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 The Chelsea Flower Show was rather an amazing experience by any standard. I was very lucky to be next door to some lovely people whilst creating the Biodiversity Garden for Bradstone which was awarded a Silver Medal. The garden set about highlighting biodiversity issues whilst being a beautiful place to escape into from our modern busy lives. Luckily for me this combination and some what simple approach was in tune with two lovely gardening television presenters from Australia and Austria who decided to do lengthly pieces on biodiversity from the garden.
 The garden highlighted simple nectar rich flowers planted in shades of purples and yellows. These colours are, through our eyes, particularly attractive to bees and pollinating insects according to research carried out at Universities. The planting was also multi-layered as we know that different layers are in habited by different insect life. Towards the rear of the garden larger foliage plants created dappled shade for small mammals and a Hornbeam hedge acted as the wildlife alternative to the motorway as a green corrider connecting the urban space back out to the countryside. The garden also had decomposing log walls for stag-horn beetle and I designed the classically inspired portico which was bespoke made by Bradstone to encourage crevice nesting birds such as House Sparrow which has declined in numbers by over 70% in the last 20 years.
These messages were endorsed by the Wildlife Trust and Trees for Cities, two charities who are passionate about wildlife and the importance of urban greening.
One of the really important aspects of the garden for me was that it be beautiful. In order that people looking at the garden were to go home and recreate some of the habitat spaces we were talking about I felt strongly that people would need to feel it was something they could live with and then almost by default the important messages would become second nature. I really hope that idea worked and I would like to say thank you to all the well wishers and people who took the time to stop and be so lovely and encouraging throughout the show.
The Chelsea Flower Show also marked the end of my time as Chris Beardshaw Scholar and I hope that Maria-louisa really embraces the opportunity and runs with it. My year has been challenging, exciting and went very fast and I am intensely proud of it. It is one of two very important mile stones in my horticultural life so far and the other caught up with me in the most unexpected way at Chelsea this year when I met George Anderson, former Head of Horticulture at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh. It was a sheer delight to be able to talk to him again, tell him what I have been up to these past years and simply listen to snippets of his incredible plant knowledge.
Now lastly I started writing this blog as a diary of my year as Scholar, it has actually turned into something very different, a diary of plant based thoughts, but now my year is over and my work load has increased so dramatically I think its a good time to call time on it. I will still be writing for Garden Design USA as a guest contributor as well as a few other publications. So thank you for following the journey, I hope it was an enjoyable read I have certainly enjoyed writing it. Best wishes Paul.
(Photo: Wormcast Garden, Chris Beardshaw) Well at last the day has come. After spending a great deal of last night packing, after a very fun afternoon with the children who are creating a show garden based on Renoir's Umbrella's at Painswick Rococo Garden, everything is packed, wrapped and labelled stretching down the drive ready to go to Chelsea Flower Show.
Its been a bit hectic, Wednesday onwards I was a guest of the 3 Counties Agricultural Society at the Malvern Spring Gardening Show, where on Sunday I also was asked to do the afternoon slot in the Project Pavilion. This actually was huge fun talking to gardeners about their gardens, plants and design ideas. The afternoon was gone before I had even got comfortable in my 'experts' chair. The new Chris Beardshaw Mentoring Scholar was chosen on Press Day and I think Maria will make a fantastic Scholar and she has a truly unique and exceptional year ahead of her. I hope and I know she will seize the year really gaining from the guidance and creative stimulus it provides.
Yesterday morning we spent a couple of happy hours wandering through a woodland on a private estate making our final selections of rotting timber for our decomposing wall and then the afternoon as I said with the children sowing seed and weaving willow.
Lastly I would just like to say to anyone planning to visit the Chelsea Flower Show it will be a privilege to meet you and say hello outside of the electronic world.
If you are popping out to purchase a weekend paper today, make sure its The Times.
Today Bradstone with the Times Newspaper have opened a competition to win the Bradstone Biodiversity Garden created for Chelsea Flower Show 2010.
The garden is to be given totally free to one winner who will be invited down to Chelsea Flower Show. The winner will be shown around the Show by myself before I arrive in their garden to recreate a little piece of Chelsea Magic.
Below are the links for the Times terms & conditions and the RHS Chelsea website preview of the Bradstone Garden.
Times Online Terms & Conditions
RHS Chelsea Flower Show - Bradstone Biodiversity Garden.
Should you purchase the Times today, you will also get to read an interview with me - there had to be a down I hear you cry!
If you decide to go for it you will need to purchase the newspaper (Open to UK Residents only) - And Good Luck, fingers crossed I will see you in May!
Thank you to everyone who has emailed me thanking me for giving my talk at the RHS Halls in London recently. It was fun, I really enjoyed the other speakers subjects. It was a really interesting day with a great mix of people speaking.
 Secondly I wanted to thank everyone who came last night to hear me speak at Wotton Under Edge Gardening Club. I was so pleased to have been invited. What a fun, informed, plant loving crowd. I hope your spring sale goes well and look forward to meeting those of you who are coming to Chelsea Flower Show and the rest of you at other horticultural places over the summer.
February - I shall remember you as a month of bitter cold and snow. Having said that the snow at the nursery last week came as a total surprise as I had been working in Hampshire, which was a fantastically enjoyable experience, but under glorious sunshine. I did spend a day as an invited speaker at Vincent Square and even there through the windows of the horticultural halls I could see a mixture of driving rain and sleet descending on London.
Its hard to think about plants during such dreary weather especially if you cannot get outside to see them. This is such a pity as February had some wonderful plants to offer us.
At the Rococo Garden, in between the showers, I have been cataloguing the different Galanthus in the garden on behalf of the Trust. Amongst the varieties in the garden I found pleasingly large collections of :
Galanthus atkinsii - Named after John Atkins who lived on the Painswick estate. Galanthus atkinsii ‘James Backhouse’ - The charming irregular form which is my current favorite. Galanthus ‘S. Arnott’ - Lovely large blunt outer petals slightly lifted. Galanthus ‘Lynn’ - Most people agree this is superior to G. atkinsii, being larger and hanging beautifully. Galanthus ‘John Sales’ - slim and understated.
Although some clumps are small, the garden has one of the United Kingdoms largest natural plantings of both G. nivalis and more dramatic on sight, G. atkinsii.
Of course February is also one of the best month’s for Witch-hazel, and outside of species collections in Botanic Gardens one of the most stunning collections can be found at the Sir Harold Hillier Gardens just outside of Romsey.
(Picture: Hamamelis sp) I first fell for the subtle charms of the witch hazel whilst studying horticultural taxonomy at the Royal Botanic Garden in Edinburgh and I have found it an endlessly interesting genus ever since.
The horticultural name means, ‘together with fruit’ as the fruit, flowers and next years leaf buds all appear on the branch simultaneously, quite unusual in the plant world. For a long time the Persian Ironwood was treated as a Hamemelis, but it is now known in its own right as Parrotia persica.
One of my favorite yellow flowering species is Hamamelis virginiana which is native to North America predominantly from Nova Scotia to Minnesota. Like all Hamamelis it makes a stunning deciduous large shrub. The branches whilst not horizontal do produce a distinct inverted vase shape with time. The flowers are pale yellow to intense butter yellow with a wonderful fragrance. The bark and leaves were used by native Americans in the treatment of external inflammations. I am also very found of Hamamelis virginiana var. mexicana, it just looks special.
(Picture: Hamamelis virginiana) Hamamelis virginiana is most likely the origin of Pond’s Cream. A healing cream invented by a scientist called Theron T. Pond in around 1846. Pond extracted a tea from Witch Hazel with which he could heal small cuts and ailments.
In 1925 Queen Marie of Romania visited the United States and enjoyed the product so much she wrote to the Ponds company requesting more supplies, the letter was used as a precursor to the modern day ‘Celebrity’ endorsement in an advertising campaign. Pond’s today is owned by Unilever.
(Picture: Hamemalis vernalis) Another American species I am fond of is Hamemalis vernalis, often occurring with H. virginiana it does not cross pollinate and hybridise and can be easily identified as it flowers in Late winter. Also the leaves are dark green with a glaucose underside and most tellingly the flowers are bright red to orange. This species has a number of popular cultivars selected from it including H. ‘Red Imp’ which has strong red petals with orange tips.
Many of us will know Hamamelis mollis, this genus is native to China, particularly in the East. H. mollis with its golden autumn colourings was first introduced to the United Kingdom in 1879 by Charles Maries and the form H. mollis ‘Coombe Wood’ which has a more spreading habit and larger than average flowers is the form he originally brought back. Later H. mollis was also introduced by Ernest Wilson and the form H. mollis ‘Jermyns Gold’ is believed to be one of the forms he brought back in 1918.
Crossed with Hamamelis japonica to form Hamamelis x intermedia, it has gone on to produce some of the most well loved garden Witch Hazels.
(Photo: Hamamelis japonica) After spending so much time talking about Witch Hazel it may come as a surprise that I don’t have a single plant in my garden. I claim as an excuse the fact that we are scaling down our garden and collection of plants in an attempt to move but rest assured when space allows they will make a welcome appearance.
At last the sun has shone down on the garden at Painswick and the snowdrops are looking stunning. I have to admit I have a new favorite in the form of Galanthus atkinsii ‘James BackHouse‘ its abnormal growth habit makes it look rather quite jolly and indifferent to the perfection of other types such as G. ‘Magnet’.
(Photo: The 3 Counties Showground) I Travelled to the 3 Counties Agricultural Society Show Ground last week and was struck by the rich brown colours of the hedgerows, I wondered if against the moody backdrop of the overcast Malvern Hills the foreground colour’s were enlivened, seeming to almost leap out at us along the way. It would be naughty of me to spoil the surprises in store for Spring Gardening Show visitor’s this year, but I can say it is very exciting. I also notice the large number of Wellingtonia, or correctly named, Sequoiadendron giganteum around Eastnor Castle.
Sequoiadendron giganteum is the sole species of the genus and one of 3 species which make up the group of plants known as redwoods. All in Cupressaceae, the others are, Seqouia sempervirens & the rather beautiful Metasequoia glyptostroboides. Growing to a towering average height of 280ft, 85m in the English landscape with the sun behind them Sequoiadendron giganteum dominate in an electrifyingly prehistoric way. The oldest recorded specimen is 3500 years old and on average each tree bears 11,000 cones dispersing 400,000 seed annually. In 1853 John Lindley gave the tree its invalid name of Wellingtonia gigantea. Wellingtonia had already been given to Wellingtonia arnottiana, in a different floral family.
(Photo: Sequoiadendron giganteum) Wellingtonia is the most common name for this plant in England but sadly it was not the last, in 1854 Joseph Decaisne renamed the tree as Sequoia gigantea but again this name was invalid for the same taxonomic reasons and later in the same year it was renamed as Washingtonia californica, which you will guess was invalid as the name Washingtonia applies to a genus of palms. This naming process carried on until 1939 when it was final given its current name. Sequoiadendron first appeared in Britain in 1853 and spread through Europe from then. The great plant collector William Lobb collected a large amount of seed in 1853 for the Veitch Nursery. In England it is a fast growing tree, reaching at Benmore, Scotland 177ft, 54m in 150 years.
(Photo: Sequoiadendron giganteum immature cone) That is my first T, my second was an amusing encounter I had in Thomas Cook, not very plant orientated you may say, but I was actually trying to book flights for a plant observation and seed collecting trip we are beginning to organise. There is a lot of, and rightly so, paperwork and planning needed to ensure we are doing things correctly. I digress. So I approach a sun kissed lady and asked if she knew about direct flights to Tel Aviv from the United Kingdom, to which she replied ‘No I don’t know really, its not a beach destination is it?’ Suffice to say we are now flying British Airways.
My last T for this imaginary garden of T's is slightly tenuous but is linked by travel and my writing if not person are travelling abroad this month.
(Photo: January's Garden Design Magazine Issue Cover) From now until June I will be publishing a series of posts mostly relating to elements I am including in a Show Garden I will be creating at Chelsea Flower Show this year. I have been invited to do this by the editorial team at Garden Design Magazine. This is a fantastic American gardening magazine which has a great content formula not to mention their annual awards for design projects. The online portion of the magazine is also fantastically interesting with a huge mix of content.
You can read my first contribution here.
 We have had a stroke of unbelievable luck, and as such we have been in and out of the house checking if it has really happened.
Normally such erratic behavior is the precursor to a batch of rare seed being sown and the time leading up to their germination. However this is no plant and as such this is a blog which as a rule I rarely make.
Recently whilst returning from a client we stopped in Minchinhampton for lunch and a stretch of the legs, in a shop window quite by chance, we discovered an advert offering a 1979 2cv6 for sale.
Almost immediately I was carried away thinking about it, a sign I decided as I was born in 1979 and we had had a 2cv before. A 1984 special in bright red which we loved unconditionally but we were forced, reluctantly, to sell it. We had always missed our 2cv and always imagined owning one again.
The 1979 model is the first of the modern 2cv, complete with the body we all love and having the 6 window openings.
Over the past few days whilst top dressing and working on various projects we have began talking tentatively about the 2cv. Our comical conversations would start along the lines of, ‘If I link the social characteristics of the space by creating unified street furniture could you imagine driving to Paris in it with the roof rolled down?’ or ‘Have you printed all the labels for the woronowii and how many crates do you think we could put in the 2cv if we took it with us when we give a talk?’ More and more the conversation left the real world and centered on the world of the 2cv. We decided to go and view it on Friday afternoon.
The advert told very little of its condition or history, and the gentleman we met on a windy street in the cotswolds was slightly erratic to say the least. He told us how he had owned it for 20 years and used it everyday. He had replaced the chassis, a wise precaution to old age sagging. We sat in every seat and felt quite comfortable, it seemed the wire hooks and rubbers which keep you upright were in good condition.
The old man rolled the roof back and even with a biting wind we felt rather excited at the thought of driving off in it, leaving the luxury of my mothers ultra modern volvo behind us.
A test drive did not take place, we had seen, and heard enough and asked if he would be happy to sell it to us. Luckily for us he liked us and agreed so now we are the extremely happy owners, once again, of this little piece of motoring history, a dare I say it rather economical icon.
We have already begun to make plans of a trip through France into Italy for this August and several weekend trips to Cornwall & Suffolk.
I know this is a plant blog but I feel we will have many plant hunting trips and journeys of horticultural discovery in our new little car.
To all members of Box Gardening Club who I had the pleasure of meeting and speaking to last night. Thank you for inviting me and for a really enjoyable evening with you all - It was a great deal of fun!
One of my favorite books about gardening and it is so much more than just about gardens, is Italian Villa’s & Their Gardens. Not a novel, or travel writing or purely garden writing this book still stands as a bible for those seeking the essence of an Italian Garden.
I read an original edition of this book whilst at University along with many precious original texts all stored for future generations at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh's Library. It was here that I first read Hortus No. 1 and many old RHS publications with articles by the likes of Vita Sackville - West.
Italian Villa’s does not bother with the tedious detail of how to get somewhere but rather assumes you to are intimate with the owner of each villa and knowledge of location and entry is rather a foregone conclusion. Edith brings to life the essence and it is her narrative which is the books biggest strength. She stresses that ‘ One must always bear in mind that it (Italian Garden Craft) is independent of floriculture’. Her persistent attention to the describing the layout of the gardens she visits and the visitor routes give the book its constant fresh appeal. After all gardens may fade, planting disappear but the spaces and voids remain and the book describes this effortlessly.
When I first read Italian Villas I was also reading Geoffrey Jellicoe’s Italian Gardens, between them they became my guides on my first trip to Italy and I went for 4 months in the summer of 1999.
One villa which has always remained in my mind which I visited more than once is the Villa Barbarigo. Jellicoe called it Villa Donna Della Rose and wrote ‘Consider an amphitheater of hills, the ends linked by a great avenue flung across the valley, and this valley an arrangement of lesser avenues furnished with all the delights of an Italian garden, box hedges, lemon trees, sculpture, pools and fountains, and you have an impression of the gardens at Valsanzibio'. The building was designed by Bernine for Zuane Francesco Barbarigo. The baroque gardens have seventy statues, cascades, fountains and water features’.
 Edith Wharton called it Villa Valsanzibio and simply described it as one of the most beautiful pleasure grounds in Italy.
The villa itself dates from the 17th Century and the garden is divided by colossal 20ft High Buxus hedges each room as we would now call them divided between green structures, statuary and water. I don’t remember seeing a single flower here, but this garden stood out for me as a singular joy and lesson in proportion and taste.
 The village of Valsanzibio is very near to the City of Padua, not only famous for the Pedrocchi Cafe, a favorite haunt of Byron, Dario Fo and Stendhal but also for having one of the oldest botanic gardens in the world with its original 1545 layout intact. Arranged over a circular format Padua Botanic Garden sets out each plant in its own bed so that the specimens could be observed and catalogued at ease.
When talking about Italian gardens I think I will leave the last words to Edith Wharton
“The traveller returning from Italy, with his eyes and imagination full of the ineffable Italian garden-magic, knows vaguely that enchantment exists: that he has been under its spell, and that it is more potent, more enduring, more intoxicating to every sense than the most elaborate and glowing effects of the modern horticulture.........”
As a gardener I approach the end of the year with a slight sense of satisfaction. The glorious weather of the last couple of weeks has allowed me to sit, at the end of a days toil I must add, with a cup of tea and just take stock of the garden.
Its easy to do yourself a dis-service and remember what hasn’t gone so well, the seeds that didn't germinate or the plants that no matter how hard you tried either died or were eaten. Overlooking this endless list I instead concentrated on what had done well and I could be pleased with.
(Photo: Rudbeckia in front of the Exhedra, Painswick Rococo Garden)
Our trial bed of grasses revealed which plants are indeed worthy of inclusion in the garden, Muhlenbergia glomerata really stood out, not only were the basel clump of leaves still buzzing with fresh green colour but the delicate seed heads and stalks have seemed to defy the winds and remain up right and perfectly posed. No mean feet in our wind swept garden and being over 5ft in height.
I planted Aster l. 'Calliope' for the first time last year, after admiring its rich black stems, dark green leaves and almost neon purple flowers in other peoples garden. Mine is now looking looking just perfect, reaching well up to 6ft and covered in flower it looks stunning. I planted it in a border which is backed by Eucalyptus. The combination of the peeling pinkish - brown bark and silver foliage with the aster works really nicely. I have noticed however that the Elymus canadensis does not work here at all as there is to much green in its leaves and its delicateness would be better shown off elsewhere in the garden, perhaps with the long lasting Eupatorium ‘Gateway’?
In the spring we planted a long border in front of our chickens run. We have 8 in total, a mixture of Rhode Island Red, Brahma and Crested Cream Legbar. We keep them within a sizable run due to scratching. However this did not stop them escaping and in one afternoon turning the border into something which resembled a newly plowed field. Rather than be annoyed at the loss of Agastache schropulariaefolia amongst others, we realised what great workers chickens are and we have devised a pen which fits over the raised beds in our kitchen garden where a pair of birds can be set to work bug clearing and turning over the top layer of soil before planting. An added bonus will be the free manure they will deposit.
(Photo: Autumn Colour in the garden)
Of course gardening is an unending series of lessons. Nothing is ever in vein, earlier this year I was asked to be involved on a gardening course and I talked about the history of herbal gardens. In the afternoon a young lady lead a practical session on herbal remedies. We all learn’t many valuable lessons on different plants and use’s. One plant was lemon balm, Melissa officinalis. I left the day thinking I must plant more of this wonder herb and now after forgetting to cut down the flowering stems to get a second crop of fresh foliage I fear that the herb garden may actually become a lemon balm garden. If only it was enclosed by protective walls I would be able to bring in lemon trees and olives in huge terracotta pots long with olive jars and claim it was for underplanting in a courtyard I hoped would catch something of essence of Grasse over the happy mistake it will become.
For many of us the coming winter is a great time to sit down and start searching through seed catalogues and nursery lists, as they seem to arrive almost daily in the post with renewed promise captured in each page. By January I have written and rewritten so many lists that I wonder where the space will come from to grow everything on. This problem is always added to by listening to talks and lectures. I am sometimes invited to speak to gardening groups and often, like many speakers, get told off for adding a fresh suggestive list of plants to be included along side the seed catalogue and nursery list. Still this is a part of gardening which is inevitable, the addictive need to grow more plants and ones we haven’t got! - or perversely ones which insist on dying!
(View Across the Valley from Painswick) However whilst the sun is still shining then we will continue to be working at the nursery and out on clients projects enjoying the changing autumn landscape around us. Tillia and Oak are turning rich shades of yellow and gold each day now and will soon begin their progression to the ground. Liquidamber is a great choice for the garden being amongst the first to start turning to rich burn’t sugary colours and one of the longest lasting, holding its leaves well into November. I love to crush the leaves and breath in the cinnamon fragrance.
As a boy I was lucky growing up a stone trows distance from the Botanic Garden in Oxford and I would spend many happy hours wandering around pretending it was my garden - this would lead to some slightly hairy moments when the gardeners rightly wondered what I was doing in the midst of the herbaceous borders!
At the weekends I found myself a little job working in a small plant shop in Summer Town, I never asked for money but rather took home seeds, plants and all manner of bits and bobs to make my own garden at home.
Although, looking back I had the most dreadful sense of 'taste' (I was only in my teens). My own garden felt very much an escape from everything, school masters, noise etc, and I was encouraged by our elderly next door neighbours who had seen the War first hand and knew lots about plants and nurturing not only a garden to life but also my growing gardening ambitions.
At Malvern Autumn Show I was approached by a young lady who, as we got talking, told me about a school she was involved with in the centre of Worcester. The children there were starting up their own school garden. I was very excited for them and asked how it was all going, sadly it was not going as well as you may take for granted and finding plants and materials to get started was proving difficult. I made some suggestions and also offered them a couple of plants from the show garden. I gave them a couple which are good hard working plants and can easily be propagated either from seed or cuttings.
Over the weekend a letter arrived for me at the Rococo Garden, nothing unusual about that so I opened it with little thought as to what may be inside. The school children had all written to thank us for the plants, each member of the gardening club had signed the letter. I was slightly taken back and felt very happy that something I had done without thought of reward had been so sincerely received.
It took me back to my school days and our next door neighbours patiently teaching me about gardening and instilling a passion for plants. Their garden was well tended and carefully considered, my own little plot was a jumble of colour, textures and a collection of my latest finds. However that didn't matter, it was a starting block and I rather feel that the children who took the time to thank me for just 3 plants I gave, have found a starting block in the lady who approached me at Malvern.
Because I know that they are really keen to make the most of their garden, Sean and I will be sorting through our bags and packets of half used or forgotten seed as soon as the nursery closes to send to them. If you have any spare packets or half packets and would like to pass them on please let us know.
Autumn is almost always thought of as a glorious last chance, a celebration of the year passing. Harvest festivals offer a blaze of colour and opportunity to reminisce with friends old and new, over the joys of the summer.
For me the Autumn also signaled the approach of the Malvern Autumn Show and my first public test as the Chris Beardshaw Scholar 2009. Since my first show garden at Malvern a year ago I have felt a connection with Malvern. The drive for me through the Gloucestershire, Herefordshire and Worcestershire countryside before opening up on Birtsmorton common is filled with natures signals. Along the way hedgerows seemed to be bursting this year with rich berries, juicy blackberries seemed to jostle for space with glossy burgundy hawthorn and darker sloes. Through Eastnor a canopy of fine landscape trees was beginning to flush golden as Tillia begin to draw energy back for the winter ahead. Another sign that a different season is becoming to us was the numbers of pheasant across the fields as the traditional game season begins.
At Malvern the hills both seemed to bask in the late sunshine whilst both taking on a brooding presence with clouds hanging low. Natures signals prompted the theme of my own garden at the show.
During September a natural event takes place which is natures sharpest signal of the approaching change. It effects us also and this year I noticed that almost everyone on the show ground complained for one brief day of feeling ‘out of sorts’, the Equinox had arrived.
My garden was designed to ask what it means. For many and traditionally the calendar tells us this is the beginning of the end, the warm summer days are over and the dormancy of winter is almost on us. Pagans had a tradition for this time of year and saw winter as a time to sit and reflect over the past years successes but also the things which haven’t gone so well or as we may have hoped.
 
For the garden I wanted people to reflect on this but also ask if the Equinox removed from our Gregorian calendar is actually the small sparks and beginnings of the process of renewal? Without this clear natural message to produce seed and the chill period which many genus need to germinate in the coming spring then spring itself may not actually happen. I took the average day length hours of the seasons and built a wall which surrounded a garden planted to celebrate the joys of the autumn season. Through this wall I cut 4 openings with paths, all calculated in size to give a hypothetical window on to Autumn from another season allowing the on-looker to engage with this time of year from points you would not normally engage with it from. To add to this sense of questioning I placed a large urn, deliberately off centre with a carpet of textural green planting to signify our own hopes and desires through the seasons. Just like Pandora’s mythical box with only hope left inside the urn disappeared when you saw the garden from the opening with represented Autumn and Summer but became very dominate when you looked from the opening representing Spring and Winter, both times when we as gardeners project a lot of hope in the coming seasons.
 
Over the course of the show the garden was very well received by the public and its sponsor Bradstone. The Royal Horticultural Society awarded it a Silver-Gilt Medal and Best in Show for the show garden category, which I was utterly delighted with and which came as a total surprise.
Now just 72 hours after the closure of the show all that remains of the garden are photographs and a collection of materials waiting to live again. Bradstone very kindly allowed me to give the materials to a school local to my design practice, who with a little guidance from me will create a long term show-garden based on ‘The Umbrella’s’ by Renoir at the Rococo Garden, Painswick.
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The Chelsea Flower Show was rather an amazing experience by any standard. I was very lucky to be next door to some lovely people whilst creating the Biodiversity Garden for Bradstone which was awarded a Silver Medal. The garden set about highlighting biodiversity issues whilst being a beautiful place to escape into from our modern busy lives. Luckily for me this combination and some what simple approach was in tune with two lovely gardening television presenters from Australia and Austria who decided to do lengthly pieces on biodiversity from the garden.
