This is the second of my posts looking at the forthcoming
show gardens for the 2015 RHS Chelsea Flower Show. Of course this is only focussing on the main
show gardens, there are several categories of gardens and the other ones should
not under-estimated for their ingenuity and style. Indeed sometimes the smaller gardens use their
space with greater imagination. On saying that, I am still concentrating on
the main show gardens at this moment.
I am very much looking forward to the Royal Bank of Canada
Garden which is being designed by Matthew Wilson. As a fan of his work with the RHS and someone
who enjoyed his (too brief) series called The Landscape Man, I will be really
interested to see this garden. It is
based on the dry garden principle that he used whilst with the RHS and whilst
we seem to have little drought here at the moment, it is a style that can be
used to great effect. I have high hopes.
Royal Bank of Canada Garden
Next my mind moves on to wine, this happens often, but in
this case it is the Cloudy Bay Garden in association with Vital Earth which is
being designed by Harry and David Rich.
Their garden last year was high on the ‘rather wonderful’ scale so I
think it is fair to expect something good.
The garden is based on the characteristics and tasting notes of two
Cloudy Bay wines and there will also be a moveable shack in the centre of the
garden (not to be misread as a moveable snack, which might lead you to think
how kind it is to provide nibbles to go with the wine….).
Cloudy Bay Garden in association with Vital Earth.
The Beauty of Islam with Al Barari Firm Management LLC
(short snappy title) is next. This is
being designed by Kamelia Bin Zaal and is meant to show us a sanctuary in which
to both relax and feel inspired. The
design aims to reflect Arabic and Islamic cultures and it is the first show
garden at Chelsea Kamelia has designed.
The Beauty of Islam Garden.
From the Beauty of Islam to the Beauty of Kranji with Esmond
and Uniseal Garden. This garden is also
designed by designers who are new to Chelsea, John Tan and Raymond Toh. Kranji is a suburb of Singapore and this
garden aims to reflect its tropical nature.
Again the plan does not really give me much of clue what I am going to
be seeing, so it will be interesting to see the reality of it.
The Hidden Beauty of Kranji
Then there is the Brewin Dolphin Garden which is being
designed by Darren Hawkes Landscapes.
Brewin Dolphin have form in sponsoring extremely good gardens. The plan seems to show a lot of hardscaping,
apparently there are more than 40,000 pieces of hand cut slate involved. It is meant to reflect a naturally wild
garden, country hedgerows and woodland clearings. I expect it to be worth a view.
The Brewin Dolphin Garden
Adam Frost is designing the Homebase Garden this year. I like the Homebase Gardens, again they have
a history of some extremely good gardens and Adam won a gold with them last
year with his design. This year Adam is
taking his inspiration from Marcel Breuer, a modernist architect and the garden
is described as being an imagined urban landscape. Worthy of mention is that Homebase have a
Garden Academy Scheme that they launched in September 2013 and young
apprentices from this scheme will be working on the garden with Adam. I like this, this is a company that it not
just mass-selling gardening stuff, they are investing in the future of the
industry and in the future of young people.
This has to be applauded.
The Homebase Garden
Another
first time Chelsea designer is Charlie Albone who is designing the Time in
Between garden for Husqvarna/Gardena.
The garden is described as being a very personal one to Charlie as it
relates to his late father. This makes
it stand out from other designs as no other seems to be based on the designer’s
individual experience. It will be
interesting to see if that marks it out significantly in reality.
The Time in Between Garden
Morgan Stanley Healthy Cities Garden
Finally there is the L’Occitane: A Perfumer’s Garden in
Grasse designed by James Basson. Grasse
is a town on the French Riviera that is (according to Wikipedia) considered the
worlds capital of perfume. According to
the garden description the perfume industry there has been in decline in recent
years but it is now having a bit of a renaissance following support from
companies like L’Occitane. The garden is
of course designed to be aromatic and will reflect the history of the perfume
industry and the emerging renewed importance for the area. The plan gives me no real clue as to what the
garden will look like, it sounds interesting and so I am looking forward to
seeing it.
L’Occitane: A Perfumer’s Garden in Grasse.
I shall now look forward to seeing and writing about how the
gardens have turned out. Watch this
space.
The Chelsea Flower Show, I have not visit it before. As a matter of fact we are in England every year during the Chelsea Flower Show, but in the country. And at night we watch it on television every year. I'm looking forward to it in May, but even better is to go there and see it with own eyes.
ReplyDeleteSo many ideas in limited spaces I can watch, I like gardening contests. I've never had a chance to visit the Chelsea Flower Show yet, and some day I want to go.
ReplyDelete