The Cotswolds will be represented across RHS Chelsea this year with designers, garden firms and nurseries at the show. Mandy Bradshaw has been finding out more.
Paul Hervey-Brookes
Designer Paul Hervey-Brookes is going back to his roots with a Chelsea show garden packed with perennial planting, the style that has won him 16 gold medals at shows across the world.
It follows last year’s Chelsea design that explored the regeneration of a brownfield site, a garden that he admits was challenging and which won silver.
‘It was a difficult subject and the way it was interpreted wasn’t the usual format,’ he says.
This year’s Brewin Dolphin Garden has more of his trademark mix of herbaceous perennials and shrubs in borders that run through the long, rectangular space.
The Main Avenue garden explores the idea of knowledge passing from one generation to another be it in skills, such as those used to make the green oak pavilion, or in plants – many of those used will be more unusual ‘heritage’ varieties.
‘I think everybody can identify with a grandparent or elderly gardening peer who's given them a cutting of something and when they give the cutting, they explain that it came from somebody else. Those plants aren't new, but for each person the knowledge is,’ explains Paul, who divides his time between the Cotswolds and France.
Unusually, the garden is set 30cm down from ground level, allowing visitors to look over it. Two further levels, a sunken area and the raised pavilion, are designed to suggest the gradual absorption of knowledge.
‘For me, they chart the progress of the change in the mind. It’s important that I haven’t made them progress in a linear way because I don’t think knowledge works like that. It’s much more fluid,’ explains Paul, who is also an RHS judge.
Trees, including hornbeam and Cornus controversa ‘Variegata’, punctuate the planting, which has a colour palette of white, purple and pink, and there will be topiary yew and hornbeam, a water basin, and large porcelain sculptures by French artist Grégory Tchalikian.
The space is bounded on two sides with a new cladding product that will be launched at the show by London Stone.
‘It’s a space that’s very legible,’ says Paul, who will be mentoring the balcony and container garden designers at Chelsea. ‘It isn’t complicated. It isn’t trying to be clever.’
Some of the plants will be making their second Chelsea appearance having been grown on since last year’s garden, a move that Paul is hoping will produce large specimens of things such as thalictrum and hosta.
After this year’s Chelsea many of the perennials and shrubs will be kept for his design at RHS Hampton Court in July while others will be distributed among shelters for homeless people by Brewin Dolphin.
Even the pavilion will have a life after Chelsea as it’s going to the garden of one of Paul’s private clients – ‘They’re quite excited about that.
‘The garden isn’t going anywhere as a whole so it won’t be seen again but a driving factor was what happened to all the material after the show.’
Chris Beardshaw
Twenty-five years after his first RHS Chelsea gold medal, Chris Beardshaw is returning with a garden that has seen him adopting a new design approach.
Last year, he won gold for one of the country’s best-know charities, the RNLI, weaving references to boats and the sea into his design. This year’s show sees a garden for Myeloma UK, an organisation with a lower public profile, which by coincidence is celebrating its 25th anniversary.
This lack of public familiarity with the charity that supports people with a rare form of blood cancer meant there were no easy starting points for the design, which is supported by Project Giving Back.
‘There are very few obvious threads of linkage between the charity and the public, that you can really start to exploit as a part of the design tapestry,’ explains Chris. ‘It’s diametrically opposed to the approach that you might take with something like the RNLI.’
He decided against the familiar ‘journey with the disease’ often used to promote health charities and instead went back to the basics of why we create gardens and how they make us feel.
‘What is it we expect to gain out of that creation?’ he asks. ‘If you think about the way gardens evolved and the function of those original gardens, they were quiet listening spaces.
‘I wanted to create a garden that is providing an opportunity to find that quiet space.’
From Main Avenue, visitors will see what might appear to be a typical Chris Beardshaw design with deep herbaceous borders in shades of pink, white and blue, backed by a clipped yew hedge and with a narrow path running into the main garden behind.
Move around to the garden’s 22m side and you encounter a woodland glade with trees, including gingko and cercidiphyllum, providing dappled shade over undulating green planting with pinpoint spots of white, pale blue and a hint of yellow from shade-loving peonies, geraniums and ranunculus.
‘Topographically it’s very flowing and rolling with undulations in which a jewel plant might be emerging. It's about colours and textures, all in shades of green so it's seriously muted.’
There’s no obvious route through or direct line of sight, while the path, made of fragments of timber mingled with planting, has a stepping stone feel.
‘Every step is stepping on to a space which is of a different proportion, a different size. It encourages you to be much more considered, about what your next step is,’ explains Chris.
There are two temples in a reassuringly Palladian style. The first has several ways through and offers different views of the garden. Its render is muted, almost monochromatic, and it houses a three-dimensional mosaic of the garden’s leaves and flowers in wafer-thin precious metals.
‘As you walk around it, you see leaves emerging and disappearing as you do when you walk around in the garden.’
The second temple is a place to pause. There’s a watercolour wash on the walls, images of peonies printed on the back wall and a central light sculpture of golden leaves hanging on invisible threads.
Two reflective water features emphasise the garden’s message of taking time to stop and look.
‘Many of the tools we're using are very familiar, drawn from gardens through history. What we're doing is repurposing and reapplying those into a garden which is just very peaceful. It's very quiet, it has nothing to say. That’s the point of it.’
Martyn Wilson
A Corten steel encased ‘dead hedge’, black painted bird boxes and a striking sculpture will be used by Cotswold designer Martyn Wilson in his Chelsea debut to show that gardening for nature doesn’t mean scruffy.
His contemporary take on a wildlife garden will encourage gardeners to work with nature and still have something beautiful.
‘I’m trying in a subtle way to demonstrate that you can have a wildlife friendly garden but it can be contemporary, it can be stylish.’
The design in the Sanctuary Gardens section of the show will also highlight an often-overlooked area of the work of the RSPCA.
While the charity’s role in rescuing abandoned or ill-treated animals, such as dogs and cats, is well-known, in fact more than half of what it does is with British wildlife, including foxes, badgers and seagulls.
‘The RSPCA Garden’, supported by Project Giving Back, will put a spotlight on that work and kickstart celebrations for the organisation’s 200th anniversary next year.
‘I want to think about how we as gardeners might invite wildlife into our gardens and help support that cause,’ says Martyn, who is based in Cheltenham.
The garden has been designed with a wildlife enthusiast in mind and has a modern ‘hide’ at its heart with a green roof of perennials and native plants to give more habitat and food for pollinators.
Built from sustainable sourced Douglas fir and larch, the shelter’s cladding is spaced to allow light through: ‘It's an immersive experience being in there. You feel and see the green of the garden through the walls.’
Also visible from the shelter is a bronze sculpture by artist Simon Gudgeon that celebrates wildlife.
The ‘dead hedge’ is filled with prunings and cuttings with the long steel ‘baskets’ set on the ground so that hedgehogs can use the hedge for shelter – there will be hedgehog boxes placed inside.
Running through the garden is a water feature made from recycled plastic.
‘This is the sort of waste that tends to cause injuries to some of our native species,’ explains Martyn.
It’s also a nod to the aquatic animals that the charity helps, such as seals.
The bird boxes and others for pollinators, including bees, are being made specially and will be painted black as a foil to the planting. Many will be set onto a natural stone feature wall.
The garden will have areas of both deep and light shade and will be enclosed by a hornbeam hedge. Birch, Cornus mas and Acer ginnala will give height, there will be ferns, epimediums, grasses softening paths, and pops of colour from orange geums.
After Chelsea, the garden will be relocated to a RSPCA Wildlife Rescue Centre in Cheshire to create an outreach space for work with disadvantage communities and children.
Although Martyn’s no stranger to building show gardens – he’s won several RHS medals including gold at RHS Hampton and Malvern – exhibiting at Chelsea for the first time is, he admits, daunting.
‘It’s slightly frightening because it’s the pinnacle of our industry. If it wasn’t for Project Giving Back, I’m not sure I would have had the opportunity. I’m really thankful to them and the RSPCA.’
Rupert Till
Chelsea regular Rupert Till is launching two new sculptures at this year’s show.
The first takes his trademark metal hoop and turns it into a walk-through circular arch, which will be topped by a peacock with trailing tail.
He envisages it being used to link different areas of a garden, framing a path or as a statement in a border.
Creating something that’s both functional in a garden and a piece of art is a new direction that he explored last year with a planter that incorporated a hare. That’s being developed for this year’s show with his familiar motif of a horse’s head.
His second piece, ‘One Soul’, also has horses’ heads, here touching within a band to form a heart shape.
‘It’s probably one of the most beautiful pieces I’ve ever made,’ says Rupert who is based at Postlip, near Winchcombe.
Architectural Heritage
It’s worth hunting out Cotswold firm Architectural Heritage’s stand for the planting as much as the garden pieces.
Owner Alex Puddy joins forces with his garden designer wife, Katie Guillebaud, to bring more of a garden feel to his annual Chelsea trade stand.
This year, they will again be filling his beautiful copper planters with flowers. Antique pieces, such as stone troughs, will also be planted and he’s hoping to have a water feature on the stand.
‘Katie does all the planting here and then we drive it up in the van. So, all the work is done here at base.’
Alex, who bought the Taddington firm from his parents, has been going to Chelsea since he was a teenager and has exhibited almost continuously for 30 years.
Green JJam
Green JJam Nurseries may be best known for its penstemon but owner Julia Mitchell’s first love is white plants and that’s what will be on show at Chelsea.
She and husband, Adam, launched The White Nursery alongside their penstemon collection back in 2019, bringing to life an idea she first had 30 years ago.
It’s not a strict colour theme and plants can have all white or mainly white flowers, white variegated foliage, or be grey-leaved.
Julia’s planning a white garden for Chelsea with height from a small tree, possibly a birch, and an obelisk covered in clematis. There will be hardy geraniums, grasses, scented violas and a seat.
‘The overall thing that I want is that it’s really relaxed, that you look at it and think ‘Oh, I just want to sit there.’’
It’s the Upton-upon-Severn nursery’s second visit to Chelsea after the switch to September back in 2021 gave them the opportunity to show penstemon. Their debut won them a gold – making a hat-trick of top awards after gold at RHS Hampton and Tatton earlier that year.
The Kitchen Garden Plant Centre
Herb-growers Neil and Niamh Jones are celebrating the world of insects with their second display at Chelsea.
‘A Place to be with Bugs’ will showcase their Newent nursery’s range of peat and pesticide-free herbs and edible plants while encouraging people to garden for wildlife.
The circular display in the Great Pavilion will have both sunny and shady areas, showing plants that thrive in the contrasting conditions.
There will be a bug hotel with different sections for various over-wintering insects, including lacewings, beetles and ladybirds.
Plants, including thyme and fennel, will be chosen as much for their benefits to wildlife as for their culinary use.
‘We see our garden as a classroom,’ says Neil, ‘as we’re always learning from it.’
The Kitchen Garden Plant Centre won four RHS gold medals last year and got silver-gilt for its Chelsea debut. They’re hoping to add a Chelsea gold to their haul.
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