Building a show garden at any of the RHS flower shows is certainly not for the faint hearted, it requires dedication, a lot of organisation, a workaholic team, a good dose of optimism and an eye for precision. But the results you see across the shows where the UK’s top designers and landscapers get to do their thing is quite something to behold!
We were approached two years ago to build a feature garden for the RHS, which had been designed by the award-winning Landscape Architect Anca Panait, however, due to the events of 2020, this garden had to be postponed until this year’s Tatton Park Flower Show.
Anca’s design for the official RHS Flower Power Garden took inspiration from Werner’s Nomenclature of Colours, a taxonomic guidebook to the colours of the natural world, first published in 1814. The garden is a celebration of colour and the moods and emotions it inspires. One look at the design and we wanted to bring this concept to life!
Anca’s design for the official RHS Flower Power Garden took inspiration from Werner’s Nomenclature of Colours, a taxonomic guidebook to the colours of the natural world
The garden is divided into four areas, each with its own colour theme, visitors are invited to acknowledge their responses to the colours of the planting. Beginning with intense red tones, often associated with energy and passion, the planting progresses through different colours and their tonal values and ends with calming white and green plants in an area devoted to forest bathing. Fragrance is significant in this garden too, since it can influence mood and emotions.
For those who are not familiar with the show garden process, we had a two-week window to build this 130m2 garden, which was full of detail, from bespoke ‘crazy’ Yorkstone paving, lime rendered and colour washed walls, to custom-made water features and even more customised boulders. But through careful planning, a great build team and an exceptional Landscape Architect the magic happened, and slowly but surely the garden came to life.
Working with Anca on this project was an absolute delight, she is certainly a master of her craft which shows from the concept right through to the precision in the planting.
As always, it’s a pleasure to be involved in creating a garden at an RHS show and congratulations to all of the designers, landscapers and medal winners at this years show.
Landstruction is a multiple RHS Gold medal winning organisation specialising in large scale private and commercial landscaping projects. If you have a project in mind, please get in touch by calling 01244 880422, or send the team an email to create@landstruction.com