The show included a wide variety of (judged) gardens, from show gardens, to Get Start gardens as well as the delightful new Pocket Resilient Planting beds which showcased the talents of new designers. The Resilient Pocket Planting planting design category was open to those currently studying, or recently graduated from a horticultural-based course, or new to the industry (five years or less). The nine successful applicants were mentored by award winning garden designer, Tom Massey and supported with plant procurement from Hortus Loci.
Garden Medals
The Lion King Anniversary Garden by Juliet Sargeant, an ode to the 25th anniversary of Disney’s West End musical won Gold and Best in Show. Inspired by the stage production and offering visitors a space to sit and reflect on their own journey through the ‘Circle of Life’ at the centre of a community garden, judges awarded Sergeant the top show prize. The garden also won the Environmental Innovation Award.
Sargeant said: “This is amazing. What I really really wanted to do was show people what can be done with drought tolerant planting. This savannah-style planting is an opportunity to rethink the English Garden as what it’s going to look like in 50 years’ time. It’s really lovely to have won this; I hope people will look at it and think ‘that’s something that works’.”
The Exodus Adventure Travels: The Sounds of Adventure Garden designed by Nic Howard, a sustainable oasis designed to engage all five senses to invoke a sense of excitement and discovery, secured a Silver-Gilt Medal and Best Construction Award.
In the Get Started gardens category, Katerina Kantalis picked up a hat-trick as her entry, The Mediterraneo Garden, was awarded the Best Get Started prize, Best Construction award and a Gold medal. The Mediterraneo Garden is inspired by the warmth and vibrancy of Greek landscapes and provides an escape from the everyday while addressing the need for climate adaptation in our gardens.
Kantalis said: “I’m thrilled, delighted and relieved to have won these awards. I just wanted to show that this is my heritage, this is what I’ve grown up with, but I’ve lived in the UK for a long time. Seeing the changing climate, having grown up in countries that are hot, some of these gardening practices we can learn from – how you can do a beautiful, Mediterranean garden with a purpose as well.”
Winds of Change, by James Miller, Marko Yau and Saachi Parasrampuria, picked up a Gold Medal and Best Resilient Pocket Planting award. A coastal pocket garden, inspired by Jaywick Sands on the north Essex coast, which is one of the UK’s most deprived towns where residents form a resilient coastal community despite facing major challenges from climate change.
Paul Cowell, chair of the Assessing Judges, said: “There was a huge contrast among the gardens. I’m delighted at Juliet getting this award. I think what she has done is fantastic. I’m also delighted for Nic Howard – what they’ve got is visually striking and impressive. We’d like to congratulate all the designers who took part for their fantastic achievements.”
Additional Gold medal winners
- Buglife: The B–Lines Garden, designed by Hayley Herridg, sponsored by Buglife- The Invertebrate Conservation Trust. The garden is a pollinator paradise, promoting ‘B-Lines’ – a network of ‘insect pathways’ stretching across the UK to provide corridors of nectar-rich habitat for bees and other pollinators.
- Our Forgotten Neighbours: Growing Resilience with Food Forests, designed by Marina Lindl. Inspired by the charity Our Forgotten Neighbours which works to improve community life by providing healthy, nutritious meals to those who cannot afford them, Lindl’s garden is a compact food forest with multi-layered, edible plants providing wholesome, nutrient-rich food to a community.
The full list of medal winners is available here, but a few additional mentions we wanted to include:
- The Climate-Forward Garden, designed by Melanie Hicks was awarded a Silver-Gilt medal. Hicks’ garden is a front garden re-imagined for our changing environment with style and sustainability front and centre. Here’s hoping this innovative garden encourages a wave of front garden renovations, where tarmac sadly dominates….
- The Wild Child Cornwall Garden, designed by Victoria Jane Cucknell is a charming maritime hardy, texturally attractive, biodiverse, colourful space with strong three-dimensional qualities and featured a series of sculptural live willow forms which sit amongst the wildly planted sensory, edible and textural plants. Cucknell is from Perranporth, Cornwall and studying Garden and Landscape Design HNC at the Cornwall College University Centre based at the Eden Project.
- Strive and Thrive, designed by the trio of SSH Scapes, the collaboration between Sonia Kamel, Sally Giles and Helier Bowling was awarded a Silver-Gilt. The garden imagines the aftermath of a catastrophic meteor strike. Amid the disruption and debris, new life emerges and in areas positively flourishes. Their first RHS medal, after they won the Garden Makers competition at the recent Royal Windsor Flower Show.
- University of Sheffield: Beautifully Stressed Garden, designed by Xun Xie, Jingwen Liu, Awika Butnark and Andrew McMaster was awarded a Silver medal. An interesting garden, celebrating the resilience of plants that adapt to stressful environments, inspired by the capabilities of stress-tolerant plants to survive and flower on brownfield sites.
Other Show Awards
The full list of medal winners is available here, but a few additional mentions we wanted to include:
- Gold Medal & Best Plant Heritage Exhibit: National Plant Collection of Rosa persica hybrids exhibit. Intriguing exhibit of relatively unknown Persica hybrids telling the story about the breeding of the Persica roses by Daniel Myhill, the National Collection holder of Rosa persica hybrids.
- New Design Award was awarded to She Grows Veg Ltd for their Gold Medal winning exhibit of heirloom vegetable seeds. Following their RHS Chelsea success, the She Grows Veg team of Lucy Hutchings and Kate Cotterill brought their fabulous vegetables to life with the help of contemporary florist, Hazel Gardiner, creating a beautiful, opulent and inspirational presentation featuring signature heirloom vegetables in a rainbow of colours – presented in a modern twist on Renaissance painting.
- Best Exhibit in the Floral Marquee, Jurassic Plants for their exhibit of edible trees, shrubs, and unusual fruit.
- The RHS Long Service medal was deservedly awarded to Ian Limmer, Tina Limmer & Simon White of Peter Beales Roses – the longest serving rosarians, whom have a combined total of 127 years experience in the rose business. This RHS award celebrates British Horticulturists, recognising their working in the horticultural industry for 40+ years. Ian Limmer started working for Peter Beales Roses, as a Saturday boy in 1977 but soon became part of company’s show team for the RHS Chelsea Flower Show. Working alongside Peter Beales for many years, Ian Limmer said: “I feel Peter has passed on some of his passion and skill on a very practical level. Skills and knowledge that you cannot learn at a college. So after 47 years I am beginning to feel that I am getting the hang of it, but nature will always have the upper hand. No matter how knowledgeable I become, I appreciate that there will always be more to learn and that’s what makes it so exciting!”
