By Matthew Appleby
Thursday, 22 May 2014
Trade bodies BALI, APL and HTA have been celebrating the medal-winning success of their members at last week’s RHS Chelsea Flower Show.
Hugo Bugg’s gold medal-winning RBC Waterscape Garden built by Landscape Associates.Pic: HW
The Association of Professional Landscapers (APL) reported that members of the association built five of the gold medal-winning gardens at this year’s show.
They include Landscape Associates which helped Hugo Bugg to become the youngest ever show garden gold medal winner at the age of 26 for the Royal Bank of Canada’s Waterscape Garden, working with main contractor Himalayan Landscaping. The company also built silver gilt winner Patrick Collins’ A Garden for First Touch at St George’s.
The Outdoor Room built two gold medal-winning gardens, for Adam Frost’s The Homebase Garden – Time to Reflect in association with Alzheimer’s Society, and Jo Thompson’s London Square garden in the Fresh area. It also helped designers Andrew Wilson and Gavin McWilliam’s win a silver gilt for the Cloudy Bay Garden.
Another gold medal went to Charlotte Rowe’s No Man’s Land ABF The Soldiers’ Charity Garden built by Brian Herbert Outdoor Options. Outdoor Options in collaboration with Living Landscapes also helped to secure a silver gilt flora for The Wellchild Garden.
In the Artisan Gardens, Frogheath Landscapes built gold winning DialAFlight Potter’s Garden with the theme of bringing to life a garden that had been abandoned for the war in 1914.
David and Harry Rich and landscape company Rich and Sons won silver gilt for Bord Na Mona’s Vital Earth The Night Sky Garden with a planting scheme echoing the feel of the Milky Way and two pools symbolises black holes, reflecting the sky and surrounding planting.
Landform Consultants built silver winning Chris Deakin and Jason Lock’s House of Fraser Fabric Garden.
The Brand Alley Renaissance Garden designed by Paul Hervey-Brookes and built by Big Fish Landscapes won a bronze medal.
APL chairman Mark Gregory said: “We are absolutely thrilled to win medals at RHS Chelsea. It is such an accolade for our members to win at such a high profile show. It just shows what superb landscapers we have and enforces the credibility of our offering through hard work and landscaping excellence.”
Meanwhile, BALI members totted up five golds, seven silver gilts and seven silvers, plus a silver flora at the show.
Wins included: The Outdoor Room which built the gold medal-winning Homebase garden and London Square, plus the silver gilt-winning Cloudy Bay garden.
Outdoor Options which built gold medal-winning ABF The Soldiers’ Charity and silver gilt-winning WellChild.
Landscape Associates, with Himalayan Landscaping, which built the gold medal-winning RBC Waterscape Garden.
Bartholomew Landscaping, Bowles Wyer and PC Landscapes each received silver-gilt for their Show Gardens – Positively Stoke-on-Trent, The Brewin Dolphin Garden, and The Extending Space gardens respectively.
Silver medals were awarded to designers Chris Deakin and Jason Lock and contractor Landform Consultants for the House of Fraser garden, Fabric, to Indoor Garden Design for The World Vision Garden, to designer Helen Elks-Smith and contractor Wycliffe Landscapes for the City of London Corporation Oak Processionary Moth Garden, and to Mark Wallinger for the Cave Pavilion in support of the Garden Museum.
Affiliates Silvadec, IOTA, Robin Tacchi Plants and Harrod Horticultural also won accolades.
In the Great Pavilion, The Perennial Garden won a silver-gilt, helped by BALI contractor Streetscape, and BALI training provider Sparsholt College Winchester won gold and best discovery exhibit for The Paper Chase, which looked at the plants linked to paper and the cycle of use and re-use.
Capel Manor College was also rewarded for its exhibit, Small is Plentiful – the story of community food production across London – with a silver flora.
HTA member Hillier Nurseries Garden Centres won a 69th consecutive Chelsea gold medal for ‘The White Garden’. Hillier also displayed RHS Chelsea Plant of the Year 2014 Hydrangea ‘Miss Saori’.
Gold also went to David Austin Roses which launched Olivia Rose Austin’ (‘Ausmixture’) at the show, a soft pure-pink named after the 19-year-old daughter of David Austin junior.
Harkness Roses also won gold for its modern rose garden and Hardy’s Cottage Garden Plants won gold for its stand where they launched three new plants Eryngium Neptune’s Gold, Gaura Freefolk Rosy and Trollius Dancing Flame.
Other golds went to Norfield Nurseries for its Japanese maples and Peter Beales Roses which launched its flagship addition to the Modern Classics range rosa “Frilly Cuff”.
Suttons Seeds, which provided the vegetable varieties for The South West In Bloom Garden at Chelsea this year won best gold winner in the Grand Pavilion, therefore winning the Diamond Jubilee Award, while Walkers Bulbs who launched the daffodil ‘Georgie Boy’ named after Prince George also won gold.
Scotts Miracle-Gro Company took home a silver-gilt flora for their Miracle Gro’wers Discovery and Learning Garden where school children had grown plants from seeds, plugs and cuttings to create a productive vegetable garden and flower garden.
Burncoose Nurseries also won Silver Gilt Flora for its ‘101 Plants from China’ display and Kelways Plants also won Silver Gilt Flora for its peonies and irises.
All Chelsea medal winners can be found at www.rhs.org.uk/shows-events/rhs-chelsea-flower-show/awards
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