Show Garden Concept for Autumn RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2021
Show Garden Concept for Autumn RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2021

Show Garden Concept for Autumn RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2021

Invited by the Daily Mail newspaper to design a Show Garden for an autumn RHS Chelsea Flower Show

Given just a day to come up with a concept for a Show Garden for the new autumn RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2021, Mark was delighted to be given the opportunity to come up with something fresh, powerful, geometric but softened by an abundance of planting.

Designed as a drought-tolerant garden for a disabled owner, with full access around the entire garden and several flat areas for seating, water features and more brings a fresh approach to Show Gardens. Self-binding aggregate pathways with brick inlays and stone and decorative metalwork edging pass around dappled-shade borders, a large central water feature made from laser-cut metalwork, layer upon layer, and a a large water wall at the far end near to a private seating area in the sunnier part. This is a perennial garden that will come back year after year, planted with 7 mature Populus tremula. Trembling, fluttering and shimmering in the slightest breeze. The rippling leaves of this beautiful tree give it its name: quaking aspen.

The Show Garden is split into 4 distinct flowering borders. The first is a mix of Crocosmia ‘Emily Mckenzie’, Verbascum ‘Clementine’, Agastache ‘Blackadder’, Hylotelephium ‘Matrona’, Panicum virgatum ‘Shenandoah’, Pennisetum advena ‘Fireworks’, Achillea ‘Terracotta’ and Persicaria ‘Firetail’. The second area around the central water feature contains a mix of Pennisetum setaceum ‘Rubrum’, Muhlenbergia capillaris, Helenium ‘Waltraut’, Monarda ‘Croftway Pink’, Echinacea ‘Pallida’ and Betonica officinalis ‘Hummelo’. Under the trees along the base of a native mixed hedgerow is a mix of Perovskia ‘Blue Spire’, Calycanthus ‘Venus’, Salvia nemorosa ‘Ostfriesland’, Tricyrtis formosana ‘Dark Beauty’, Salvia nemorosa ‘Amethyst’ and Oenothera lindheimeri. Finally, a sunny long border contains a mix of Agastache ‘Blackadder’, Anemone x hybrida ‘September Charm’, Aster x frikartii ‘Monch’, Liatris spicata, Liatris spicata ‘Kobold’, Persicaria bistorta ‘Superba’ and Sanguisorba ‘Tanna’.

A bright reflective golden panel donates the main seating area and picks up on some the golden autumnal shades.

This is the first autumn RHS Chelsea Flower Show and this Show Garden will fill the air with the scent of stewed apples from the Calycanthus and introduce a new palette of plants to Chelsea.

More information about the Show can be found here

For further information about the article in the Daily Mail, please click here

To see more public gardens designed by Mark please click here