AN evocative echo of an English country pub garden has won the Chelsea Flower
Show top award. Ecover’s Chelsea Pensioners’ Garden managed to look charming
without becoming chocolate box — a triumph by Julian Dowle.
Another well-deserved accolade goes to Hillier Nurseries, which won its
sixtieth consecutive gold medal for its monumental display at the centre of
the Great Pavilion.
Gold, too, for Andy Sturgeon, for his original and exciting Merrill Lynch
Garden, with a Giant’s Causeway of oak stepping stones and, bizarrely,
rectangular holes in the water of his pool. And golds respectively for
Chelsea veterans Tom Stuart-Smith (Laurent Perrier Garden) and Christopher
Bradley-Hole who designed a superb modernist grove for the late Sheikh Zayad
al-Nahyan.
The RSPB/SITA Environmental Trust garden by Claire Whitehouse deserved better
than silver. Her Real Rubbish Garden is a brilliant piece of landscaping,
using the site to perfection by “borrowing” the surrounding trees. And the
gleaming blue, marble-like pool surround made from recycled CDs was one of
many inspirational “green” ideas.
This year included several contributions from schools — quite a departure
given that those under 16 were barred from Chelsea until recently.
Sheddingdean Primary School won a respectable bronze flora for its pretty
courtyard garden, themed around the school colours and designed by the
children. Oak Lodge Special Secondary School’s Peace is Special garden won
silver flora. I wonder if the cut suffered by one of the adjudicators on the
MoD razor tape that was supporting the honeysuckle had something to do with
the failure of this brilliant garden by Jennifer Hirsch to achieve gold?
Marcus Barnett & Philip Nixon and Room 105 Design Partnership won gold for
their outdoor photograph galleries. If you get a chance, feel the flooring
in the former garden — it is waxed concrete, and looks like gunmetal.
Great to see that Peter Beales, the rose grower, has again won gold on this,
his 37th display at the show. That other great show stalwart, Notcutts, won
gold for a subtle kaleidoscope of planting that reaches almost to the top of
the pavilion. And Grenada managed gold, quite miraculous after the
devastation of the hurricane on the island last year. Bowden’s Hostas cool
pool of leafy perfection (which won gold) is a reminder about the number of
variations on the green theme.
Continuing the green theme, albeit in the other sense of the word, the Henry
Doubleday Research Association won silver for its “Organic Food for All”
display.
Awards aside, this is one of the best Chelsea shows I can remember, with
consistently high standards throughout, a peaceful atmosphere and, best of
all, an extra day on Saturday.
Tickets to the Chelsea Flower Show are now sold out.
Clips from the official Chelsea Flower Show video and DVD, presented by
Jane Owen, will
be available on Times Online (www.timesonline.co.uk). It can be purchased
through Times Online or www.rhs.org.uk
FULL LIST OF RESULTS
Show gardens
Best Show Garden
Royal Hospital Chelsea.
Gold: Fetzer Vineyards; Fleming’s Nurseries; His Late
Highness Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan al-Nahyan; Laurent-Perrier (UK); Merrill
Lynch; Royal Hospital Chelsea.
Silver-Gilt Flora: Diarmuid Gavin Designs.
Silver Flora: Clare Agnew Design; Cancer Research UK; Ellen
Landscape Designs; RSPB/SITA Environmental Trust; Taiga Rescue Network; The
Wildlife Trusts. Bronze Flora: 4head; Bradstone; Imperial War Museum; Whiten
Marketing; WRAP.
Chic gardens
Best Chic Garden
Marcus Barnett and Philip Nixon
Gold: Marcus Barnett & Philip Nixon; Mazandi Design; Room
105 Design Partnership.
Silver-Gilt Flora: Sue Adcock Designs; Orangenbleu. Silver
Flora: Oak Lodge Special Secondary School/Xchanging/Dirt. Bronze Flora: John
Gilbert Garden Designer/Curtis & Curtis Landscapes; Landscape Management
Services/Home Group; Julie Zeldin Landscape & Garden Design.
City gardens
Best City Garden
The Sunday Mirror/Domoney.
Silver-Gilt Flora: designing-gardens.co.uk; The Sunday
Mirror/Domoney. Silver Flora: Helios/Kate Gould. Bronze Flora: Allium;
Bridgwater College, Cannington Centre; Joe McHugh Garden Design.
Courtyard gardens
Best Courtyard Garden
Kim Wilde & Richard Lucas
Gold: Kim Wilde & Richard Lucas.
Silver-Gilt Flora: Fiona Bruce; Fittleworth Horticultural
Society; Andrew Loudon Traditional & Decorative Stonework. Silver Flora:
Brinsbury Campus, Chichester College; Scenic Blue (UK). Bronze Flora: Avant
Garde; Friends of Michael Sobell House; Sheddingdean Primary School; St
Joseph’s Hospice.
Sunflower Street gardens
Gold: Squire’s Garden Centres
Silver-Gilt Flora: Scotsdale Garden Centre.
Silver Flora: Longacres Landscape; Pershore College. Bronze
Flora: Association of British Conifer Growers/Creative Corners; Capel Manor
College; Classic Landscapes of Sale/Sadolin/Bridgewater; Geoffrey & Kas
Whiten/Whetman Pinks.
Great Pavilion
The President’s Award
Hillier Nurseries
Gold: Alpine Garden Society; Jacques Amand International;
Ashwood Nurseries; David Austin Roses; Avon Bulbs; Barbados Horticultural
Society; Peter Beales Roses; Bloms Bulbs; Blooms of Bressingham; Bowden
Hostas; Burncoose Nurseries; Dibleys Nurseries; Downderry Nursery; Eagle
Nursery; Raymond J Evison; Fernatix; Fernwood Nursery; Grenada; Hall Farm
Nursery; Hampshire Carnivorous Plants; Hardy’s Cottage Garden Plants; Harts
Nursery; Herons Bonsai; Hillier Nurseries; HW Hyde & Son; Ikebana of
Kensington & Chelsea; Jekka’s Herb Farm; Kirstenbosch, South Africa;
Knoll Gardens; A B Longden; Matthewman Sweet Peas; McBeans; Medwyns of
Anglesey; Ken Muir; NAFAS; National Chrysanthemum Society; Norfields;
Notcutts Garden Centres & Mattocks Roses; P W Plants; Romantic Garden
Nursery; Roualeyn Nursery; Southfield Nurseries; Three Counties Nurseries;
UK Horticulture; Walkers Bulbs @ Taylors; W S Warmenhoven.
Silver-Gilt Flora: Ainsworth Displays; Blackmore &
Langdon; Borneo Exotics; Burnham Nurseries; Sheila Chapman Clematis; Choice
Landscapes; Craig House Cacti; D’Arcy & Everest; Eden Project &
Institute of Horticulture; Federation of British Bonsai Societies; Glebe
Cottage Plants; R Harkness & Co; Harveys Garden Plants; Hewitt-Cooper
Carnivorous Plants; The Horticultural Society of Trinidad & Tobago;
Howard Nurseries; Jamaica Horticultural Society; Kelways; Millais Nurseries;
Orchid Society of Great Britain; Penhow Nurseries; J S Pennings “De Bilt”;
Pop’s Plants Auriculas; Potash Nursery; Pottertons Nursery/Peter Orme
Landscapes; Rentokil Tropical Plants; Rhodes & Rockliffe; Rickards Hardy
Ferns; Rougham Hall Nurseries; Peter J Smith; Brian & Pearl Sulman;
Thorncroft Clematis Nursery; Trevena Cross Nurseries; Westcountry Nurseries
(incorporating Westcountry Lupins). Silver-Gilt Grenfell: Ichiyo School of
Ikebana.
Silver Flora: The Big Grass Company; Bonsai Kai; Broadleigh
Gardens; Cayeux Iris; Devine Nurseries; Fibrex Nurseries; Foxgrove Plants;
Hardy Plant Society; Hippopottering Nursery; Graeme Iddon (Maureen Iddon)
Hardy Plants; C S Lockyer (Fuchsias); W & S Lockyer; Mallet Court
Nursery; Helen & David Millner; Newington Nurseries; Oakland Nurseries;
Oakleigh Nurseries; Rotherview Nursery; Westdale Nurseries; Wilford Bulb Co.
Silver Grenfell: Somerset Postal Flowers. Silver Knightian: W Robinson &
Son (Seeds & Plants). Bronze Flora: Big Plant Nursery; The Botanic
Nursery; Gateshead Council; Hopleys Plants; Pennard Plants; Phek Khee
Bonsai; Royal National Rose Society; Southend-on-Sea Borough Council; The
Sun Newspaper/Writtle College. Bronze Grenfell: David Austin Roses.
Bronze Knightian: Three Countries Potatoes in conjunction
with Thompson & Morgan.
Lifelong Learning in the Garden
Gold: Sparsholt College Hampshire; Writtle College.
Silver-Gilt Lindley: Capel Manor College with NCCPG; John
Innes Centre; Rothamsted Research; Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew; The Royal
College of Pathologists; University of Reading. Silver Lindley: Chichester
College, Brinsbury Campus; Duchy College; HDRA The Organic Organisation;
Society for General Microbiology. Bronze Lindley: British Memorial Garden
Trust; CIWEM; International Black Plant Society; Merrist Wood Campus,
Guildford College.
Floral arrangement (session 1)
Best Floral Arrangement (session 1):
Canterbury Flower Club
Gold: Canterbury Flower Club; Stimulus Designer Group;
Catharine Watson.
Silver-Gilt Grenfell: Farnham Floral Society; David Martin;
Sandra Snell; South Berkshire Floral Society; Vanguard Club Kent.
Silver Grenfell: Club 2000; Jenny Hogg; Innovation; Pinner
Flower Lovers Society.
Bronze Grenfell: Barbados Flower Arranging Society; Dominique
Gurret; Hadleigh & District Flower Club; Anne Harman; South West Area of
NAFAS.
Floristry (session 1)
Best Floristry Exhibit (session 1)
Chikako Shindo
Gold: Corrines; Chikako Shindo; Silver-Gilt Grenfell; Sheila
Betts Flowers; Louise Mosey.
Silver Grenfell: Cherri Burrelle; The Country Garden; Carol
Moore Florist.
Bronze Grenfell: Elsa Brown Flower Style; Flowertime Florist.
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