The Chelsea Flower Show is the most popular festival dedicated to gardens in England, normally the colors that predominate in plant compositions are purples and blues, a conscious or unconscious reproduction of the landscapes of English meadows and pastures.
In the 2016 edition, two of the gardens awarded the gold medal are characterized by their inspiration in Mediterranean climate countries: James Basson’s garden inspired by southern France and Andy Sturgeon’s inspired by the Jurassic period. In these proposals the colors of the plants become more vivid and hard elements such as stone and metal characterize the gardens.
Andy Sturgeon’s garden, titled “Modern Jurassic garden”, created for The Telegraph newspaper, and awarded “Best in Show” (best garden of the competition), is especially interesting.
This exceptionally crafted garden, with extreme attention to detail and its bold approach and design, captivated the judges of the competition. It is formed mostly by a tapestry of pebbles, has two small bridges, subtle water level changes, and a list of exotic plants, for England, coming from France, Italy, Australia and Spain.
The landscape architect designed the garden with the intention of reminding us of the fleetingness of our time on earth, by recreating a landscape that reflects the geological history of the planet. He was inspired by the Natural History Museum in London and wanted to reconstruct a dry and monumental landscape, where the limestone paths represent the fossil remains of marine organisms, the vertical bronze panels transform into the plates of a stegosaurus, and the channels, which stand out among the stones, become primitive springs.
Some of the plants present in this garden, such as Ridolfia and Anigozanthos make their first appearance at this festival. The latter and other plants from the project’s plant palette can be found at Sala Graupera such as Bulbine frutescens or Scabiosa cretica.
The challenges of creating a temporary garden are multiple. These projects need the best professionals in each discipline, from design to construction and from species selection to planting. For all these reasons, the contractor with their gardeners and the quality of the plant are very important, which for a festival of this level has to be the highest. Each plant has to be at its peak at a very specific time and that means flexibility when choosing plants without betraying the initial concept and great professionalism from nurseries.
In the next post we will present Basson’s garden in detail.
Images: andysturgeon.com