by Aidan Williams | 09 Oct 24 | Garden Design, News
Ann-Marie Powell says ‘it’s an honour’ as her studio is picked to reimagine the planting scheme for the Great Fountain Garden at Hampton Court Palace.
The garden was first created during the time of William III and Mary II, in the early 1690s, before Queen Victoria opened the doors to the public in 1838.
Its next phase is to focus on sustainability and biodiversity, which Ann-Marie Powell’s studio will work on to create a new permanent planting scheme.
Powell says: “What an honour to work on such a historic site!
“We’re just at the beginning of this journey, with the design phase now underway.
“It’s a bit surreal to think we’re contributing to the ongoing story of this iconic palace.”
The studio will be working with the gardening team at Historic Royal Palaces for the project, which aims to have practical changes start in Autumn 2025.
Powell, discussing the aims of the project, says: “To create a garden that’s not only vibrant year-round but also kinder to our planet.
“We’ll be including more perennials, naturalised bulbs and shrubs that will reduce carbon emissions and boost soil health.”
Elsewhere, Historic Royal Palaces has announced REVEAL, the research vault for heritage science collections, with funding from the Research Infrastructure for Conservation and Heritage Science (RICHeS) programme.
It is a major £80 million research and innovation investment from the UKRI Infrastructure Fund and delivered by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC).
The project will allow Historic Royal Palaces to transform its physical and digital storage facilities and provide a platform to conduct and facilitate research initiatives.
As part of REVEAL, four rooms at Hampton Court Palace adjacent to the Heritage Science Laboratory will be repurposed to provide space for scientific sample storage.
by Bethany Vann | 14 Jul 23 | News, Sustainability, Topics
English Rose breeder and supplier, David Austin has donated all spent blooms from the gold medal winning roses exhibit at last week’s RHS Hampton Court to Confetti Club London to become biodegradable confetti.
Over 60,000 petals from over 20 English Rose variants, including the Penelope Lively®, a new rose revealed at Hampton this year will become sustainable, biodegradable confetti sold on via Confetti Club London with all profits going to several UK cancer charities.
CEO David Austin Jnr. says: “This is exactly the sort of socially responsible behaviour we care to foster at David Austin® – the sort that is charitable and thoughtful towards the planet and others.
“The BLOOM initiative started with introducing eco systems at our Plant Centre and HQ like our water capture system that provides us with 90% of our annual water consumption, but seeing it grow and extend to a kind-hearted brand like Confetti Club London is a wonderful thing.”
More Hampton Court news below:
The Bees’ Needs of Hampton Court
Zoe Claymore on empowering renters to garden
by Bethany Vann | 12 Jul 23 | Garden Design, Long Reads, Nature & Biodiversity, Topics, Website Exclusive
This years’ RHS Hampton Court Palace Garden Festival saw a significant emphasis on sustainable gardening, with designers showcasing the means to garden for wildlife all year round in a variety of spaces, featuring pollen centric ornamentals to encourage attendees to garden with pollinators in mind.
Pollinators contribute the equivalent of more than £500m annually to UK agriculture and food production through crop quality and quantity improvement. They also play an essential part in the nation’s wider, natural ecosystems.
A 10-year National Pollinator Strategy was launched in 2014, outlining how the government, the public and professionals in the industry can aid in the recovery and colonisation of pollinators.
Included in this strategy is Bees’ Needs Week (10 to 16 July), an annual event coordinated by Defra, alongside a collection of organisations to raise awareness of bees and other pollinators.
Designers at Hampton Court demonstrated the ways in which gardening can support the natural colonisation of pollinators appropriate for a variety of possible housing and spacing limitations, from transient hard landscaping methods to planting favoured by pollinators.
Achillea featured throughout the showground this year, including in Carol Klein’s RHS Iconic Horticultural Hero Garden and multiple medal-winning gardens, with its availability in a variety of shades making it aesthetically more popular.
This low maintenance perennial has a long flowering season and is tolerant to a broad span of soils, while being highly attractive to pollinators.
Scabious – Photo by Nikki Son
Scabious was another perennial in abundance this year. Flowering from June into the autumn, this drought resistant plant can strive in poor soils, gravel and humus-rich rich beds, and is pollinator friendly.
There are around 6,000 species of insect involved in the pollination of crops or wild plants in the UK, with over 250 species of bee living in the wild in the UK, including bumblebees and solitary bees.
Bees’ Needs Week outlines ways everyone can support pollinators, highlighting actions available on multi-skill levels, several of which were prevalent on the showgrounds of Hampton Court.
Growing more nectar rich plants, many species of florae featured at Hampton Court, like Scabious and Allium sphaerocephalon create high levels of food for pollinators which can be cultivated in smaller, container style planters or gravel.
Practice gardening wild in areas of the garden, allowing nature to reclaim part of the land and create a thriving environment for pollinators and other local wildlife. Both People’s Choice awards went to gardens featuring a wilder planting style, The Cancer Research UK Legacy Garden, and The Wildlife Trusts: Renters’ Retreat.
The National Wildlife Trusts’ Renters Retreat, designed by Zoe Claymore
The hat-trick award-winning Wildlife Trusts: Renters Retreat designed by Zoe Claymore focused on the ways people can support the natural colonisation of local wildlife in residential gardens, using exclusively tenant friendly features and zero pesticide.
Claymore says: “I’m hoping that it will empower people to realise what they can do when they rent and not let renting hold them back or be a barrier to reaping the rewards of gardening and not let renting feel like a barrier to supporting biodiversity and doing something very practical for themselves and for the planet.”
Supporting biodiversity and local wildlife, especially in urban areas has become prevalent in both the private and public sectors, as urban expansion continues.
The RHS show catalogue has seen a significant transition in recent years, from predominately stately designs to more accessible and practical designs that put sustainability and wildlife at the forefront, with the aim to encourage more people to get into gardening and supporting pollinators to increase the nation’s biodiversity.
by Bethany Vann | 04 Jul 23 | Domestic Landscaping, Garden Design, News, Topics
With an array of idyllic show gardens on display, the RHS Hampton Court Palace Garden Festival is in full swing, showcasing the latest in sustainable garden design, wildlife conservation and therapeutic horticulture.
A majority of this year’s medals have been revealed, see here for a full list of the Gold Medal and Best in category winners.
America’s Wild
Best Show Garden I Best Construction (Show Garden) I Gold medal winner
Designed by Inspired Earth Design and sponsored by Visit the USA Trailfinders, America’s Wild explores three natural landscapes associated with North America: desert, forest and prairie.
The garden is intended to take visitors on a journey through the ‘contrasting terrain and planting’, exploring each landscapes’ elements.
A show garden first, America’s Wild features film screens, playing a collection of ‘expansive vistas’ from MacGillivray Films’ ‘Into America’s Wild’.
The garden was built by Yoreland Design.
America’s Wild, presented by Trailfinders & Visit The USA
The Wildlife Trusts: Renters Retreat
Best Get Started Garden I Gold medal winner
The garden, designed by Zoe Claymore highlights ways to support the natural colonisation of local wildlife in residential gardens, employing multi-season, transient tenant friendly features.
With over eight million rented households in England alone, creating a realistic source of accessible inspiration to encourage people in diverse circumstances to get into gardening could play a significant part in reversing natures decline, particularly in urban areas.
Designer, Zoe Claymore says: “I am thrilled that the Renter’s Retreat has won a gold medal and the Best Get Started Garden award! This garden has been a passion project of mine for two years but it wouldn’t be here today without the fantastic support of so many organisations and individuals.
The garden was built by Frogheath Landscapes.
The Wildlife Trusts: Renters’ Retreat
The Landform Mental Wealth Garden
Best Construction Award (Get Started Garden) I Gold medal winner
Designed by Nicola Hale, the garden uses idyllic scents and serene plantation to afford the feeling of wellbeing, its design is structurally inspired by the parterre, with a fusion of ‘planting influenced by aromatic and pollinator-friendly ornamentals’.
The edible elements of the garden can be used to indulge in a cup of peppermint or chamomile tea in the central seating area to encourage wellness relaxation.
The garden is sponsored and built by Landform Consultants
The Landform Mental Wealth Garden
The Cancer Research UK Legacy Garden
Gold medal winner
The garden designed by Paul Hervey-Brooks, tells the story of how a gift in a Will is a pledge that helps fund fundamental research.
The landscape encourages reflection, with a serene and secluded area for conversation and connection.
With parts of the garden externally hidden, stream inlets lead to a central body of water, with an isolated jetty, representing the fear and loneliness brought on by cancer, but the ‘Pledge Pavilion’ symbolises unity.
The garden was built by G.K Wilson Landscapes
The Cancer Research UK Legacy Garden
Hampton Court Palace Festival is open until 9 July with the accolades continuing throughout, the coveted People’s Choice Award is set to be awarded at 4pm on 9 July.
For other RHS Hampton related news, see here:
Zoe Claymore on empowering renters to garden
Climate resilient gardens to dominate Hampton Court
by Bethany Vann | 04 Jul 23 | Garden Design, News, Topics
The Wildlife Trusts’ show garden, Renter’s Retreat designed by Zoe Claymore has been awarded a gold medal and the Best Get Started Garden award at this year’s RHS Hampton Court Garden Festival.
Renters Retreat, the national Wildlife Trusts’ and Zoe Claymore’s first show garden at Hampton Court puts tenants and wildlife in the forefront, demonstrating the potential everyone and space can have in helping nature recover, especially in urban areas.
The garden features a variety of shade to part shade plants feature, including herbs like coriander, water mint, and sorrel, native shade dwelling plants such as ferns and fruits including wild strawberries and a multi-seasonal crab apple tree, providing habitat and food for wildlife throughout the seasons.
Craig Bennett, chief executive of The Wildlife Trusts, says: “Nature is at the heart of this special creation and it’s already attracting bees and butterflies. This lovely design will inspire all who see it – even those who don’t own a garden – to help nature and climate by enhancing small outdoor spaces. To relax surrounded by such natural beauty and wildlife is great for your health and wellbeing too.”
Situated in the garden’s centre are two dismantlable raised steel beds, between lies an elevated steppingstone, purposefully positioned to centre a person’s mind and body to the present moment when walking through.
The secluded seating area, enclosed by towering foliage affords a moment of peace, creating a space for calm.
Claymore says: “I realised that renting, along with a lack of inspiration about what I could do with the space I had available, was one of the biggest barriers to getting into gardening for me. With so many households renting their homes, I felt a large group of people were being overlooked by show gardens and set myself the goal of creating a ‘get started’ garden that would inspire everyone – not just those that owned their properties – to get gardening!
“I hope this garden inspires people to transform every bit of their outside spaces wherever they live. I truly believe that even small interventions can have a big impact both for nature and people and ownership should not be a barrier to gardening for yourself and the planet.”
The UK is one of the most nature-depleted countries in the world, with 41% of UK species having declined since 1970, and a further at present 15% threatened with extinction.
Claymore’s design aims to empower renters to garden, for themselves and for the environment, combating increasing urban expansion.
Renters Retreat is currently on show at the RHS Hampton Court Garden Festival, running through to 9 July, after which it will be relocated and reconfigured at the London Wildlife Trust’s Centre for Wildlife Gardening as an exploration area for school groups.
