Hampton Court Flower Show 2011

Thursday, July 14, 2011

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Once again Practicality Brown are proud to have been involved in the Hampton Court Palace Flower Show.

We provided hedge for the RHS Exhibit and trees and hedge for 3 additional gardens, all of them winning medals:

  • "The Eye of the Internet Maze" by Judy Cornford (Silver)
  • "The Stone Roses Garden" by Greenes of Sussex (Silver Gilt)
  • "The Copella Plant and Protect Garden" by Sadie May Stowell (Silver Gilt)
  • "The RHS Edible Garden" by Jon Wheatley and Anita Foy

It has been a pleasure and an inspiration to work with Judy Cornford from Amazingardens and her team on their garden 'The Eye of the Internet Maze'. The garden is designed as a maze to symbolise her struggle with learning how to use the internet. It is her first Show Garden and earned a well deserved Silver Medal.

When most of us reach a certain age we dream of putting our feet up and taking things easy but not Judy. After a long career in her own interior design business she embarked on her 'retirement career' studying Garden Design at Sparsholt College.

Having successfully worked with Judy on two of her private garden designs, we were pleased to answer her call for help with her Hampton Court Show Garden.

To begin with, we needed to select suitable Conifers for the maze and settled on Thuja occidentalis 'Smaragd' and Cupressus macrocarpa 'Goldcrest' around the seating area for contrasting colour.

We also supplied the low Box hedging to symbolise thinking inside and outside the box.

All the conifers had to be set out and clipped to shape to form the blocks of maze as planned. To achieve this we cleared space in our Iver Stud nursery to give Judy and her son Jesse (Project Manager) room to do a mock up of the garden.

When the area was measured out the reaction was 'It's massive!' and 'What have I let myself in for?' but Judy was determined to pursue her dream at whatever cost. Hours of preparation, trimming, shaping and numbering each plant made the transition to Hampton Court easier. We watched the garden 'grow' at Iver for about 6 weeks before we delivered the plants to the show.

Finally, seeing the finished garden and the Silver Medal after the show opened was a touching moment and a lasting memory for all involved.

Practicality Brown hopes to be involved in any future gardens. Judy has mastered the internet and obtained a Silver Medal at her first attempt, I think a Gold Medal would be icing on the cake. I understand that she already has plans for next one...

Donna Taplin and Stephan Reilly Greenes of Sussex desgined the "Stone Roses Garden" which was awarded Silver Gilt Medal. It represents a modern interpretation of a classic English garden with natural stone, rambling roses, clipped hedging, lawn, water and a fusion of modern and traditonal planting.

 

 

Practicality Brown were pleased to supply Elveden Instant Hedge for the garden. The evergreen Prunus lusitanica (Portuguese laurel) hedge provided an elegant backdrop to the whole garden and the blocks of Buxus sempervirens (Box) divided the garden into sections. The perfect garden to sit in on a lovely Summer's Day.

 

 

We had supplied our Elveden Instant Hedge to Sadie Stowell for her garden last year and were pleased that she came to us again. We supplied our unclipped Native Mix Hedge which provided a natural backdrop to the "Copella Plant and Protect Garden" which represents the cycle of life and regeneration in an apple orchard. This garden was truly deserving of a Silver Gilt Medal.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Finally the RHS Exhibit "The Edible Garden", a huge area designed by Jon Wheatley and Anita Foy again used our unclipped Elveden Native and Hornbeam Instant Hedge as a backdrop. Although, I think that most of the visitors to the show did not even notice the presence of the hedge they would certainly have been aware of the gap if it were missing!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Julie Rockell, Horticultural Advisor, PBL

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