The wonderful dark pool of water is puntuated by two grass domes - one concave, the other convex - and surrounded by incredibly realistic slate-effect plastic pillars with soft, subtle and wispy planting in between.
Monday 4 July 2011
My favourite garden
The wonderful dark pool of water is puntuated by two grass domes - one concave, the other convex - and surrounded by incredibly realistic slate-effect plastic pillars with soft, subtle and wispy planting in between.
Food centre stage
Designed by Jon Wheatley and Anita Foy, it features a natural pond with geese, an apple orchard with cider press, wild plants for foraging, ornamental and edible vegetable patches, vines and a small olive grove, all decorated by colourful annual planting.
Sunday 3 July 2011
First timers
Nigel Jones, formerly of Google, has designed a garden that seeks to raise awareness of the ethical considerations of sharing personal information online, with a centrepeice of transparent box that contains personal information belonging to the designer, obscured from view by Mountain Ash trees and surrounded by soft foliage.
Anoushka Feiler’s first garden at Hampton Court Palace Flower Show features plants which can only truly be appreciated from underneath. With the aid of mirrors, the public will be able to view the structure from different angles.
Judy Cornford decided on a change of career after 35 years as an interior designer. Her garden focuses on the difficulties the older generation encounter when learning to use the internet.
Lazy Sunday
Talk about a lazy Sunday... Usually the Hampton Court Palace showground is a hive of frenetic activity as garden designers and landscapers put the finishing touches to their show gardens while growers are busy selecting the choice exhibits in the Floral marquee.
Not so. Whether the sweltering weather was affecting productivity or everyone was just ahead of the game for once, I don't know. But over in the rose marquee, one or two had yet to even arrive!
Not so. Whether the sweltering weather was affecting productivity or everyone was just ahead of the game for once, I don't know. But over in the rose marquee, one or two had yet to even arrive!
English Poets' Gardens
A range of gardens based on poems from some of Britain's best loved and highly esteemed poets - Keats, Wordsworth, Byron, Shelley, Kipling and Carroll - have been designed and built for the show.
Wednesday 7 July 2010
Small but beautifully formed
The small garden category is always one of my favourites and two that got my vote at this year's show were
“It’s only natural” and “The Fire Pit Garden”.
“It’s only natural” was designed and built by The Plant Company and proves that a wildlife garden need not look like an unkempt mess - aside from appealing to the hippie in me.
Arthur Northcott & John Gutteridge's “The Fire Pit Garden” presents a great low-maintenance communal garden that is relatively cheap to build and maintain - and it looks great too.
Thought-provoking gardens
Conceptual gardens are not everyone's cup of tea. But two of this year's offerings really caught my eye.
The first was University College, Falmouth's “A Fable for Tomorrow” (pictured above), which shows the effect of man on nature and vice versa and seeks to raise awareness of the Cornish seed bank and other environmental issues.
The second was Steven Wooster's “Hearts and Minds Heat Sand Mines” (pictured below), a garden packed full of symbols that provides a memorial to the servicemen killed in Iraq and Afganistan. The central scuplture can be viewed from four different angles.
Tuesday 6 July 2010
Best in show
Relections of Thailand won the prestigious Best in Show at this year's Hampton Court Palace Flower Show.
The garden, which depicts a traditional Thai house by a river (or Sala Rim Nam), was also the only large show garden to win a Gold Medal, which was a somewhat disappointing result for the show as a whole.
Among the regional plants displayed on the garden are palm trees, coral pink hibiscus, plumerias and a range of water plants including lotus flowers.
Clematis couple
I love a good clematis - and here are a couple of beauties from Taylors Clematis Nursery which caught my eye at the show.
Bred by Raymond Evison in Guernsey, Clematis Amethyst Beauty (above) has a rich velvet purple that would compliment cream or yellow roses.
Clematis Shimmer (below), also bred by Raymond Evison, is a deep lilac blue that will literally shimmer in the in the light of dusk - so plant it near your patio for maximum effect.
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