This week I visited the newly renamed RHS Hampton Court Garden Festival (previously the RHS Hampton Court Flower Show). What a great show this year! It’s new name fits so well with the experience as a whole, this so has much more of a festival vibe than the traditional flower shows – lots of space to walk around, shade and grassy areas to sit in, stages with fascinating talks and toned-down music here and there.
A friendly and relaxed environment, lots of inspiring modern gardens to explore and masses of fantastic flower displays make this down-to-earth horticultural event inspiring for both the eager plants person as well as those who are just starting to develop a new interest. Whether you’re looking for ideas to spruce up a small urban space, want to introduce the latest trends into your garden or just love all things gardening – this is the show for you.
Trends at the RHS Hampton Court Garden Festival
You can refill your water bottle for free at the Thames Water Flourishing Future Garden #taptasticnotplastic
A lot of the gardens focussed on one of two distinct themes. Firstly, highlighting the need for us to cut down on single-use plastics and plastic pollution and also to be more aware and resourceful of our energy use. Secondly, the need to rewild our gardens or set aside areas of our gardens to go wild and allow wildlife to thrive, along with opting for nectar-rich flowers and meadow-style planting schemes to provide essential nectar for pollinators.
Trees are another noticeable trend. The use of small trees in gardens as ornamental features, providing shade, bringing height and structure to a space as well as doing their important job of converting polluted air and carbon into fresh oxygen. One garden, ‘The Forest Will See You Now’ focussed on the health benefits of being around trees and how they actually help improve mood. We do need to plant more trees in our gardens to help cool down the atmosphere, absorb excess water and clean the air, they are so important and I’m glad that there is now more movement on this issue.
Designed like a pill box on the outside and listing the health benefits of trees
Whether it’s busy lives, stress, pollution, technology or general life chaos that causes the mental health problems which are such a familiar issue these days, plants and gardening has shown to have beneficial therapeutic qualities. Mental health is hot topic, now widley covered at flower shows and horticultual events, showcasing how those with mental illness or troubled lives can find sanctuary and relaxation in the garden or any natural, outside space.
Other than wildlife friendly plants and mixed meadow planting schemes which feature predominently in the show gardens, plant trends include bolder, brighter colours than in recent years. People are going for zinging pops of colour with bright flowers, colours which you may consider to clash make a vibrant boho look which is right on trend at the moment, and also creating a tropical appeal with impressive palms and unusual foliage plants.
Going slightly retro, Dahlias are fashionable again and so are Begonias! But instead of planting them in neat rows in narrow borders like they were in the 1970’s, you plant them close together in every spare inch of your garden, packed in with tall foliage plants or grasses, and in contemporary planters placed high and low so you can be fully immersed by their flowers in every colour of the rainbow.
Begonias
Celebrity spotting
Throughout the week you may spot some well-known faces. Typically the Gardeners’ World crew film lots of footage at the show to feature on the programme, and the presenters are in the midst of it.
On press day I spotted Jo Whiley from BBC Radio 2 and Joe Swift (Gardeners’ World presenter) talking to the cameras in Beth Chatto’s Drought Tolerant garden.
Here’s Rachel De Thame filming a piece about roses:
Carol Klein filming in the Floral Marquee:
And Michaela Strachan waving at Chris Packham (on the phone) next to the BBC Springwatch garden:
Show Gardens at the RHS Hampton Court Garden Festival
Show gardens large and small showcase up-to-the-minute trends which not only provide inspiration and achievable design to work into your own outside space, but provide thought-provoking environmental and wellness messages. Here’s a selection of show gardens which I enjoyed…
Global Impact Garden: The Forest Will See You Now
A typical UK forest setting complete with woodland walk all crammed into a bijou box of walls which are designed to look like a pill packet. On the outside garden walls you can read the health benefits of trees, and your presecription is to take a meander through the forest and feel better when you come out the other side. The advice on the box states “Phytoncides: Organic chemical compound released by trees and plants. Scientifically proven to enhance immune system, concentration, mood, memory, overal health.”
In my opinion, you can never have too many trees – they clean the air, absorb excess water, provide shade for us and a habitat for wildlife. Not only does this garden highlight the health and wildlife benefits, but it shows how you can make a beautiful and relaxing woodland area or incorporate trees in a small space.
BBC Springwatch Garden
There’s plenty to take inspiration from with this trio of gardens. Designed to mimic a terrace of small gardens, they show how you can create a space which is a rich resource for wildlife, whilst being manageable, relaxing and beautiful.
The first section portays a garden owned by an older couple. It has a formal look about it, with traditional plants, borders and some vegetables. Towards the back of the garden is a designated or forgotten area which has been left to go wild, providing the ideal habitat for wildlife.
The middle section is an example of a garden which belongs to a family, with a low growing wildflower lawn and stepping stones. The borders have naturalistic planting with pernenials and there is a contemporary curved stone bench at the rear.
The third section shows a garden which could typically belong to a younger couple, with low-maintenance wildflower borders. Topiary trees provide a contemporary contrast to the wilderness below them as well as structure. Between the three gardens are low fences, which gives a friendly and relaxed feel to the terrace as a whole.
RHS Iconic Horticultural Hero: Beth Chatto
The Drought Tolerant Garden
If you’ve ever vitised Beth Chatto’s garden you’ll know that the first part you come to when you arrive is her wonderful gravel garden. Situated in Colchester, Essex (one of the driest parts of the country with areas of very free-draining soil) her dry garden shows how you can enjoy a successful, low-maintenance garden full of colour and variation using a wide range of plants which will withstand even the driest of summers in possibly the harshest of growing conditions.
This garden is a tribute to the late Beth Chatto, inspired by her work and methods. Her motto is ‘the right plant for the right place’. The place in this case is a stony gravel garden with dry soil in full sun – a difficult spot for many plants.
The choice of planting in the gravel beds echoes those she has used in her dry garden at her home in Essex. Eremurus, hardy geranium, grasses, osteospermum, alliums, bergenia, agapanthus and gaura feature heavily, making what could be a very harsh space a soft, tranquil and colourful garden which is full of movement and life.
Global Impact Garden: On The Brink
This garden situated at the Thames entrance to the Garden Festival features a 9m tall structure of a salmon created out of seawead and plastic bottles, collected by local school children. This garden draws attention to the amount of both single use and multi use plastics which are discarded by humans, causing detriment to the planet and polluting our oceans, threatening sealife. The sandy scene below the structure represents a typical beach with litter strewn and caught in the grasses. The problem with plastic in our oceans is not all down to plastic bottles, however – apparently 70% of large macro plastic in the sea comes from fishing gear.
Global Impact Garden: On The Brink
The Dream of the Indianos
Two huge Phoenix canariensis palms punctuate this garden and give it a wonderfully exotic look. Indiano was the name given to the poor emigrants from north-western Spain in the 19th centuary, who left their home country and travelled to America in search of work and a better life. Those who then retuned to their homelands after years of hard graft and who had eventually earned a good living, flaunted their new status by building lavish homes and decorating their front gardens with flashy, tropical plants. Symmetry and formality were important design factors in these gardens, along with the use of modern materials and structures which were highly contemporary and stylish at the time.
The Dream of the Indianos
RHS Hampton Court plant gallery
Comprising new varieties and some classics, here are some of my favourite plant shots from the show:
Inside the Floral Marquee…
Find out more about the RHS Hampton Court Garden Festival on the RHS website
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