RHS Tatton Park designers to “push boundaries”

A variety of topics and issues will be highlighted at this year’s RHS Flower Show Tatton Park in July. Designers will tackle subjects from nocturnal pollinators to technology to suicide at this year’s show, which has seen a large increase in local participants.

A blackout tent with close-up projections will celebrate lesser-known pollinators in The RHS Nocturnal Pollinator Experience, designed by immersive technology artist Georgia Tucker and designer Sharon Hockenhull.

Last year’s RHS Young Designer of the Year finalist Rachel Platt will explore tech addiction among young adults in ‘J.Parker’s Chained to Tech Garden’. Designers Carolyn Hardern and Jon Jarvis, on the other hand, will be raising awareness of the high suicide rates among construction workers with ‘Constructing Minds’.

‘The Macmillan Legacy Garden; by Lynn Cordall invites visitors to consider supporting the cancer charity with gifts in wills, which fund over a third of its services. Pip Probert’s ‘Alfresco Garden’ provides an entertainment space.

In the RHS Young Designer of the Year competition, 24-year-olds Ollie Pike and Nathan Webster and Camellia Hayes, 28, will compete for the title.

This year’s show will also feature for the first time the Long Borders category, which was popular at the RHS Chatsworth Flower Show.

Helena Pettit, RHS director of gardens and shows, said: “It’s fantastic to see how designers at our youngest flower show are so keen to push boundaries in the world of garden design. Tackling such a broad range of subjects, from mental health and tech addiction to modern, luxurious yet sustainable living, through horticulture, we’re demonstrating how gardening and the outdoors can both empower people while bringing calm and good health to the individual.

“Of equal delight is the fact that we’ve got such a high number of local participants this year. It’s great to see the North West catapulting the best in growing and garden design to the forefront.”