PUBLICATIONS

Issue 30 - Summer 2004

Chelsea Flower Show 2004 - An Educational Experience

Students of garden design would do well to note this year's Chelsea Best Show Garden, 'Hortus Conclusus' ('Enclosed Garden') commissioned by His Highness Shaikh Zayed Bin Sultan AI-Nahyan and designed by the GLDA's 2002 seminar speaker, Christopher Bradley-Hole, who explains the garden as an abstract expression of an idea fundamental to garden making throughout history, emanating from the early gardens of the Arab world.

Bradley-Hole gave a demonstration in geometric design par excellence based on a plan of elongated rectangles under a canopy of squares that ensured every inch of space, both vertically and horizontally, was used in a multitude of ways, with clever divisions and vistas created with plants (Carpinus betulus and Taxus baccata), glass, oak and stone (basalt) all under the apparent ceiling of horizontally pruned, square, standard plane trees (Platanus acerifolia).

The focal point was a backdrop of rippling water cascading down a wall of dark basalt laminations, with colour provided chiefly by pink shrub and species roses and perennials (eg Anchusa 'Loddon Royalist', Knautia macedonica and Persicaria bistorta 'Superba') as an understory to a matrix of grasses, the most dominant being the golden headed Stipa gigantea. Interesting details included a dividing 'hedge' of angled, toughened glass fins set within a glass case and another 'hedge' of rough, untreated oak slats set in a quincunx pattern that was used in early Arabian gardens, and benches made from polished laminations of basalt.

Little water rills and pools appeared through the grey basalt paving. To be critical, Bradley-Hole had again one of his long - and to the feminine eye, unattractive - side passages flanked by a fence of horizontal panels and pegs made of 'green' oak. Surprisingly too, in a garden so meticulously executed, some of the Stipa gigantea in one bed to the front was substituted by a shorter grass. This I would call a masculine garden, but one lacking soul.

Behind all the filibuster surrounding Diarmuid Gavin there lies serious design talent; let's hope he allows it to mature in garden design. It was a revelation to watch him place his herbaceous plants and furnishings in Camelot's 'Colourful Suburban Eden' on final build-up day of the show. There was a masterly composition, again making every use of vertical space (inclusive of the existing London plane trees) and horizontal space, filling it with complementary shapes and textures. Diarmuid created a sense of depth by encouraging the eye to weave from undulating, warm tinged cream paving through cool and textured undergrowth under hot colours, drawn by further colour deep in the shade at the back. It may be people's perceptions of the steel lollipops that upset them - what if they were replaced with giant, clean-stemmed multi-coloured sunflowers! It was also a garden begging for human interaction and enjoyment - just think of the fun rearranging the lollipops and endless games with unscrewed colourful pod balls not to mention happenings inside the pod! Shame he hit time-consuming problems in build up and pressures of the press as the garden itself, builders Sean and Paul Cunningham, plantswoman Annette Dalton, researcher and organizer Justine Keane, and all the team including Diarmuid's Irish Army (*see footnote) really did deserve Gold. It was awarded Silver Gilt, missing Gold due to rushed planting at the back of the pod. However, Ireland should be proud.

The John Joe Costin supplied herbaceous plants were excellent, especially his Hosta sieboldiana 'Elegans', Stipa arundinacea and stunning Chionochloa flavescens. I did not see the nursery credited for them (Costins Nursery, Portgloriam, Kilcock, Co. Kildare). It's a pity as the reality made up for the unflattering shots of the nursery as seen on BB2's TV series 'Diamuid's Big Adventure'.

Touring London, one realised that Diarmuid's garden reflected the contemporary sights and shapes of the city. The London Eye, the giant glass pod-encrusted wheel that is such an architectural and engineering marvel, was seen on one occasion to have a full pod of sixteen scarlet capped schoolboys - something familiar?! At 30 St Mary Axe in London's financial centre the newly finished Swiss Re building, a 180 meter high glass and steel pod, rises vertically from the ground like the cone of a giant male cycad reflecting the many changing colours of the sky. Imagine Diarmuid let loose with this!

Dan Pearson (GLDA 2000 Seminar speaker) could aptly have been reading Yeats' 'Come Away Oh Human Child' in the gently beautiful and environmentally friendly Merrill Lynch Garden. However, he also had a frustrating time with his plants prior to the show. He did not want to use artificial methods to produce his plants, but 2,000 Sesleria caerulea intended to cover the garden's landform mounds suffered damping off and had to be replaced with whatever could be scoured from around Europe. Numbers of the very pretty, tapering Tulipa acuminata opened too early and the remainder had to be held in a cold store. And then a major blow - 500 of the intended Gladiolus byzantinus - a willowy, pretty, deep magenta gladiolus - turned out to be the much inferior Gladiolus italicus and only a portion of them could be used. This seriously altered his intended rivers of colour along his path through the landforms. He planted the flowers (which also included the scented early flowering day lily Hemerocallis dumortieri and Valeriana officinalis sambucifolia) in drifts near the path instead, and being the good designer that he is no one noticed any lack. No doubt he was disappointed, but the garden looked magical with the evening sun streaming into it when the wands of a pollarded hedge of cracked willow (Salix fragilis) glowed silver and the depths of the black pool (it was dyed black) seemed to draw you in forever. The garden was awarded Silver Gilt.

First time visitors to Chelsea, the Kiwis brought a breath of fresh air with '100% Pure New Zealand Ora - Garden of Well-Being' (see their website www.newzealand.com). Inspired by Maori legends and featuring exotic silica rock, sculpture and vegetation, theirs was a wonderful sensual garden throbbing with vitality and a hidden spiritual presence. This is hardly surprising as their design team of sic was drawn from the dual fields of horticulture and the visual arts, and the garden was blessed with numerous Maori ceremonies. Two of the team are film set design experts - team leader Kim Jarrett who is also a landscape designer, and Brian Massey who is also an arborist. Maori master carver Lyonel Grant carved the living ponga (tree ferns). These and the rest of the magnificent tree ferns used in the garden were shipped from New Zealand to Dublin, to be acclimatised in the garden of tree fern lover Billy Alexander of Dicksonia Direct. Brian Massey was amazed to see so many New Zealand natives flourishing in Dublin. Gold was awarded for this lesson from Down Under.

One is never too young to get the Chelsea experience, and this year children exhibited in numbers and succeeded in the medals. Among the international exhibits featuring the work of children it was a joy to see the ingenious small City Garden, designed and literally made by 200 primary school children (and some of their parents) from Cedar Integrated Primary School, Downpatrick in the 'Dream Come True' garden celebrating biodiversity in Northern Ireland and the originality of children's artistic and inventive ideas such as spunky little wall pots made from Plaster of Paris bandages, glazed blue and filled with common daisies. Parent and landscape architect Celia Spouncer coordinated the children's ideas into an overall design. What a dynamic way for children to learn art, botany, design, co-operation. It won Silver Gilt.

The most perfect garden in the show had to be 'The Japanese Way', designed by Maureen Busby from London, and meticulously built, aided by over sixty members of the Japanese Garden Society who built the tea house from detailed drawings - first in a member's garden shed and later in a barn. It took them four months. The house included many apertures through which the public could view aspects of the garden. Members also lent many of the materials and plants used. They must be a unique group to produce such a display of harmony and tranquillity and so many superb cameo pictures from one exhibit. It certainly deserved its Gold; one felt politics prevented it from being Best in Show.

Continuing the welcome globalisation of Chelsea, there was a Moscow garden in the City Gardens class designed by Karina Lazareva. It was conventional in style, featuring stained glass. Through an interpreter Karina said Muscovites are becoming very interested in modern garden design and prefer to follow the English style as similar plants are hardy enough to use. It won Bronze. In time let's hope they produce something more uniquely Russian.

An eye-catcher was a stunning Trachycarpus fortunei in full yellow flower with a specially stripped stem displaying multi yellows, counterbalancing the yellow stems of Phyllostachys aureosulcata var. 'Aureocaulis' in a gem of small garden - 'Steel & Glass' - featuring cool blue cast glass walkways and furniture used in conjunction with polished steel. It won Gold for designer Philip Nash. It was one of three out of thirty one small gardens awarded Gold. Our friends Alitex set off their attractive greenhouse with an eye-catching parterre designed by Nicholas Tripp from Hampshire, and won an RHS Sundries Trophy.

Angela Binchy, M.Ag.Sc.Hort. MGLDA

* Diarmuid's Irish Army - Group of sixteen Irish garden enthusiasts co-ordinated by Bord Glas, who worked on Diarmuid's garden in relays during build up. For more on this and further items of interest at Chelsea 2004 see Horticulture and Landscape Ireland, July edition, available from Simon Williams Publishing. E-mail swp@iol.ie or tel: 087 923 0056

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