The winning gardens with stunning displays at the Chelsea Flower Show

Peter Dowdall on the NSPCC winner and other stunning display’s at this year’s Chelsea Flower Show.

Designed by Chris Beardshaw and sponsored by Morgan Stanley, the NSPCC garden won Best in Show at this years RHS Chelsea Flower Show — as you all may already know.

Designed to raise awareness of the work of the NSPCC, the thinking behind this garden’s design is a metaphor for the emotional transition that takes place in a child as they experience the positive impact of the NSPCC’s work.

At the start of the garden, the direction of the path in the woodland is unclear. As it turns a corner it leads to a more open and tranquil space, filled with soft, textured perennials.

Then, it steps up onto a cedar wood pavilion, enclosed at the rear by a calm, reflective canal. Looking out from the pavilion space provides a safe and secure sensory environment.

The garden includes a range of acid-loving woodland plants that display subtle textures, and there are splashes of blues, pinks and purples. A number of sculptural pieces are on show including a Kinetic Art Table.

Shrubs made a comeback in this garden, as they had faded into the background over recent years at Chelsea and other high profile shows, making way for the often, more showy perennials.

Rhododendrons, Styrax japonicus and Enkianthus in flower made bold statements here, adding to the atmosphere of the woodland created using Acer palmatum, Betula nigra, Amelanchier lamarckii and Halesia coralina.

RHS CHELSEA FLOWER SHOW // Last week @chrisbeardshaw won Gold and Best in show for his Morgan Stanley NSPCC garden. BIID member @studioclarkandco helped style interior elements in the garden and wow the judges. pic.twitter.com/c3Gj5loWxB

— BIID (@BIIDtalk) May 29, 2018

That’s not to say that it was all shrubs — much use was made of perennials for foliage effect and in particular, Hostas ‘Devon Green’, ‘Patriot’ ‘Halcyon’ and ‘Sweet Susan’, Euphorbias ‘Purpurea’ ‘Black Pearl’ and ‘Silver Swan’, Rodgersia henrici and Myosotodium hortensia.

I was delighted too, to see Meconopsis betonicifolia, the Himalayan Blue Poppy in flower in this garden. A delightful plant and again one loved by the showmen.

Ornamental grasses, ferns and flowering bulbs were also mixed into the planting to great effect, helping Chris on his way to ‘Best in Show’ success.

Ireland was ably represented too this year. Not on Main Avenue, with the show gardens, (more on that next year), but in the Great Pavilion where Billy Alexander won a Silver Gilt Medal for his display of the tree and ground ferns of the Kell’s Bay Garden in Kerry.

Entitled the ‘Wild Atlantic Garden’ the Kell’s Bay exhibit showcased the broadest range from the extensive fern collection in Kerry.

“Highly stylised, the display mimics natural conditions in which these fantastic plants grow within the Gulf Stream-dominated microclimate of my Atlantic gardens” says Billy, who adds that the use of trunked ferns “facilitates a rain-forest impression of canopy and undergrowth”.

The architectural presentation prompted visitors to consider the evolution of plants. It highlights the importance of fern species as a bridge between the first algae, lichens and moss, planet colonisers, to the flowers and shrubs of today.

Billy Alexander, who won a Silver Gilt Medal at this year’s RHS Chelsea Flower Show, also met the Queen during her visit to Chelsea.

The overall impression of green growth, wetness and wildness was happy plants in a healthy, humid environment.

This year the show placed a strong emphasis on the power of plants and there were several gardens designed to improve health and wellbeing as well as displaying solutions to some of the environmental issues facing us in the modern world, illustrated by Matt Keightley’s ‘Feel Good Garden’.

If RHS Chelsea is London Fashion Week then the Show Gardens are the supermodels but the Artisan Gardens which are created in smaller spaces are also a joy to behold.

That’s the only problem with the show, a week, never mind a day, is not enough to absorb everything on display.

Multi-award-winning designer, Paul Hervey-Brookes continued the health and wellbeing theme into the Artisan Gardens with his Viking Cruises Wellness Garden, which was inspired by the spa and the idea of living well, both of which are intrinsic to the Nordic way of life.

The garden was imagined to belong to a single person or couple and as a place in which to relax, to be at one with nature, to destress — and it achieved just that.

Chelsea Flower Show is a mecca for gardeners and as I write, it strikes me that I can nearly every sentence could begin with ‘the highlights of the show were” — there are just so many highlights.

London dressed up for the Chelsea Flower Show (📸: IG rubyandb) pic.twitter.com/mn8EAEKhQr

— InstaBritain (@InstaBritain) May 23, 2018

To finish — in this instance — I am referring to the selection of the Plant of the Year and the RHS Chelsea Plant of the Year 2018 which was awarded toHydrangea ‘Runaway Bride Snow White’, cementing this genus’ rise in popularity over the last number of years.

‘Runaway Bride Snow White’ is a very free flowering lacecap variety producing masses of white flowers flushed with pale pink from late spring through to autumn — a must for my shopping list.