While waiting for a new Chelsea Flower Show, it is worth looking back at the amazing gardens shown last year.
My favourite was a modern garden for a residential apartment with sunken seating area with pastel cushions edged with box hedge in front of modern pavilion and colour co-ordinated soft pastel naturalistic planting of yellow lupins and orange geums and a multi-stem tree: plants perfect for pollinators and reducing pollution. It was a beautiful example of blurring borders between interior and exterior. The kitchen boasted modern appliances and as well as a vertical vegetable and herb farm powered by solar lighting. A garden for the future.
LG Eco-City Garden - Designer: Hay-Joung Hwang - Sposor: LG Electronics
Photographer: Anna Omiotek-Tott- Sunken seating area edged with box hedge with pastel cushionS in front of modern pavillion, colour co-ordinated soft pastel planting and multi-stem tree - LG Eco-City Garden -RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2018- Designer: Hay-Joung Hwang -Sposor : LG Electronics
Gold Medal-winning designer Kazuyuki Ishihara created yet another of his gem Japanese gardens evoking a feeling of calm and peace with water, rocks and shade loving planting of Japanese maples, moss balls, Iris 'Caesar's Brother', Pinus and Enkianthus campanulatus. Sheer perfection!
O-mo-te-na-shi no NIWA -The Hospitality Garden- Designer: Kazuyuki Ishihara
Contractor: Ishihara Kazuyuki Design Laboratory Co Ltd.
Sponsor: G-Lion & Cat’s Co Ltd.
Anna Omiotek-Tott- Planting in shade with moss balls, Acers, Iris 'Caesar's Brother', Pinus and Enkianthus campanulatus - O-mo-te-na-shi no NIWA -The Hospitality Garden- RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2018- Designer: Kazuyuki Ishihara - Sponsor: G-Lion - Best Artisan Garden, Gold
People's Choice 2018 was a traditional charming Yorkshire rustic stone cottage on the edge of a woodland, with meadow, a brook, limestone dry walling and romantic planting flowering wisteria, Viburnum opulum with white flowers and Anthriscus sylvestris, celebrating traditional crafts. Just picture perfect and so romantic!
Welcome to Yorkshire - Designer: Mark Gregory - Sponsor : Welcome to Yorkshire - Gold and People's Choice
Photographer: Anna Omiotek-Tott - Traditional stone-walled building limestone dry wall and planting of flowering wisteria, Viburnum opulum with white flowers and Anthriscus sylvestris ( cow parsley ) - Welcome to Yorkshire - RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2018- Designer: Mark Gregory - Sposor : Welcome to Yorkshire - Gold and People's Choice
Chris Beardshow finally got his Best Show Garden for 2018, too, s he was somehow overlooked with not even a Gold medal the previous year. Some thought that he deserved Gold anyway and so did the pubic as but he got People's Vote. Both gardens had beautifully textured and elegant woodland planting in cool shades with Meconopsis 'Lingholm', Halesia carolina, Euphorbia, Hosta ‘Halcyon’, Lamium orvala, Meconopsis 'Lingholm', Primula and Valeriana pyrenaica. It also featured a stunning garden room and water feature.
The Morgan Stanley Garden for the NSPCC- RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2018- Designer: Chris Beardshaw -Sposor: Morgan Stanley
Photographer: Anna Omiotek-Tott- Woodland planting with Meconopsis 'Lingholm' , Halesia carolina - The Morgan Stanley Garden for the NSPCC- RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2018- Designer: Chris Beardshaw -Sposor: Morgan Stanley
It's been a traditoin to 'cut and cut and transport' a piece of natural landscape from a far away place and we had two such garden in 2018.
One of them tried to and succeeded quite well in recreating a South African wine estate with native fynbos landscape featuring eucospermum 'Soleil', Leonotis ocymifolia, Polygala myrtifolia and Kniphofia uvaria among a Mediterranean-type shrubland.
The Trailfinders South African Wine Estate - Designer: Jonathan Snow - Sposor: Trailfinders Ltd
Photographer: Anna Omiotek-Tott - Planting of Leucospermum 'Soleil' , Leonotis ocymifolia , Polygala myrtifolia and Kniphofia uvaria - The Trailfinders South African Wine Estate - RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2018- Designer: Jonathan Snow - Sposor: Trailfinders Ltd
Another native planting example was Gold medal winning M&G garden, with informal wild Mediterranean planting and hard-edged, textured clay and terracotta rammed earth walls. The planting was very soft and ephemeral with poppies, herbs, silvery sub-shrubs, blue Catanache caerulea, Cistus, Digitalis isabelliana and single flowered roses. Lovely light and breezy against earthy structures.
The M&G Garden - Designer: Sarah Price - Sposor: M&G Investments
Photographer: Anna Omiotek-Tott - Warm red aggregates, clay and terracotta; textured, rammed earth walls and stacked tiles and planting of poppies, herbs and silvery sub shrubs - The M&G Garden - RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2018- Designer: Sarah Price. - Sposor: M&G Investments
The David Harber and Savills Garden offered planting inspiration with colourful perennials blended into rich variety of soft grasses with caper spurge (Euphorbia lathyrus), vibrant pink Dianthus carthusianorum, Thalictrum, Dianthus cruentus, Euphorbia, Stipa tenuissima and Salvia 'Caradonna'
The David Harber and Savills Garden - RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2018- Designer: Nic Howard - Sposor: David Harber Savills
Photographer: Anna Omiotek-Tott- Planting with Dianthus cruentus, Euphorbia, Stipa tenuissima and Salvia 'Caradonna' - The David Harber and Savills Garden - RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2018- Designer: Nic Howard - Sposor: David Harber
Savills
There as also an Islamic influence garden built for a refugee camp, combining past influence and simplicity of form and materials: rills in concrete with metal pipes, and simple wooden top benches with modern finish and drought tolerant planting in gravel, Punica granatum - pomegranate trees with herbs, citrus, and edibles against brick wall. Another garden taking us to a faraway place and offering simple ideas for our own garden.
The Lemon Tree Trust Garden - Designer: Tom Massey - Sponsor: Lemon Tree Trust
Photographer: Anna Omiotek-Tott - Islamicinfluence garden with rills in concrete and wooden top benches with planting of pomegranate trees with herbs -The Lemon Tree Trust Garden - RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2018- Designer: Tom Massey - Sponsor: Lemon Tree Trust
Soft planting with Iris 'Deep Black", Foeniculum vulgare 'Purpureum', Salvia x sylvestris 'Mainacht' and lime-green spurge and spectacular purple Lupinus 'Masterpiece' against the laser cut corten steel panels supplied by Stark and Greensmith - truly inspirational contrast of form and colour.
Urban Flow Garden - Designer: Tony Woods - Sposor: Thames Water
Photographer: Anna Omiotek-Tott - Planting with Iris 'Deep Black", Foeniculum vulgare 'Purpureum',Salvia x sylvestris 'Mainacht' and Lupinus 'Masterpiece - Urban Flow Garden -RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2018- Designer: Tony Woods - Sposor: Thames Water
This artisan garden has the nicest green wall with bundance of grasses, ferns and heucheras on flowing into borders of foliage plants and more grasses. There are two distinct colour schemes, with autumnal copper shades on one side and silvery tones on the other. I loved the steam-bent oak bench with copper fixings by Toby Winteringham and ceramic tile path by Sue Ridge in the Art and Crafts tradition. Modern and traditional in a harmonious blend.
The Embroidered Minds Epilepsy Garden
Designer: Kati Crome - Contractor: Conway Landscapes - Sponsor: Embroidered Minds
Photographer: Anna Omiotek-Tott - Steam-bent oak bench with copper fixings and rusted steel legs by Toby Winteringham and ceramic tile path by Sue Ridge, surrounded by planting - The Embroidered Minds Epilepsy Garden -RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2018- Designer: Kati Crome - Sposor: Embroidered Minds, Epilepsy Society and Young Epilepsy
These were my favourites - looking forward to May to see if the last years trends will continue- any more green walls with ornamental planting and edibles, drought-tolerant planting, juxtaposition of stark structures and ephemeral planting, colourful lupins and geum.. or something totally different and surprising?