2015 RHS HAMPTON COURT PALACE FLOWER SHOW
CONCEPTUAL GARDEN EXHIBITORS
Please note: This information is subject to change. Full planting lists are available on
request from the Shows PR Team.
Images are available from PhotoShelter at www.rhs.photoshelter.com. Please contact
[email protected] to gain access.
African Vision: Malawi
www.africanvision.org.uk/garden
Designer(s):
Sponsor(s):
Contractor:
Gabrielle Evans
African Vision Malawi
Marmalade Jam Landscapes
Media Contact Name: Nigel Palmer
Media Contact Details: [email protected] / +442082878169
Garden Description
The garden is centred on an 'infinity mirror' trick, creating a sensational illusion of fields
of maize stretching into the distance. The aim is for the visitor to question the illusion of a
field of plenty. The eye plays tricks on us, is what we see the whole story?
Food security means not relying on just one crop which can so easily fail. Maize has
very few nutrients and relies on chemical fertilizers and pesticides, causing
environmental damage. The surrounding gardens show an alternative vision of
sustainable agricultural practices which African Vision Malawi are promoting as a means
of combating famine and building resilient communities.
African Vision Malawi is celebrating their 10th anniversary, with the garden as a focal
point for the anniversary. This will be the first time designer Gabrielle Evans has
exhibited at an RHS Show.
Colour Scheme/Planting
The planting theme is 'permaculture', (a sustainable method of agriculture) and there are
4 key areas: The Forest garden, made up of roughly seven layers and focusing on
perennial food crops: the canopy, lower canopy, shrub layer, herbaceous layer,
groundcovers, rhizosphere (root crops) and a climbing layer (vines).
The '3 sisters bed', the three crops benefit from each other. The maize provides a
structure for the beans to climb, eliminating the need for poles. The beans provide the
nitrogen to the soil that the other plants utilize, and the squash spreads along the
ground, helping prevent weeds.
The squash leaves also act as a ‘living mulch’, creating a microclimate to retain moisture
in the soil mountainous area, where we will display traditional medicinal plants and
beneficial flowers Finally, a permaculture display garden, which will showcase different
crops and perennials often seen in Malawi, also displaying techniques like woven plant
protectors and raised beds built from adobe beds.
DialAFlight Synaesthesia Garden
www.dialaflight.com
Designer(s):
Sponsor(s):
Contractor:
Sarah Wilson
DialAFlight
Frogheath Landscapes
Media Contact Name: Sarah Wilson
Media Contact Details: [email protected] / 07834451729
Garden Description
Synaesthesia is a neurological phenomenon in which stimulation of one sense leads to
automatic, involuntary experiences in a second sense. The garden is contained within a
white canvas dome so the visitor can enter a space designed to represent the inside of
synaesthete's head.
Once inside, the garden will be washed with different coloured lights in response to
trigger words that are projected onto the inside of the dome echoing the multi-sensory
experiences of a synaesthete. Specially commissioned sculptures and paving materials
incorporating materials such as glass and mirror will enhance the lighting effects and the
visitors' experiences.
This will be designer Sarah Wilson’s first exhibit at an RHS Show.
Colour Scheme/Planting
All white flowers will be used, along with a profusion of silver and variegated foliage. The
planting chosen will maximise the effects of the coloured LED lights that will flood the
garden in response to a trigger word. Plants will include a wide range of perennials and
annuals with white flowers and variegated shrubs.
Equilibrium
Designer(s):
Sponsor(s):
Contractor:
John Humphreys and Andy Hyde
Hallowed Turf Ltd.
Mudlarks
Media Contact Name: John Humphreys
Media Contact Details: [email protected] / 01323 766070
Garden Description
The tall circular henge of silvered weathered groyne wood acts as a striking contrast to
the shingle beach, placid pool and wild flower planting. The garden represents a calm
summer’s day when the water is smooth and the beach plants are flowering. This harsh
environment is usually in constant attack by the wind, waves and the sun.
The balance is constantly shifting and nature shows its tenacity with what grows here.
This was made very apparent after the storms of 2014. The henge is a depiction of
man's attempt to harness the beach shingle and protect the land from the sea.
Colour Scheme/Planting
The theme of the planting is beach plants and we are using plants common to this
environment at Pevensey Bay - sea kale, valerian – with the aim to promote the use of
native plant species in beach gardens along the sea front.
The Balaji Temple Garden: A Shallow Crossing
www.thedesigncic.co.uk
Designer(s):
Sponsor(s):
Contractor:
William Butterworth
The Balajii Temple Birmingham
The DesignCIC
Media Contact Name: William Butterworth
Media Contact Details: [email protected] / 02083745208
Garden Description
This conceptual design directly reflects and embodies the Balaji Temple in Birmingham’s
aims and key messages presenting the merits of spiritual awakening in a compelling and
immersive manner. The garden is designed to form a spiritual metaphor which speaks of
a devotee’s spiritual journey from the earth to heaven, from mundane to more elevated
forms of consciousness in pursuit of ‘darshan’. The title of the garden, 'A Shallow
Crossing' is derived from the hindu term Tirtha which refers to 'the inspiration enabling
one to cross over from worldly engagement to the side of nirvana'. This message is
reflected in the use of a series of evocative elements and symbolic structures throughout
the garden.
The designer believes the Balaji Temple garden will be set apart from other gardens in
two key respects: Its use of digital technology and its avowed spiritual design intention.
Conceptual gardens are by their nature at the cutting edge of garden design, however
this garden will distinguish itself by taking a step beyond this so called 'edge' into the
interactive digital future.
The garden will also take a step back into the past and the historic role of gardens as a
spiritual enclave within the paradise garden tradition. The Balaji Temple garden has
therefore more than one serious message to deliver, however as part of its awareness of
garden history it will also aspire to wit and humour with the inclusion of a range of
digitally activated 'jeu d'esprit'.
This will be designer William Butterworth’s first exhibit for an RHS Show.
Colour Scheme/Planting
Plants are chosen for their symbolic value and immersive impact. For example, banks of
white vertical planting create an enclosed ethereal atmosphere appropriate to a garden
designed to form a bridge between heaven and earth. Similarly, white lotus flowers float
in small pools, traditionally shown as the seat of Mother Saraswati, the Godess of
Moksha.
Gallery of Mirrors
www.studiospin.it
Designer(s): SPIN
Sponsor(s): Torsanlorenzo Gruppo; Florovivaistico; Vivai Paradello, Tutor
International;
Contractor:
AD Homes Ltd.
Media Contact Name: Niccolò Cau
Media Contact Details: [email protected] / 003963700038
Garden Description
Mediterranean landscape with its strong contrasts is the focus of this design. The
garden is inspired by the sensations caused by the different contrasts, typical of the
Mediterranean landscape. A silent artificial geometric object is immersed in a shapeless
botanical mass. This mass, consisting of dishevelled shrubs coloured hundreds of
shades of yellow, contrasts with the ‘inside’ garden of the mysterious object: a gallery of
sculptural succulents of a single essence.
Visitors will see their "portraits" reflected in the "Gallery of Mirrors" mixed with those of
zoomorphic Opuntia, the sharper contrast but also the most ambiguous. To mark the
conceptual character and careful botanical research, a circular base of flowery meadow
makes the composition suspended from the context.
Colour Scheme/Planting
For the walls of the Gallery, the colours of the plants are used for surfaces, in extension,
and not punctually: outside, above a base of flowery white-pink meadow (Phyla
nodiflora), different species of shrubs offer many shades of yellow (e.g. Spartium
junceum), while in the Gallery stands the "no colour" green of the succulents (Opuntia
engelmannii).
The SMART Vision Garden: Having the vision to see beyond mental illness
www.visiongardens.co.uk
Designer(s):
Sponsor(s):
Contractor:
Steve Smith
St Mary Abbott Rehabilitation and Training
Imperial Landscapes
Media Contact Name: Steve Smith
Media Contact Details: [email protected] / 07771623012
Garden Description
The garden - like SMART's philosophy - uses a simple idea to dramatic effect and
represents the ability to break down the barriers created by boundaries across time,
space and thinking.
The design uses the concept of the hortus conclusus to illustrate that by taking the time
to view the subject of mental health from the right angle that these boundaries can be
broken down and an expansive landscape of possibilities opens up. The garden design
gives people the opportunity to experience the opening up of hortus conclusus,
symbolising the possibilities that emerge when one ‘thinks outside the box’.
Multiple viewing heights represent an attempt to break down the barriers of accessibility
and the radiating benefit that can be achieved when a good idea is put into action is
represented through the inclusion of a concentric circle raked gravel garden symbolising
the ripple effect of a pebble dropped into water.
The garden will use SMARTS garden project run by Steve Smith to engage members
wherever possible in the preparation, build and during the show adding to their skill set
and involving them with an event that would otherwise be inaccessible to them.
Colour Scheme/Planting
Planting such as Dicksonia antarctica, Osmunda regalis and Dryopteris erythrosora from
the Jurassic and Triassic periods represent the resilience and sustainability of nature
across time and the reflection of its image into an infinite future.
The planting scheme comes from a palette of plants that existed over 200 million years
ago and have survived at least one mass extinction and vast climatic variations suggests
that nature is more robust than it is given credit and challenges the boundaries of fear
that surround our fragile planet.
Additional ‘Wild Card’ Garden, Separate from the ‘Senses’ Theme:
Ready… Aim… Flower!
Designer(s):
Contractor:
Simon Webster
Burnham Landscaping
Media Contact Name: Simon Webster
Media Contact Details: [email protected] / 07595 042180
Garden Description
Inspired by the reclaiming of local city centre wasteland, ‘Ready…Aim…Flower!’ shows
how destructive influence gives way to regeneration; how plants colonise and thrive over
time, reclaiming the landscape through a process of succession.
With theatre and drama at the fore, ‘Ready…Aim…Flower!’ uses a dominant sculpture of
a gun as a metaphor for destructive influence, pointing towards a seating area where
relaxation and reflection are possible.
The journey through the garden takes you toward recovery; however, the opportunity to
relax should not be taken for granted, as a reminder of how this process began is always
with you.
The garden serves as both a positive and negative reminder; firstly that although an
environment can recover, its recovery cannot be taken for granted. Secondly, that
despite destructive influence, an environment can pave the way for plants to colonise
and thrive.
Colour Scheme/Planting
The further toward the 'relaxation' area, the more colourful the planting will become, with
plants such as Digitalis, Buddleja, Centranthus. Closer to the gun, the planting is basic
and representative of neglected land, with simple grasses, moss and dandelion.