Glasgow-based POTR, a flat-packed, self-watering planter, made from waste materials and designed to be posted directly through your letterbox, was awarded RHS Chelsea Sustainable Garden Product of the Year 2024.
POTR Pots use 95% less material than traditional planters, made from waste polypropylene destined for landfill. Origami innovation turns this recycled plastic into a sustainable pot, engineered to take the guesswork out of plant care using an in-built, wicking self-watering system.
Hot on the heels of receiving the two most prestigious awards at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show – a Gold medal and Best Show Garden – the Forest Bathing Garden, designed by Ola Maria, will be relocating 400 miles north from Chelsea to The Prince & Princess of Wales Hospice in Glasgow.
Ula wanted to design a garden that showcased how an outdoor space can provide a safe, sanctuary-like environment to support patients and their families during their most challenging times. This garden is an accessible place to give comfort and clarity, to reconnect with oneself and nature, or encourage conversations with others.
The garden was designed with more than 50 birch trees to create an immersive grove atmosphere, and reclaimed smooth clay pavers to ensure the garden’s accessibility.
The birch trees are under-planted with woodland edge style plants, varying from deep shade corners to more open, sunnier woodland glades. The majority of the plants have been selected for their foliage, creating a green tapestry, rich in texture, with an occasional burst of colour.
Rhona Baillie OBE, Chief Executive at The Prince & Princess of Wales Hospice said, “We’re thrilled to provide a permanent home for the Muscular Dystrophy UK Forest Bathing Garden and know that it will make a real difference to our patients, their families, and the wider community. Hospice care is all about helping people to live as fully and as well as they can to the end of their lives, however long that may be – looking after their physical needs but also their emotional, social, and spiritual wellbeing.
“We know that being outdoors has a positive impact on both mental health and physical wellbeing and this ‘Best in Show’ garden will provide a unique outdoor environment for everyone to enjoy.”
Kevock Garden, located just south of Edinburgh, scooped their tenth gold medal at this year’s RHS Chelsea Flower Show with their selection of alpine and woodland plants, displayed at eye-level height so visitors to the event could really get up close and personal with this specialist planting display.
The National Autistic Society Garden, sponsored by Project Giving Back, and designed by Sophie Parmenter and Dido Milne, was a silver gilt triumph, seeking to capture an autistic person’s everyday experience of the world with a multi-layered planting scheme, evolving from wetland meadow to a soothing river birch woodland.
This garden will be relocated to a National Autistic Society supported living site at Catrine Bank, alongside the river in Ayr, and the planting combinations will thrive there. We’ll be featuring the garden relocation inside the next issue of Scotland Grows magazine (out on 2nd August).
Another Chelsea garden, The Addleshaw Goddard Junglette Balcony Garden designed by Mike McMahon, will be relocated to a youth homeless charity in Scotland called Rocktrust.
The design provides a serene sanctuary, shielding residents from the city's relentless commotion. Plants have been carefully selected for their elegant and dramatic foliage, serving to recreate the jungle strata and mirroring the structural layers of the jungle: tree ferns manifest the emergent layer, while the Fatsia form the canopy layer, and primarily greens with splashes of colour form the understory, and forest floor.
Nestled within, a seating area is cocooned by cascading flora, evoking the splendour of a colossal hanging basket. The garden promotes biodiversity with bird nests, integrated bat boxes, and a small pond.
In essence, the message of this garden is that a small outdoor space is limited only by the boundaries of imagination.
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