Weeding the Web

Hillier bigger than ever at RHS Chelsea 2018

One of the most fascinating things about Chelsea is the preparation that goes before. And if you feel that, then you're not alone. "We get the highest number of hits on social media when we show the preparations for Chelsea," explained Sarah Mills, Commercial Head of Wholesale at Hillier, the family-run nursery near Romsey.  

Stihl Inspiration, Sarah Eberle's design for the Hillier stand in the Grand Pavilion at RHS Chelsea 2018

 With Chelsea firmly on the horizon, the mounting pressure is clear. Director of Retail and Wholesale Chris Francis, ultimately responsible for the success of the Hillier stand, said that these days his first emotion on receiving a gold is relief. With Hillier's uninterrupted, and unbeaten, run of 72 golds since 1945, you can see his point.

For Hillier, Chelsea is inextricably entwined with their brand, adding history and credibility with each year. Both the show and Hillier have come a long way since you pitched up with a van, unloaded your pots, put a rope round them, and waited for orders. And in the last five years, it's changed again for Hillier. Recently moved to a central spot in the Grand Pavilion, the stand's  design is no longer solely focused on what they've grown. "Now we're very much able to produce something that will inspire people to create their own green living spaces," said Chris. 

Designer Sarah Eberle and Hillier's Head Grower Jo Fell examine plants at the Hillier nursery.

Sarah Eberle, the most decorated designer in Chelsea history, is the stand designer for the third year running. She's won gold in more categories than any other designer, and last year became the first to achieve three years in a row of two gold medals; she's taken the innovative step of allowing visitors onto the stand this year. "We've opened up the garden to allow people to interact with it and take inspiration for every aspect so they can get up close to the planting." From the walkway you'll be able to see various parts themed around work (including a potting shed), rest (a relaxed garden room) and and play (a firepit). "Each exhibit will have special element for people to take home," she said. Sponsored by Stihl, the garden will have made liberal use of their equipment in its creation,and include a broader range of what's on offer in Hillier Garden Centres, including pots, tools and accessories.

It's a huge space to fill, up from last year's 12 x 22 metres to 15 x 24 metres. "It's a challenge with growing the number of plants," said Sarah. "We've had snow, rain, twenty-eight degrees heat - designers are stressed! My pillow of comfort is that everyone is in the same boat," she added. 

Charles Carr, Head of Wholesale, and Robert HIllier in discussion. Photo: Helen Gazeley

The Chelsea run-up begins pretty much with the previous year's show. "My greatest source of inspiration is the show itself." So keep your eyes open for Sarah zipping around with sketchpad and notes. On the stand, expect to see earthy, organic colours in the hard landscaping of polished concrete and corten steel provide a backdrop to rich oranges and blues. 

Pampered plants. "From winter blankets on frosty days, to cold storage on warmer days - whatever they want they get," says Charles Carr, Head of Wholesale Nurseries. What makes Hillier such a specialist is the technological advancements and systems we have in place. For example, we use computer-controlled environments to compensate for the weatehr so that we can make sure everything is ready for Chelsea at exactly the right time. And just to be safe, we have batches of the same plant kept in different growing environments purely because of the weather - our attempt to outsmart the unpredictable British climate." Photo: Helen Gazeley

With all that space, the show is the chance to show more and more of the plants that Hillier grows. Three new plants will be in the display. Eryngium 'Blue Waves', an upright plant with large flowerheads surrounded by smaller ones, which along with bracts and stems turn a vivid blue as they mature...

 

Eryngium 'Blue Waves' from Hillier will be on sale at its garden centres

 Hydrangea aspera 'Gold Rush', which starts with gold and flame orange foliage and matures to a golden yellow before turning green...

Hydrangea aspera 'Gold Rush' has velvety textured foliage with lavender blue flowers surrounded by white florets.

 

...and Salvia 'Rhythm and Blues' with stiff, long, black-tipped flower stems contrasting with strong blue flowers...

Salvia 'Rhythm and Blues' liberally repeat-flowers throughout the season, with vivid blue flowers contrasting with black-tipped flower stems.

For George Hillier, fifth generation of the family, the new plants are always a highlight. "We love unveiling our plants at Chelsea and watching people come to find them in the garden. There is almost as much anticipation each year for the announcement of these as there is about the garden design. 

George Hillier, Head of Property, and the fifth generation brought up in the family business.

What visitors to the Hillier stand in previous years will know is that the display will show none of the sweat that will have gone into it - the twenty lorries filled with 8000 plants setting off from the nursery, the 112 bags of cement, the twenty-four pallets of bark, the 150 people involved in the build and all the tea drunk.

If you're not able to make it to Chelsea this year, then pop along to one of the twelve Hillier garden centres around the country. Along with "Chelsea Trolleys" showing a selection of the plants used on the stand, you'll get a small flavour of the show.  "We send pictures to the garden centres," said Chris, "and ask them to produce a version at the entrance." 

No, it won't be quite the same, but nor will it have required 60 tons of hardcore to reproduce!

 

 

 

 

A selective review of RHS Chelsea 2017

Chelsea had a relaxed feel this year. Much has been made of the small number of Show Gardens - eight in all, but I think it benefited. There was more space; it felt less crowded; we weren't having to rush down the Main Avenue to ensure everything got seen before we were booted out pre-Majesty arrival at the end of Press Day.

Speaking of the Main Avenue, though, I was surprised at how some of the spare space was dealt with. OK, so Show Gardens were thin on the ground, but was this all that could be done to fill the gap between the Welcome to Yorkshire and Breaking Ground gardens?

The Main Avenue, Chelsea. More scenic parts were available.

By contrast, behind Chris Beardshaw's The Fractal Facts of Nature for Morgan Stanley was a cool, calm seating area with benches, with the large self-advertisement that's featured in the top photo. Why ever not put that in the space on the Avenue, allowing a view of passers-by as you sat, and hide the loos behind Chris's The Fractal Facts of Nature garden?

Welcome to Yorkshire. Please park your boat on the beach.

Sound asserted itself more strongly this year. Not only did we have the premiere of Linger in Light, Lauren Marshall's composition for the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain, created in response to Chris Beardshaw's garden (see some of the performance), but Welcome to Yorkshire (which I would classify as more of a film-set than a garden - a conundrum I looked at in 2015) played the cries of distant gulls to evoke the seashore, in conjunction with a buoy that ducked somewhat stolidly up and down in the water to create ripples. (I sound as if I disliked this, but actually it made me laugh.)

"Not in Kansas any more" - feel of the strange in James Alexander-Sinclair's design.

In a new position for gardens, along the Royal Hospital Way, were five Radio 2 Feel Good Gardens, each dedicated to one of the senses, including the Zoe Ball Listening Garden, designed by James Alexander-Sinclair, built by Crocus and described by James himself as "strangely mesmerising". He was referring to the way deep bass notes resonated, creating ripples in the water troughs and vibrating the ground (which you could feel if you dared to place your foot over the line and on the gravel of the actual garden).

 

Zoe Ball Listening Garden. If the video isn't visible, see it here.

"It's creating the feeling," said James, "of a walk through the woods, where you come across three rusty troughs and you're 'not in Kansas any more'. It's surreal and strange." The planting certainly came together to create a slightly malevolent feel. Many of the sounds were merely frequencies played in a pattern, but every twenty minutes or so the bass beats of rock songs came through. Though the chances of recognising Smoke on the Water, Another One Bites the Dust, Help!, or Seven Nation Army seemed slim.

It's always interesting to earwig other people's opinions. Someone over my left shoulder asked her companion if she liked Sarah Raven's design for the Anneke Rice Colour Cutting Garden. "I do - as a working garden," came the equivocal reply.

What became abundantly clear with the Radio 2 gardens, extremely popular as they were, was that the DJs whose names graced them had had virtually nothing to do with the designs. Makes you wonder why they chose who they did. Wouldn't it have been fun, for example, to have had the Suzy Quattro Listening to Rock Garden...?

Back to the Avenue. It can't have come as a surprise to anyone that Chris Beardshaw's design for Morgan Stanley won People's Choice of the Show Gardens. It was never going to be anyone else's, even if the judges did only give him Silver Gilt, his being the only one packed full of colour and making you want to linger...

Love the way the peonies pick up the red lupins in the background.

 

Packed with colour at the sunny end of the Morgan Stanley garden, designed by Chris Beardshaw.

  ...without strange, multi-coloured ribs interposed between plants...

The Silk Road, Chengdu, China garden

 ...which tended to overpower the colourful planting in the China garden, which won Silver Gilt too.

Over in the Fresh Gardens, only one stood out for me, and that was City Living, the self-funded design by Kate Gould, addressing the problem of an urban apartment block where residents have no access to outdoor space. Plants were taken vertically and lush leaves gave a cool feel to shady areas.

City Living, Kate Gould's Design for an urban apartment.

In the Artisan Gardens, the Poetry Lover's Garden invited you to sit and contemplate. My attraction to this had absolutely nothing to do with the fact that I was dying to take the weight off my feet and it was in one of the coolest, shadiest parts of the grounds.

The Poetry Lover's Garden, designed by Fiona Cadwallader, almost had me mounting the steps to sit down.

Meanwhile, next door, at the World Horse Welfare Garden, there was a fine display of the etiquette of snuggling up for the camera without getting too personal behind the scenes.  

Deborah Meaden on Photo Call duty at the World Horse Welfare Garden., designed by Adam Woolcott and Jonathan Smith.

And what would Chelsea be, without that odd quirkiness?  There were Flower People...

...and Tree People...

But my very favourite had to be this.

"Is there a person in there?" I asked. Apparently there was.

A very hot one.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

RHS Chelsea 2017: Poetry Lover's Garden to inspire verse or worse

Art inspires art. Pictures have been inspired by music, sculpture by dance, poems by gardens, and at RHS Chelsea this year, there'll be an Artisan garden inspired by Samuel Coleridge's poem This Lime Tree Bower my Prison.

The Poetry Lover's Garden by Fiona Cadwallader will be one of the Artisan gardens at RHS Chelsea 2017

 

 

Today is World Poetry Day, so what better moment to mention that visitors to the show will be encouraged to lick their pencils (metaphorically, if not literally) and jot down a micro-poem inspired by Fiona Cadwallader's Poetry Lover's Garden or, indeed, any of the displays around them.

Twitter, Facebook and Instagram contributions will be encouraged with the hashtag #CFSpoet, or you'll be able to post directly onto Fiona Cadwallader Designs Facebook page. For those with a real pencil, there'll be a poem pot ready to receive on site and each day Fiona will select her Poet of the Day from all the entries.

I suspect Coleridge is almost better known for his presence in BBC Radio 4's comedy The Wordsmiths at Gorsemere - where as Cholericke he joins Lord Biro, Percy Jelley and the Wordsmiths in a delicious parody of Romanticism and the Lakeland poets - than for his poetry these days.  That, or the story of his losing the ending to Kubla Khan when interrupted by a "person from Porlock". What writer can't imagine the agony of that?

This Lime Tree Bower my Prison was written by Coleridge when he was forced to stay at home, under a lime tree, while his friends took a walk which he was unable to share, having been temporarily incapacitated by his wife pouring boiling milk on his foot.

Instead, he imagines the scenes they see, and enjoys his own situation:

Nor in this bower,                                                  

This little lime-tree bower, have I not mark'd       

Much that has sooth'd me. Pale beneath the blaze

Hung the transparent foliage; and I watch'd          

Some broad and sunny leaf, and loved to see

The shadow of the leaf and stem above

Dappling its sunshine! And that walnut-tree

Was richly ting'd, and a deep radiance lay

Full on the ancient ivy, which usurps

Those fronting elms, and now with blackest mass

Makes their dark branches gleam a lighter hue

Through the late twilight…

Fiona Cadwallader says, “I studied Coleridge’s work at university and This Lime Tree Bower My Prison made a big impression on me, as the poem echoed my own belief that everyone has an innate appreciation for nature."

She's slightly more optimistic than I am with that opinion, especially when you look at the various town planning schemes that get the go-ahead, but she adds that gardens can be heightened appreciation of nature. "So, when I was considering ideas for my first Chelsea show garden, it felt natural for me to reference the themes of this beautiful poem in the design."

Gardens and poetry do seem to have an affinity. This June the Open Squares Weekend in London will again be hosting Poets in Residence, with thirty poets available in twenty-seven gardens. They too will be encouraging contributions from the public, so now's the time to start sharpening those pencils.

Morgan Stanley's Garden moves into Great Ormond Street Hospital - Chris Beardshaw on DIY SOS Big Build

Given the complex nature of many of the conditions treated here, parents can often spend months on end at the hospital. And for some of our smallest patients, the hospital is the only home they’ve ever known.

Dr Vin Diwakar, Medical Director at Great Ormond Street Hospital

"Fallen Deodar" by Jilly Sutton, carved from a fallen Himalaya Cedar (Cedrus deodara). Known for carving large heads, Sutton sandblasts and limes them to create their textured finish. The sculpture has a quiet emotion that can be read several ways.

Put this way, you can see how great a gift a garden might be. In a children’s hospital like Great Ormond Street, which is so geared up to helping patients and families get on with normal life under abnormal conditions, the lack of somewhere to go to think quietly and escape from the bright lights and constant noise of a large hospital has been sorely felt.

Not any more. Joining the school where children can continue their education; a chapel; a Citizen’s Advice Bureau; parent accommodation and other services, is a green retreat right at the heart of the hospital. And we get to see all the complications of its installation this week on BBC’s DIY SOS Big Build.

The water reflects the tree canopy and sky.

A garden in a well

Given the brief, it’s not surprising that RHS Gold-winning garden designer Chris Beardshaw leapt at the chance to take on the challenge. Two-fold, it demanded, not only the creation of a garden in a difficult space, but one that Morgan Stanley would be proud to sponsor at this year’s Chelsea Flower Show.

“It’s the first one I’ve done which has been quite as specific,” Chris told me at the show in May. Fortuitously, the size of the finished garden is very close to the standard plot size at Chelsea. Sixty extra square metres, not in the Chelsea design, are taken up with an additional terrace and pathways.

“It’s two storeys up over an old Victorian roof,” Chris said, “in the well of a ten-storey building, so there’s very little light direct into the garden.” It’s also overlooked by Intensive Care and the arterial corridor in the hospital. He first visited the hospital to talk about the challenges of a garden within its confines a year earlier. “We wanted the most people to see it most easily. It is at the genuine heart of the hospital.”

Light coloured flowers bring light into the shadows.

It is very much a contemplative space. “The point is this is for parents,” he added. “It’s a green chapel, somewhere they can catch their thoughts.”

Clinicians appreciate the need. “Having a quiet space can be invaluable, providing a much-needed place to pause and think when needing to make difficult decisions,” said Dr Diwakar. London has plenty of green spaces, but for some they’ve never been an option. “Things can change for our young patients in a single moment, so even a five-minute walk away from the hospital feels just too far.”

Garden design reflects Great Ormond Street philosophy

It was talking with the clinicians, parents and patients that helped Chris create the philosophy of the garden. “The way in which the hospital works makes a unique relationship between parents, clinicians and children. In many hospitals you tend to hand yourself over. Here there’s a genuine dialogue.”

In the design, this element resolves itself into groups of threes—of pavilions, types of Cornus, circles. “Many parents feel as if their child is flawed. I also try to capture the fact that childhood is perfect. In geometric terms, the circle is the perfect form.” In the Taxus baccata topiary domes and pools of planting, and the main circle of planting that intersects with the canal, he represents this perfection.

'Joy' by John O'Connor, based on his daughter, Isla, shows a child aiming to reach the heights.

Planting-wise, there is no coherence or obvious order, to reflect how children flit and move unrestrained. “It represents the ephemeral nature of childhood,” said Chris. Childhood is also represented by the statue 'Joy' that stands at the end of the canal, based on the artist's daughter Isla, who has “a boundless sense of elation”. “You think you know them for a split second," says Chris, "then there’s a glint in their eye and they change. Here the play of light changes with the water, waterlilies open and close. It’s a different experience each time.”

An awkward spot for a garden

Less obvious in the design are the constraints presented by the site. The deep well of enclosed space could have made it claustrophobic, but it has a tree canopy that breaks up the impression of overbearing surrounding walls. Deep shade is dealt with using lush planting, including Brunnera macrophylla ‘Jack Frost’, Arum italicum ‘Marmoratum’ various hostas, geraniums, paeonies, primulas and Dryopteris, but neither of these challenges was the most important consideration.

"Each acer weighs 3.5 tonnes and they sit on the original columns that support the roof.” The roof structure also demanded planting beds of 700mm, filled only with a lightweight growing medium. “It all governed how we utilised space.”

Happily the constraints work to create a classical geometry that adds the desired serenity to the tapestry of trees, topiary, hedging and herbaceous plants. They also didn’t hinder Chris, sponsored by Morgan Stanley, from gaining a Gold at RHS Chelsea.

Nick Knowles with Chris Beardshaw and the rest of the DIY SOS team on site at Great Ormond Street Hospital.

Don't miss it on DIY SOS Big Build

We’ll hear a lot more of the technical challenges when DIY SOS’s Nick Knowles and his team are shown transporting the garden across London and craning full-size trees over the buildings, not to mention his scepticism that such a small green space can help parents who are watching their child in pain.

It promises to be a fascinating and, yes, emotional programme. “This project is one of the most significant and poignant gardens of my career,” said Chris. I know I’ll be glued to BBC1 Thursday 10th November at 8pm.

NB In case you're wondering, as I did, what happened to the canal when the garden moved to Great Ormond Street Hospital, it was decided not to include water as it was not worth the risk of water-borne diseases in a hospital situation.

 

Autumn planting combinations: Amaranth and Dahlia 'Hot Chocolate'

You only have to look at the various autumn planting combinations I've featured so far to realise that pinks and purples predominate in autumn (not to mention dahlias - what did we do before they were back in fashion?). In fact,most of the flowers featured tone rather than contrast with each other. This definitely works best where the plants have very distinctive shapes.

Amaranth and Dahlia 'Hot Chocolate' in the Savill Gardens.

The above picture was taken last autumn on an accidental visit to Savill Gardens. These are known for their autumn colour and I'd have liked to dawdle. However, we were with friends (not gardeners) and we were there to talk, not look. Too long a pause for a photo and I was in danger of losing the group altogether, hence the less than ideal composition. Still, you get the idea.

This post is dedicated to @Gwenfarsgarden, @sofaflyer and @earthFgardener - it's so long ago, you've probably forgotten, but thanks for helping with my mindfreeze over the amaranth.

 Previous #autumnplanting combinations have been:

• Sedum and Dahlia
• Fuchsia and Dahlia 'Ambition'
• Lace-cap hydrangea and Cyclamen Hederifolium

RHS Chelsea 2016 - don't forget your oranges

So, for Chelsea Flower Show 2015 I pinpointed a warming of the colour palette with pinks, only to find most people commenting on the arrival of orange. Let's see what I can get wrong this year.

Actually, I stand by my opinion. There wasn't that much orange - not as much as this year, for sure. Though, this time it's dressing gardens in a whole range of tones from fruity bright to pastel soft and wandering into a sort of umber, with a backing chorus of furnishings and hard landscape.

Let's mix it up a bit and start with Artisan Gardens.

The Meningitis Now Futures Garden

This has plenty of orange because it's the brand colour of the charity. Designer John Everiss created the Evader's Garden last year, which told a strong, emotional story but relied heavily on the sculpture to create the garden. It was something he took to heart. As he took me through the planting this year, he said, "It's easy to fall into the trap where design overcomes planting, and we have to remember this is a flower show."

Orange is the signature colour of charity Meningitis Now.

The colour itself is part of the story. On the right, by the wall, it appears once. "An orange fleck," said John. "It represents the lightest touch, the point of contact with the charity, where they first offer support." Move over to the left-hand side and increasing orange represents an increasing level of contact, until - in a leap over the wall - there's loads of warm colour to contrast with the blues and purples left behind. This is where help is fully offered and "where you are enveloped in the charity".

The garden won Silver Gilt.

John Everiss has in no way lost his ability to narrate. By the time he'd explained the various figures, all created by Graham Chapelhow from 3D scans of children who have experienced meningitis and its grim consequences, I was totally in love with this garden.

Five-year-old Liam approaches the wall, not yet knowing he has meningitis (Liam himself has had meningitis a number of times), Gareth curls against the wall, unable to squeeze through (he died of the disease at sixteen). Lauren is struggling through the wall, reaching for help (Lauren herself recently set a new British Para-Cycling record) from Louise, who has reached the other side and survived meningitis (Louise is a member of the Irish Para-dressage team) and double-amputee Jake stands firm, staring into the future.

Gareth Rowlands, who died of meningococcal meningitis and septicaemia in 2003, imagined struggling against the barrier of the disease. On this side of the garden, the planting is blues and pinks.

If this were a garden in the real world, the walls would probably be around the edge, which would make a delightful design.

"People will stand and chat when you want a photo," I grumbled to someone who turned out to be from the Papworth Trust. "That's Joanna Trollope," she said, slightly shocked, "sponsor of the charity." John Everiss is on the left.

The AkzoNobel Honeysuckle Blue(s) Garden

Over in the Fresh Gardens (and surely the conceptual nature of the one above could have made it a shoo-in for this category, too), The Honeysuckle Blue(s) Garden was filled with plants originally used for dying. Calendula featured prominently.

The AkzoNobel Honeysuckle Blue(s) Garden was created by visual artist Claudy Jongstra in collaration with garden designer Stefan Jaspers. Won Silver-Gilt.

 The woad looked great against the dyed backdrop:

Woad creates a zing against the dyed backdrop.

What most preoccupied me at the time, though, was the impression that something large and furry had died in the middle of it:

The blue hanging on the back wall of the Honeysuckle Blue(s) Garden was created using natural dyes.

Sir Simon Moulton Urban Garden

Orange appeared in a rather different guise in Sir Simon Moulton Urban Garden, designed by Lee Bestall. The overwhelming injection of the colour came from the giant screen behind the plot and I don't think it did them any favours. Rather, it created a rather garish feel that wasn't their fault and overwhelmed the highlight dots of orange employed in the planting.

That orange was the ID colour for the Fresh Gardens and colour of choice for the text on all the information boards in that section. May I strongly suggest it's ditched next year? The boards - orange on grey - were an absolute pain to read.

Sir Simon Milton Urban Connections Garden. Won Silver.

External influence aside, this garden had another artificial source of orange in the bark of the silver birches.

Sir Simon Milton Urban Connections Garden, designed by Lee Bestall.

The idea is that the trees act as beacons to guide people to the oak seating, but actually it adds a bit of balance to all those purples. The colour is created by painting the bark with sunblock - which is used in Arizona to protect trees from the relentless rays which can crack bark and also to act as a mite repellant - into which has been mixed paprika extract.  "Yes," said Lee, "it will wash off."

The Modern Slavery Garden

And on the edge of Fresh Gardens (by the distant outpost of a tea tent which catches you just as you wonder if you'll survive further trekking) was The Modern Slavery Garden by Juliet Sargeant, there for the first time and winning Gold. She went for a mix of hot colours which combined in a fiery glow against the blacks of the Sintered Stone coping and edging, the charcoal mulch and the dark-leaved planting.

Modern Slavery Garden by Juliet Sargeant, used strong colours to counter the black.

I loved this garden - really strong colours and lines where the design wasn't overwhelmed by the message but underpinned it very well.

Flowers in the Modern Slavery Garden included Lupin 'Beefeater', Rosa 'Modern Slavery', Peony 'Coral Sunset', Euphorbia 'Fireglow' and Digitalis 'Suttons Apricot'. Overall a strong, powerful feel.

And the lupins looked good too:

I'm guessing not everyone would have liked the pinky apricot colours included.

The Garden of Mindful Living...

This Show Garden didn't employ flowers but, nevertheless, created an overall orange-y feel with seating, photo and corten steel.

Vestra Wealth's The Garden of Mindful Living, designed by Paul Martin. Won Gold.

The Telegraph Garden...

...displayed various hues.

Planting in the Telegraph Garden, designed by Andy Sturgeon. Won Gold.

Watahan East and West Garden...

... had this slightly strange mix of pinky-brown with orange.

The Watahan East and West Garden, designed by Yano TEA and Chimori Shibayana was awarded Silver.

Harrods British Eccentrics Garden...

...by Diarmuid Gavin, threw everything into the mix - I presume that represented eccentricity. Though, in view of some of the combinations above, I think the boat had sailed on that one.

Harrods British Eccentrics Garden won Silver-Gilt for Diarmuid Gavin.

Antithesis of Sarcophagi 

Finally, enough! As a complete contrast, here's one that didn't have any colour, let alone orange. 

The Marble and Granite Centre - Antithesis of Sarcophagi won Gold.

In fact, what the heck, maybe it did. Maybe inside that cube it was bursting with orange. Who knows? And, to be frank, who cares?

The only thing I like about this is the way the portico of the Chelsea Hospital building behind has blended with it in the photo to look as if they're joined, and that's serendipity.  This inside-out 'cleverness' has been done to death. Could we stop now, please?

Still, I've just noticed the man in the safety jacket...

Yup, orange.

 For more on Chelsea:

Who will win People's Choice, RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2016

The Personal Connection with Nature's Rhythms about The Papworth Trust garden (with video) (on Wireonwire.com)

Who will win People's Choice, RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2016?

So, 7.30 tonight and The People's Choice at Chelsea Flower Show will be announced. Who do you favour? Compared to last year, it seems less easy to pick obvious candidates. However, I'll go out on a limb here and say that I think Jo Thompson's Chelsea Barracks Garden is a good bet.

Jo Thompson's Qatari Diar Chelsea Barracks Garden. Won Gold. Copyright RHS. Credit: RHS/Neil Hepworth 

Lots of people don't like this, including garden critic Tim Richardson, who wrote in The Telegraph in his predictions for Best in Show (which he got spot on with tipping Andy Sturgeon's Telegraph Garden) that it was bewildering with a "curiously empty look", given the "bare island of lawn" in the middle.

When I bumped into him in front of this very garden, he wasn't showing any sign of changing his mind, and muttered darkly about "generic planting". But both of these are what I think might appeal. The lawn makes it feel familiar as a domestic garden and the planting was rich, frothy and full of colour.

Richly coloured planting by Jo Thompson.

There's also that lovely curve to the path - which I'd hazard is generally appealing. It wasn't without its build difficulties. The absolute precision of matching the curves of the specially imported basaltite paving with the steel edging was complicated by the large size of the pieces involved and dangers of flexing. But all that was overcome in a really gorgeous path, etched to represent ripples of the River Westbourne which runs beneath the original site of Chelsea Barracks.

The wall at the back is covered by a curtain of water.

When I passed on Monday, extra colour had been injected for a moment in front of that wall of water:

Designer Jo Thompson with a military band in The Chelsea Barracks Garden

It's possible that James Basson might snaffle the award this year. I suspect he came near the top of the list last year with his evocation of Provence, and this year's is every bit as evocative.

James Basson's L'Occitane Garden. Won Gold.

Diarmuid Gavin's English Eccentrics Garden also has crowd-pleasing ebullient planting.

Diarmuid Gavin's Harrods British Eccentrics Garden won Silver Gilt.

The overall impression is warmth and charm, but I think the gismos might be a step too far, and there's something a little too ersatz about the tower.

The British Eccentrics Garden by Diarmuid Gavin. Copyright RHS. Credit RHS/Sarah Cuttle.

Cleve West's M&G garden has the same sort of country appeal of L'Occitane Garden, but contrasted with modern sawn paving, balancing a full, busy naturalistic half...

Cleve West's M&G Garden. Won Gold.

...with a still, minimalist area that encouraged contemplation. That certainly seemed to be the effect on Dan Pearson who looked somewhat removed from the frenzy of Press Day:

Dan Pearson contemplates Cleve West's M&G Garden.

The more I looked at this, the more I enjoyed it. It was all the more fascinating for the fact that the huge beige-coloured boulders and the pale sawn paving were actually the same Forest of Dean sandstone. But from the outside it was difficult to really appreciate the water feature so I'm not sure this will win enough hearts. 

The M&G Garden is an evocation of Exmoor, where designer Cleve West spent his boyhood.

 

Finally, I have rather a soft spot for the Support, The Husqvarna Garden.

Support, The Husqvarna Garden, designed by Charlie Albone. Won Silver Gilt.

 

It hasn't caused much of a stir. Tim Richardson described it as the "standard Chelsea...formula" because it's mixing a formal structure and flouncy planting, but I liked it for the feeling that it would be an enjoyable garden to own. Seating at one end...

Setts created a more rustic feel in the seating area in contrast with the cantilevered shade.

 ...with a lovely view of the mixed tightly clipped and relaxed topiary (I'm a sucker for topiary), a lawn (ditto), and some unusual planting that made one stop and look closer.

Unusual planting added interesting texture to Charlie Albone's Support, The Husqvarna Garden.

This is, indeed, the one I would like to get the People's Choice award at Chelsea this year. On the whole, though, I suspect Jo Thompson has a better chance.

For a whizz round other gardens:

RHS Chelsea 2016 - don't forget your oranges

The Personal Connection with Nature's Rhythms  about the Papworth Trust Together We Can garden (on WireonWire.com)

 

Quintessential Englishness: Capability Brown meets Shakespeare at Compton Verney

"It must have felt a bit bleak when it was finished," I remarked, staring out of the window at the enormous Cedars of Lebanon. 

"Hmm," agreed a fellow visitor, "they wouldn't have been able to transplant big trees like nowadays."

View from the first floor towards the bridge at Compton Verney

Were we right? We'll see...

This year is, of course, the 300th anniversary of Lancelot 'Capability' Brown's birth and we were admiring the grounds of Compton Verney, Warwickshire, where, as part of the celebrations around the country, they are restoring features that existed in Brown's original design.

Already, sinuous paths have been reinstated...

Not a great picture, but you can see the new, sinuous path that's been put in the western lawn since last year.

...the Ice House has been restored... 

The restored ice house at Compton Verney. Picture: Kate Evans, Compton Verney

...and later in the year, Brown's Grade I-listed chapel (which replaced the medieval church he dismissed from the lakeside) will be re-opened after extensive restoration.

The chapel on the left is currently under scaffolding and will be revealed in all its glory in June. Picture: Compton Verney

They're taking the long view in more ways than one, as the avenue he carved out, connecting the rising land on the horizon to the front view of the house with its then newly opened-up courtyard and chapel, is already partially replanted, with negotiations under way with the farmer who uses an adjoining field to complete the lines of trees.  Dr Steven Parissien, Director, has described the Heritage Lottery Fund-supported Park Restoration Project as "the most important capital programme taking place during the tricentennial year".

Not everything will be as Brown envisaged. Tall Wellingtonias, planted later, pierce the skyline and break the vista from the house but are here to stay.

The Wellingtonia Avenue at Compton Verney. "A chap must have been travelling round, putting them in," said Gary Webb. "There are quite a few Wellingtonia Avenues in this area."

"They don't harm the view," said Gary Webb, Head of Landscape and Gardens, "unless you put on your Capability Brown hat."

And Brown's landscapes weren't exactly wildlife-friendly. In the pursuit of perfection, dead trees and branches would have been removed and it's unlikely that the bullrushes now decorating the lake's edge would have been tolerated. Today, the Wilderness area includes a dipping platform and bird hide.

The bit you won't be interested in*

Following in the steps of William Kent, who had returned to England decades before with his head stuffed full of the Renaissance landscapes he'd seen in galleries and the desire to reproduce them on the land, Brown went a step further - to create landscapes that were markedly English.  At at time when a distinct English character was being created in other areas of the arts too (theatre, for example) at over 200 estates he virtually obliterated the past, sweeping away formal flowerbeds, avenues radiating from the house, parterres, small lakes and a causeway. (Am I the only one who wishes more of these earlier schemes remained?)

Instead, he presented his patron with an idealised version of the surrounding country, planting cedars, tulip trees and London planes nearer the house, blending them into what was already there, so it was difficult to see where the natural landscape began. He created views over hidden ha-has to distant shelter belts of trees. "It was a trick of Brown's," said Gary, "to put trees on the horizon."

He majored on native trees and created sweeping pastures in a landscape that, not only was ideal for hunting, shooting and carriage-driving, but gave the landowner farmland and lakes providing income and food.

No one can say he wasn't successful; think of an English landscape, I'd say, and think of Capability Brown.

Quintessential Englishness exhibited

In addition to the work on the grounds, Compton Verney has given over a room to looking at what Brown created and what he replaced. It includes some nifty acetate overlays to hold up in front of the windows for a better idea of "before" and "after" views, and this modern bronze portrait head: 

Current Exhibitions at Compton Verney

Who else is inextricably woven into the fabric of Englishness? Well, there's Shakespeare (celebrating a venerable 400th anniversary this year). As Capability Brown was creating the English landscape, Shakespeare had already played an important part in growing nationalism. Compton Verney's current headline exhibition, Shakespeare in Art - Tempest, Tyrants and Tragedy, looks at how art has responded to his plays since the 18th Century. 

Appropriately, it's been designed by Stephen Brimson Lewis, Director of Design for the Royal Shakespeare Company.  His theatrical touches give it real character. John Singer Sargent's Ellen Terry as Lady MacBeth is foot-lit and visitors walk a sloping floor (a stage or a ship's deck?) past images of The Tempest.

Ellen Terry as Lady MacBeth by John Singer Sargent. Copyright The Tate, London.

Amongst old favourites, such as Fuseli's Weird Sisters, there are some truly startling moments, such as the 3D installation, Ophelia's Ghost, from the award-winning studio of Kristin and Davy McGuire...

Ophelia's Ghost. Copyright Kristin and Davy MacGuire

...and the pared-down classicism of 1912 set designs by Ellen Terry's son, Edward Gordon Craig.

"You could reproduce his sets on stage now, and people would think they were modern," said Stephen Brimson Lewis.

The exhibits have been chosen particularly for their strong emotional response to Shakespearean scenes. However, would Shakespeare have quite the same impact today, if it weren't for the third subject in the limelight at Compton Verney?

Boydell's Vision - The Shakespeare Gallery in the 18th Century

Miranda, Prospero, Caliban and Ariel, a print from The Boydell Shakespeare Gallery, after Henry Fuseli. Copyright: York Museums Trust.

John Boydell, famous for his Gallery on Pall Mall, open 1789-1804, commissioned leading artists to paint gigantic scenes from Shakespeare's plays. Rosie Dias, curator of the Boydell's Vision, the pendant exhibition to Shakespeare in Art, said:

Boydell contributed to releasing Shakespeare into the public sphere and gave the public a sense of ownership that it hadn't had before.

He encouraged debate and criticism of the art, even having Miranda's face changed in one of the pictures because it was deemed too ugly by visitors; he forbade portraits of actual actors in the scenes, so moving the spotlight from the players to the characters and ensuring the pictures stepped away from theatrical representation to more literary and emotional responses. Voltaire had criticised Shakespeare for not adhering to the principles of classical drama; Boydell underlined his Englishness with attention to the plays' humour and sentimentality. We can safely say that it's no coincidence that the French Revolution was in full spate. Dias said of Boydell's Gallery:

It introduced a democratic conception of art, contrasting it with contemporary art theories regarding appreciation of fine arts as contingent upon class and education.

Surely this was the subtext: No need of a  Frenchie revolution here, thank you. We're far more advanced! 

Shakespeare and Capability Brown combined

Pleasingly Shakespeare and Compton Verney are entwined by more than their shared contributions to ideology. In 1968 that most Arcadian of plays, A Midsummer Night's Dream, was filmed in the most English landscape of Compton Verney.

Diana Rigg as Helena and Helen Mirren as Hermia in A Midsummer Night's Dream. Photo by David Farrell. Courtesy of the David Farrell Estate. Copyright DFP.

Photos from the shoot are part of the Shakespeare in Art exhibition.

After seeing the exhibition and walking the grounds, a more fitting setting is hard to imagine.

Upcoming Event

And those trees we mentioned at the beginning? Well, the agricultural revolution was well under way when Capability Brown created his landscapes, and new machinery meant that it was possible to transplant quite large mature trees. Later on our tour, Gary pointed out the likely height of a Brown-transplanted tree. It looked around 20 feet. 

Schedule your visit for Park Life!, the Georgian weekend on 25-26 June, and you'll see a reconstruction of the machinery used by Capability Brown to move his trees. The exhibitions run until 19th June.

*Ceryl Evans is director of Capability Brown Festival 2016. Interviewed for ProLandscaper this month, she said, "You've got a period of about 150 years in which Brown falls that no one really knows much about. So there's no point trying to talk about Capability Brown in terms of historical period; no one is interested in that." She's a social history curator and a mediaevalist, so  hardly anti-history, but personally I suspect that you, like me, find her comments unfathomable.

Past exhibitons at Compton Verney: 

• Dan Pearson's Arts and Crafts Meadow
• Creating an atmosphere with Sculpture: Kern Baby by Faye Claridge

Autumn planting combinations: fuchsia and Dahlia 'Ambition'

Some gardeners have it, and some don't. I recently showed a lovely sedum and fuchsia planting combination. I found it in a garden run by talented friends who never fail to wow me with their planting, and here's another:

Dahlias are a particular favourite and Jim always buys new corms each year. "When you get to my age," he said, "you realise you don't have that many summers left and you want to make sure everything comes up."

That's a sentiment that I think we can all relate to, however old we are, because counted in flower seasons, life seems exceptionally brief. All the more reason to enjoy every success. Here Dahlia 'Ambition' bolsters the dark pink and purple of the fuchsia, and contrast with the shape of the stone urn. 

Autumn planting combinations: sedum and dahlia

Sedums herald autumn like no other flower, and no one can deny how jolly useful they are for some late, warm colour. Here's a lovely combination I found in an island bed a friend's garden recently:

I didn't check the name of the sedum, as I was sure it was Autumn Joy, but the dahlias (I was told) are Bon Esprit. I'm not absolutely convinced, as the references I've found have listed them as about a foot high and these are not standing on a box, but they're definitely a cactus type, which contrasts nicely with the smoother domes of the sedum, so it shouldn't be too hard to find something to suit.