THE LAST WORD
So what was I struck by at this year’s RHS Chelsea Flower Show amongst the annual floral extravaganza?
The planting this year returned to a dense plant covering in almost every show garden with hardly any soil on show, in part driven by designers showcasing ways to future-proof planting and soil care in the face of a changing climate.
Planting which could cope with drought and flooding conditions were common themes, as was the need to harvest and reuse rainwater with many of the show gardens featuring water-saving designs like the gold medal winning WaterAid Garden, designed by Tom Massey & Je Ahn, dominated by a central pavilion which harvests rainfall, filtering and slowing down its dispersal into the landscape.
Common alder trees, Alnus glutinosa ‘Pyramidalis’ emerge though the pavilion, part of a planting scheme chosen principally for resilience and biodiversity with plants like Hottonia palustris and Hesperaloe parviflora. The planting was textured and colourful, shifting from denser, wetter, lowland areas to sparser, drier upland ones with the garden’s shifting topography.
The Flood Resilient Garden, designed by Naomi Slade and Ed Barsley, highlighted garden design which helps reduce flood risk and recovers quickly after periods of heavy rainfall, with a range of pond and bog plants well adapted to varying degrees of water inundation.
Dense planting slowed the flow, while water was also captured and stored for later use. After heavy rain, the elevated deck and mound – linked by a bridge over a central swale – provided both habitable places for people, and well-drained soil for the plants that needed it.
The swale formed a stream, channelling rainwater into a feature pond where it gradually soaked away, while large tanks doubled as ornamental ponds which store water for later use to be discharged ahead of further rain using smart-technology.
There were definitely less peonies, roses, and lupins, and more geums, achillea, and Camassia amongst the Chelsea foxglove, allium, and iris favourites this year.
Alongside the usual white and green backdrops, the palette this year seemed more muted with lots of purples and oranges combining effortlessly to soften some of the hard landscaping, punctuated with more yellow than I think I’ve seen before at Chelsea.
There was a definite rusty vibe going on with lots of orange melting into gold and bronze tones to complement natural materials used in benches and water features as seen on the silver-gilt winning Octavia Hill Garden, designed by Ann-Marie Powell.
Although there were some bolder colour palettes used these tended to be more on trade stands rather than throughout the show gardens which in the main kept with those more muted tones.
That colour palette lends itself perfectly to the cottage style, looser planting which was apparent across many gardens, too many to pick out but two of my favourites were the much-anticipated, and silver medal winning, Netflix Bridgerton Garden, designed by first-time RHS Chelsea designer Holly Johnston, which was a dreamy delight.
This sanctuary garden depicted Penelope Featherington’s journey from an overlooked wallflower to a strong, confident woman stepping into her true self.
A moongate framed the entrance to the garden which led to the second internal space: a sunken seating area, encircling an opulent three-tiered water feature and surrounded by a ring of charming dwarf elms. This planting haven featured hedging and trees for screening; intimate, seating spaces for contemplation; and dense planting interest with beautifully combined lilacs, blues, rich pinks, and whites in the foxgloves, iris, brunnera, astrantia, shrub roses, and lupins - you can see why it was one of my favourites as I love this style of whimsical planting where the plants intermingle freely.
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, using walls of cork to create a series of spaces dedicated to different types of social interaction: at work, with friends and family, with partners, and with ourselves.
The planting scheme in this garden was multi-layered, evolving from wetland meadow, with a vibrant colour palette at its boundary made by a striking river of Primula japonica, framed with Bog myrtle, Myrica gale, to a soothing river birch woodland of softer, greener hues at its heart with a beautiful mix of ferns and mosses, punctuated with white and purple Camassia.
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).
It’s always wonderful to see what designers can fit into a balcony-sized garden without overcrowding the space and this year’s balcony designs were as diverse as they were inspirational.
The Water Saving Garden, designed by Chiltern Garden Design, was awarded a bronze medal and was designed as a contemporary balcony courtyard, featuring sleek planters from Livingreen Design, fed by rainwater, highlighting the urgent need to save and re-use rainwater.
A series of interconnected self-watering planters are hooked up to the building’s rainwater gutters via rain chains and slimline water butts, and contain self-watering tankers that store rainwater and deliver it to the roots by capillary action. Self-watering systems need watering less frequently than normal surface watering and tanker systems deliver water right to the roots where it's needed, with less surface evaporation.
A limited array of plants in just blues and whites, like the gorgeous Lupinus 'Persian Slipper' and perfect, white foxgloves, amongst fresh textures of green foliage, were repeated through the planting, bouncing the eye around the space and helping it to feel bigger than it is. The dark blue Livingreen planters themselves were all large enough to grow a mix of different plants, and light enough, being made of fibreglass, for balcony gardening. Statement plants included the Cornus kousa 'China Girl' specimen tree, Amsonia tabernaemontana 'Storm Cloud', and Camassia, as well as a backdrop of succulent living wall art.
First time garden designer Giulio Giorgi and Garden Contractor Landesigns received the new RHS Environmental Innovation Award for the efforts they went to in order to reduce the environmental footprint of the World Child Cancer Nurturing Garden, as well as winning a gold medal for the garden itself.
Using 3D printing, and no concrete or metal in sight, the garden had a much lower carbon footprint. RHS Head of Sustainability, Malcolm Anderson, said, “The garden is a fine example of how we can design and build gardens more sustainably in the future. This year has marked something of a seismic shift in the way the gardens have been designed and built, yes, we can always do better and there is always something new to learn, but we should all take a moment to celebrate the sustainability stories embedded in the 2024 gardens”. Gardens all went through a new green audit process resulting in design changes that had a significant impact on reducing carbon emissions by 28%, by making changes to the building materials and construction methods. Matthew Childs who designed the Terrance Higgin’s Trust Bridge to 2030 Garden, substantially reduced his carbon omissions by removing block walling in his original design and replacing it with reclaimed timber. Ann-Marie Powell, designer of The Octavia Hill Garden by Blue Diamond with the National Trust, saved a large amount of CO2 by significantly reducing the use of cement in the garden.
Sarah Poll, Head of Shows Development said, “We have introduced this new award in order to recognise and celebrate the fantastic ways designers and contractors are embracing the need to reduce their impact on the environment. We hope by celebrating successes through this new award and showing how small changes can make a big difference through the new Green Garden Audit, we will help continue to encourage positive change.”
So was this year’s pilgrimage to RHS Chelsea Flower Show worth it? It was.
Whilst in years gone by, I’ve found Chelsea to be more aspirational than inspirational, this year’s showcase had much to celebrate in terms of addressing climate mitigation solutions like harvesting rainwater, and making more considered planting choices in the face of both drought and flooding conditions.
With a much greater focus on sustainable gardening choices, there was so much that was right this year, and whilst we know we can always do more, this year’s Chelsea Flower Show, for me, made strides in addressing its massive footprint, and doing what all good garden shows should: encourage and support us as gardeners to strive to make our own little patch of green the best it can be for us, and the wider environment.
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