wellbeing through traditional orchard management
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