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| PEOPLE AND PLACES |
21 / 05 / 07 |
Show Gardens: Chelsea 2007 | | | May 2007: Gardens Monthly magazine and Gardening.co.uk visited Chelsea during the build-up period and came back with a top-10 list of show gardens, many of which went on to win Gold medals
| | 600 Days with Bradstone
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1. Bradstone: 600 Days with Bradstone
Show Garden MA22 designed by Sarah Eberle
Medal: won Gold and Best in Show!
Both in its source of inspiration and visual appearance this garden certainly has the wow factor and will stop you in your tracks. The '600 days' of the title refer to the timespan of an astronaut's journey to Mars – yes that's right – and the garden's design is intended to represent the astronaut's personal space when off-duty. So far, so abstract, and if that's a bit too hard to swallow, just concentrate on the wonderful plants and features in front of you: the hot spring with its fine mist, the hanging chair and rest pod, burnt-orange and copper-coloured paving and plants with healing properties including Arnica, Calendula, herbs and dramatic cactus such as Agave americana.
To view more images of this garden go to the Gallery.
| | Cancer Research UK Garden
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2. Cancer Research UK: Cancer Research UK Garden
Show Garden MA20 designed by Andy Sturgeon
Medal: won Gold!
Another garden with instant impact, Andy Sturgeon creates a scene here with a 30m (100ft) long oak 'ribbon sculpture', its sinuous form giving the impression of a giant wave sweeping over the garden. Order, structure and tranquility come from Japanese-inspired art and architecture in the forms of the pavilion and ceramic sculptures lined up at the end wall. The colour scheme of greens, mauves, pinks and whites is echoed in several gardens at this year's show, with clipped yew, roses, grasses and perennials included among the plants.
To view more images of this garden go to the Gallery.
3. Chris Beardshaw Ltd: The Chris Beardshaw Garden in association with Buildbase
Show Garden MA19 designed by Chris Beardshaw
Medal: won Silver-Gilt Flora
Last year Chris won both Gold and the coveted People's Choice award at Chelsea, but this year he has missed out on a Gold medal with this highly ambitious project inspired by Hidcote Manor Gardens. This design is really several gardens, or garden rooms, presented in a line and offsetting formality and geometry with looser, more densely-planted areas, the 'jungle-style' planting (as Vita Sackville-West described it) and a shock of colour in the first 'room' you come across on Main Avenue.
Former owner of Hidcote, Major Lawrence Johnston was responsible for conceiving the idea of these contrasting garden rooms and this design is inspired by his notes, sketches and oil paintings. Hidcote is also in the spotlight this year as it celebrates its centenary and is due to get a facelift with a major six-year restoration project: Chris comments: 'Hidcote, more than any other garden, is responsible for who I am today. As a boy, I often visited and roamed the rooms and woodlands on a summer's day...I feel passionate about bringing Johnston's work of art back to life and recreating the essence of this iconic Cotswold's Manor Garden at Chelsea.' Spend time observing each room individually and as a whole to absorb the effects fully.
To view images of this garden go to the Gallery.
4. Fetzer Vineyards: The Fetzer Sustainable Winery Garden
Show Garden MA9 designed by Kate Frey
Medal: won Gold!
Eco-friendliness is much in evidence at this year's show and no more so than with this design that highlights water conservation and irrigation, wildlife conservation, recycling and green power (energy conservation and efficiency). You will be struck by the rustic building which represents a winery based on the original Californian Fetzer winery, as well as the towering windmill (an authentic 1923 aermotor from California) and the blaze of colour from wildflowers. Fetzer claims it's the only winery to run on 100% renewable green energy, plus it recycles 40% of its glass and 100% of its cardboard packaging, while reducing waste production by over 90%. Fetzer ticks all the right boxes for sustainability, and now having won Gold, the judges have done the same for Kate Frey's design.
To view images of this garden go to the Gallery.
| | Fortnum & Mason Garden
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5. Fortnum & Mason: The Fortnum & Mason Garden
Show Garden MA21 designed by Robert Myers Associates
Medal: won Gold!
My personal favourite, this garden will make you think of beehives in a whole new light. These colourful structures are decorated with gold finials which hint at Eastern opulence, a style repeated in the trio of 18th-century-styled grottos inset into the rear wall and elaborately decorated with shells and pebbles. Get a close-up look at these. Clipped box hedges contain raised pools and the small, columnar Fastigiate hornbeam trees add height and a classical elegance to the garden. A mix of low shrub and herbaceous plants, including roses, lavender, iris, Salvia and Stachys bring a warm, colourful blend. The beehives in question are a first for Fortnum & Mason, which will be selling honey from its own beehives, and made by its own bees, this year.
To view more images of this garden go to the Gallery.
| | Laurent-Perrier Garden
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6. Laurent-Perrier (UK) Ltd: Laurent-Perrier Garden
Show Garden MA17 designed by Jinny Blom
Medal: won Gold!
A celebration of the circle and its place in design, together with an atmosphere of tranquility mark this garden. I was won over instantly by its gentle order and simplicity. The key features are the moon gates to and from the garden and pathways at various levels made from marble and supported on more down-to-earth concrete plinths. Even the theme is gentle and easy – the paths we take through life with its highs and lows. Its unsurprising that designer Jinny Blom was originally a therapist. Naturalistic, romantic planting gets the odd shot of lime green and flash of orange iris, but nothing too disturbing. Note the fastigiate oaks stand upright like soldiers and offset the horizontal pathways.
To view more images of this garden go to the Gallery.
7. Leeds City Council: Scent of a Roman
Show Garden MA13 designed by Leeds City Council Parks & Countryside Service
Medal: Silver Flora
Archeology enthusiasts will be interested to know that Leeds City Council has discovered evidence of a Roman settlement in the City, so while 'Scent of a Roman' might conjure up several wayward images, the design itself clearly shows something ancient, significant and decaying unearthed, with terraces, a mosaic centrepiece, a grotto and crumbling pillars. The colour scheme is restful with grey-greens, pinks and mauves, featuring the wonderfully architectural bears' breeches Acanthus heading skywards. Plants introduced to the UK by the Romans for their scent, culinary and medicinal uses include sage, thyme, cabbages, garlic and olives. Damp-tolerant ferns, mosses, hostas and primulas grace the grotto, while sun-loving Choisya, Euphorbia and geraniums mark the entrance.
To view images of this garden go to the Gallery.
8. Marshalls plc: The Marshalls' Sustainability Garden
Show Garden MA14 designed by Scenic Blue Design Team
Medal: won Silver Flora
How you view the solar pyramids is a matter of personal preference – they either make the design or ruin it on a visual level. The structure of this garden is impressive and its theme, alerting consumers to cimate change and sustainable living, worthy. Aside from the pyramids, take a good look at the small 'building' housed beneath an earth and rubble mound, the irrigation pool with arum lilies, stone-filled gabions to create retaining walls for the mound and building, and the screened composting area. The paving, walling and crushed stone is Marshalls' ethically-sourced Indian sandstone. Herbs, vegetables and plants popular at the show, including lavenders, iris, Salvia, Stachys, grasses and Allium, fill the gaps.
To view images of this garden go to the Gallery.
9. The National Linnaeus Tercentenary Committee with the Embassy of Sweden and the Swedish Institute: A Tribute to Linnaeus
Show Garden MA24 designed by Ulf Nordfjell (Stockholm)
Medal: won Gold!
This year marks the tercentenary of the celebrated Swedish botanist, scientist, explorer and 'Father of taxonomy' Carl Linnaeus and this contemporary design represents Sweden's cultural heritage and identity. A series of perforated timber walls partially dividing the garden on the diagonal is the dominant feature. Notice the use of granite (Sweden's native stone) and pool of water over cobbles representing a woodland stream. The plants are common to Sweden or were grown or planted by Linnaeus himself, including Linnaea borealis, Astrantia major, Iris sibriica and Osmunda regalis. It's structurally ordered and harmonious and you need to view it from several angles to gain the full effect.
To view images of this garden go to the Gallery.
| | The Daily Telegraph Garden
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10. Telegraph Media Group: The Daily Telegraph Garden of the Seven Seasons
Show Garden MA18 designed by Isabelle Van Groeningen & Gabriella Pape
Medal: won Silver-Gilt Flora
There is a lot going on here in this oblong sunken garden with its geometric framework, steel pergola, densely planted herbaceous beds in the sunken area contrasting with simple plantings on the upper level, and its rectangular pond. It's inspired by the 20th-century German plantsman Karl Foerster's garden and includes some of his plant introductions, salvias, delphiniums and campanulas in the sunnier half of the sunken garden. Foerster was referred to as the 'Pope of perennials' because he liked to choose plants that return year after year and have a long lifespan. He believed the gardening year really consisted of seven seasons, not four; hence the name of the title. The granite setts laid in fan-shaped patters on a bed of sand is a traditional German path surface which benefits the environment as rainwater penetrates the sand, rather than washing off into drains as it would if traditional cement wre used.
To view more images of this garden go to the Gallery.
Popular plants at the show
Acanthus; alliums; clipped box and evergreens; delphiniums; foxgloves; lupins; iris; *grasses; lavender; *roses; other wild flowers; fruit, herbs and vegetables; salvias; stachys.
Popular colours at the show
Green, white (and in combination); purple and the mauve spectrum, burnt orange and copper, muted blues, greys, pinks; bright orange.
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| | Discuss this article, 1 of 8 messages, read more: |  Kathryn Iremonger | |
| Posted: 23/05/07 09:25:07 07 | | I have been very disappointed with the bbc coverage of the chelsea flower show from the point of view that I get extremely bored of seeing the same gardens being reported from the flower show on every coverage you are doing. I have been to the flower show and know from my own experience all the other interesting gardens the less well known produce for the show together with all the exhibitors all of whom make up the chelsea flower show and make it the interesting show to want to visit. So please, please bbc, show more variety of coverage because this year I have recorded all the programs so that I can fast forward all the bits I have seen on previous coverage during the week so as not to waste my precious time and allow me to tend my own garden. ... |
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