Chelsea Flower Show 2013: award-winning gardens
May 21, 2013
By Pattie Barron
The Awards are in! The coveted Gold, Silver-Gilt and Silver medals have been awarded to Chelsea's Show Gardens and, perhaps because it's centenary year, there are no lacklustre Bronze medals. In fact, for the first time, 10 show gardens were awarded RHS Gold medals. Everybody is a winner - but who has what? Take a look, and see if you share the judge's opinion.
Best in show and gold medal winner
TRAILFINDERS AUSTRALIAN GARDEN: designed by Fleming's Nurseries
Melbourne designer Philip Johnson creates an exuberant Australian landscape that focusses on water management and natural habitat gardening - that is a real crowd pleaser. Not surprisingly, this won the highest award and is a great note for Fleming's Nurseries final hoorah at Chelsea - they've exhibited nine times at the show in the past, and won five gold medals - though maybe after this accolade, they might reconsider!
Other gold medal winners
THE TELEGRAPH GARDEN: designed by Christopher Bradley-Hole
Christopher Bradley-Hole's beautifully restrained garden, more about architecture and sculpture than plants, not suprisingly won a Gold medal. However the word from the crowd is that as a back garden, you might get tired of the never-changing landscape....
THE WASTELAND: designed by Kate Gould
Unusually, acclaimed designer Kate Gould sponsored her own garden - and it paid off, gleaning her a Gold. The Wasteland depicts a garden that has been created from discarded materials, giving them a new lease of life. Who could imagine that the charming filigree wall was created from old shopping trolleys?
THE LAURENT-PERRIER GARDEN: designed by Ulf Nordfjell
Cool, elegant and contemporary, the Laurent-Perrier Garden unites the classic styles of French and English landscaping with the sure signature of Swedish landscape architect Ulf Nordfjell. A great garden to wander in...but where are the seats?
THE M&G CENTENARY GARDEN - 'WINDOWS THROUGH TIME': designed by Roger Platts
No surprises here - Roger Platts' gorgeous garden celebrates the last hundred years of England's gardening heritage, and somehow manages to embrace different styles from cottage-garden to prairie planting, without cluttering the space.
THE HOMEBASE GARDEN 'SOWING THE SEEDS OF CHANGE': designed by Adam Frost
A hand-crafted working wooden beehive is just one of the charming and useful features on this quintessential family garden from designer Adam Frost. Designed with a small family in mind, the garden provides the space to emjoy an everyday connection with food - many of the plants are edibles - and with nature.
THE BREWIN DOLPHIN GARDEN: designed by Robert Myers
Although this is decidedly a crisp, modernist garden, many of the plants used are British natives, showing that you can mix wildflowers with garden cultivars, with great results. Robert Myers' fresh take on a central lawn is worth noting: squares of grass edge a looser centre of topiaried box cushions surrounded by long deschampsia grass. A sure-fire Gold.
THE ARTHRITIS RESEARCH UK GARDEN: designed by Chris Beardshaw
Chris Beardshaw's love of plants is obvious in this garden, and it is a pleasure among the abundance of green-and-white show gardens to see such a diversity of colour and texture, from the towering echiums to the dainty pink cranesbill geraniums. Surprisingly, many of the plants Chris has used are employed in the treatment of arthritis, eg borage, for its oil.
RBC BLUE WATER ROOF GARDEN: designed by Nigel Dunnett and The Landscape Agency
My personal favourite, this garden is an eco-friendly urban rooftop garden that, says Professor Dunnett, explores the potential of skyrise greening - to bring trees, meadows and wetlands into the heart of the city. Pictured is the central wetland area that captures rainwater run-off.
THE EAST VILLAGE GARDEN: designed by Michael Balson and Marie-Louise Agius
The ambitious theme of this garden is to reflect the 'designed for living' theme of East Village, E20 - formerly the Olympic athletes village - and soon to be London's newest neighbourhood when it opens later this year. Local references are picked up in the boundary, structures and planting, right down to the curving lines and leaf forms. Meanwhile, those white arum lilies, viewed close-up, are just gorgeous.
Silver-gilt awards
B&Q SENTEBALE FORGET-ME-NOT GARDEN: designed by Jinny Blom
Not all show gardens are blueprints for our own gardens, and this garden, designed by landscape and garden designer Jinny Blom, together with Prince Harry who co-founded the charity Sentebale with Prince Seeiso of Lesotho, aims to educate us about Lesotho's 'Forgotten Kingdom' and Sentebale's role in supporting vulnerable children. Interesting to see how the usual garden building and seating area are interpreted!
THE SEEABILITY GARDEN: designed by Darren Hawkes
The garden's theme is sight loss, and has been created to raise awareness about the effects of visual impairment, but even if you take it at face value, the easy-to-read block planting and interesting feature walls make it a worthy urban garden.
STOCKTON DRILLING'S 'AS NATURE INTENDED' GARDEN: designed by Jamie Dunstan
Jamie Dunstan's brave missive is to promote the use of natural materials and crafts as well as highlight the ways in which mankind has exploited nature over the years, becoming heavily reliant on natural resources. The stuff that looks like overlong grass, surrounding the woven willow sculptures? It's winter barley, used, of course, in the brewing industry.
Silver awards
STOKE-ON-TRENT'S STORY OF TRANSFORMATION: designed by the landscape team of Stoke-On-Trent City Council
This unique, ambitious and rather fabulous garden tells the story of Stoke-on-Trent's journey from its rich industrial past to its present incarnation as a modern and vibrant city. That big structure represents a pottery bottle kiln and in contrast, a sunken seated area references the contemporary living spaces being created in Stoke-on-Trent.
STOP THE SPREAD GARDEN: sponsored by the Food And Environment Research Agency and designed by Jo Thompson
This garden is inspired by a powerful message: our plants, trees and wildlife are under threat from pests, diseases and invasive non-native species, which could have a huge impact on our gardens, woodlands and countryside. Although parts of the garden symbolise the devastation that can be caused, this is a space of quiet beauty. The central sculpture, made so you can walk through the centre, was designed by sculptor Tom Stogdon.
Photographs by Bethany Clarke
The Awards are in! The coveted Gold, Silver-Gilt and Silver medals have been awarded to Chelsea's Show Gardens and, perhaps because it's centenary year, there are no lacklustre Bronze medals. In fact, for the first time, 10 show gardens were awarded RHS Gold medals. Everybody is a winner - but who has what? Take a look, and see if you share the judge's opinion.
Best in show and gold medal winner
TRAILFINDERS AUSTRALIAN GARDEN: designed by Fleming's Nurseries
Melbourne designer Philip Johnson creates an exuberant Australian landscape that focusses on water management and natural habitat gardening - that is a real crowd pleaser. Not surprisingly, this won the highest award and is a great note for Fleming's Nurseries final hoorah at Chelsea - they've exhibited nine times at the show in the past, and won five gold medals - though maybe after this accolade, they might reconsider!
Other gold medal winners
THE TELEGRAPH GARDEN: designed by Christopher Bradley-Hole
Christopher Bradley-Hole's beautifully restrained garden, more about architecture and sculpture than plants, not suprisingly won a Gold medal. However the word from the crowd is that as a back garden, you might get tired of the never-changing landscape....
THE WASTELAND: designed by Kate Gould
Unusually, acclaimed designer Kate Gould sponsored her own garden - and it paid off, gleaning her a Gold. The Wasteland depicts a garden that has been created from discarded materials, giving them a new lease of life. Who could imagine that the charming filigree wall was created from old shopping trolleys?
THE LAURENT-PERRIER GARDEN: designed by Ulf Nordfjell
Cool, elegant and contemporary, the Laurent-Perrier Garden unites the classic styles of French and English landscaping with the sure signature of Swedish landscape architect Ulf Nordfjell. A great garden to wander in...but where are the seats?
THE M&G CENTENARY GARDEN - 'WINDOWS THROUGH TIME': designed by Roger Platts
No surprises here - Roger Platts' gorgeous garden celebrates the last hundred years of England's gardening heritage, and somehow manages to embrace different styles from cottage-garden to prairie planting, without cluttering the space.
THE HOMEBASE GARDEN 'SOWING THE SEEDS OF CHANGE': designed by Adam Frost
A hand-crafted working wooden beehive is just one of the charming and useful features on this quintessential family garden from designer Adam Frost. Designed with a small family in mind, the garden provides the space to emjoy an everyday connection with food - many of the plants are edibles - and with nature.
THE BREWIN DOLPHIN GARDEN: designed by Robert Myers
Although this is decidedly a crisp, modernist garden, many of the plants used are British natives, showing that you can mix wildflowers with garden cultivars, with great results. Robert Myers' fresh take on a central lawn is worth noting: squares of grass edge a looser centre of topiaried box cushions surrounded by long deschampsia grass. A sure-fire Gold.
THE ARTHRITIS RESEARCH UK GARDEN: designed by Chris Beardshaw
Chris Beardshaw's love of plants is obvious in this garden, and it is a pleasure among the abundance of green-and-white show gardens to see such a diversity of colour and texture, from the towering echiums to the dainty pink cranesbill geraniums. Surprisingly, many of the plants Chris has used are employed in the treatment of arthritis, eg borage, for its oil.
RBC BLUE WATER ROOF GARDEN: designed by Nigel Dunnett and The Landscape Agency
My personal favourite, this garden is an eco-friendly urban rooftop garden that, says Professor Dunnett, explores the potential of skyrise greening - to bring trees, meadows and wetlands into the heart of the city. Pictured is the central wetland area that captures rainwater run-off.
THE EAST VILLAGE GARDEN: designed by Michael Balson and Marie-Louise Agius
The ambitious theme of this garden is to reflect the 'designed for living' theme of East Village, E20 - formerly the Olympic athletes village - and soon to be London's newest neighbourhood when it opens later this year. Local references are picked up in the boundary, structures and planting, right down to the curving lines and leaf forms. Meanwhile, those white arum lilies, viewed close-up, are just gorgeous.
Silver-gilt awards
B&Q SENTEBALE FORGET-ME-NOT GARDEN: designed by Jinny Blom
Not all show gardens are blueprints for our own gardens, and this garden, designed by landscape and garden designer Jinny Blom, together with Prince Harry who co-founded the charity Sentebale with Prince Seeiso of Lesotho, aims to educate us about Lesotho's 'Forgotten Kingdom' and Sentebale's role in supporting vulnerable children. Interesting to see how the usual garden building and seating area are interpreted!
THE SEEABILITY GARDEN: designed by Darren Hawkes
The garden's theme is sight loss, and has been created to raise awareness about the effects of visual impairment, but even if you take it at face value, the easy-to-read block planting and interesting feature walls make it a worthy urban garden.
STOCKTON DRILLING'S 'AS NATURE INTENDED' GARDEN: designed by Jamie Dunstan
Jamie Dunstan's brave missive is to promote the use of natural materials and crafts as well as highlight the ways in which mankind has exploited nature over the years, becoming heavily reliant on natural resources. The stuff that looks like overlong grass, surrounding the woven willow sculptures? It's winter barley, used, of course, in the brewing industry.
Silver awards
STOKE-ON-TRENT'S STORY OF TRANSFORMATION: designed by the landscape team of Stoke-On-Trent City Council
This unique, ambitious and rather fabulous garden tells the story of Stoke-on-Trent's journey from its rich industrial past to its present incarnation as a modern and vibrant city. That big structure represents a pottery bottle kiln and in contrast, a sunken seated area references the contemporary living spaces being created in Stoke-on-Trent.
STOP THE SPREAD GARDEN: sponsored by the Food And Environment Research Agency and designed by Jo Thompson
This garden is inspired by a powerful message: our plants, trees and wildlife are under threat from pests, diseases and invasive non-native species, which could have a huge impact on our gardens, woodlands and countryside. Although parts of the garden symbolise the devastation that can be caused, this is a space of quiet beauty. The central sculpture, made so you can walk through the centre, was designed by sculptor Tom Stogdon.
Photographs by Bethany Clarke
