Highgrove is the inspiration for one garden at BBC Gardeners’ World Live 2023. I’ve been talking to designer Paul Stone and there’s the chance to win tickets or buy at a discount. This contest is now closed and the tickets were won by Ann Davies.
It seems the King isn’t the only gardener to talk to his plants. Designer Paul Stone admits he too wishes them well.
“I always try to put a little bit of my soul into a plant when it gets planted,” he says. “I have a real soft spot for King Charles for having those feelings because I can empathise with it and I think lots of people can.”
The award-winning designer has used Charles’ garden at Highgrove in the Cotswolds as the starting point for his ‘A Garden Fit for a King’ headline show garden at this year’s June event.
He describes it as a celebration of values that the King has long championed with wild flowers and nature at its heart.
The 15m x 15m garden – bigger than most on Chelsea’s Main Avenue – will commemorate the coronation and celebrates Charles’ love of gardening and his influence on the way we grow.
“He has been an inspirational person,” Paul told me. “In the early days, his strong desire to get back to nature, to respect and encourage the environment and to make his garden organic from the start, was a really unpopular point of view.”
The garden is not a replica of Highgrove features but rather a design that embodies its essence with an overall feeling of tranquillity.
It’s designed around a stone and timber Bothy, supplied as a ready-made building, that will include a kitchen with Agar and a wood-burning stove in the sitting room.
Around it will be wild flowers in three areas of planting: grass studded with red clover, birds foot trefoil and yarrow; an area under trees with perennials, such as field scabious, evening primrose and knapweed; and a broad band of a medieval annual wild flower seed mix that will wrap around the edge of the lawn.
“You’ll need your sunglasses on because it has calendula, marigold, flax, vipers bugloss, borage, and nigella,” says Paul, who worked for 20 years at the Eden Project. “It’s going to be a chocolate box display and it’s going to attract the bees and the butterflies.”
The trees – a nod to the arboretum at Highgrove – will be a mix of natives and others, and will include the wild cherry, Prunus avium, a elm disease-free elm and a large Fagus sylvatica.
In another link to the King, the chestnut gate is being handmade by someone who has been helped by the Prince’s Trust.
Visitors to BBC Gardeners’ World Live 2023 will be able to go into the bothy and the garden’s been designed with a ‘viewing area’ to allow them to get closer to the planting.
Cornwall-based Paul, who has awards from Chelsea, Hampton and BBC Gardeners’ World Live, including Best in Show in 2017, is hoping his design will give ideas for ways to improve the interaction between nature and the gardener in any setting.
“Charles was ahead of the game,” he comments. “Time has proved him right in his clear sense that gardening was good for you and the world, and that the two combine in something worthwhile doing. This is my homage to him.”
What’s On at BBC Gardeners’ World Live 2023
This year’s event will have a number of show gardens, including two that focus on women’s health and well-being, and the annual APL Avenue contest for inspirational back gardens created by members of the Association of Professional Landscapers.
RHS Disability Ambassador Sue Kent makes her GWL debut with an entry into the Beautiful Borders contest, which this year has a theme of My Garden Escape.
The event also includes expert talks, drop-in advice sessons, a houseplant hub, some of the country’s top nurseries in the Floral Marquee, and the first Hot off the Potting Bench, a display of new plants and varieties in competition for the Peter Seabrooke Award for Best New Plant.
BBC Gardeners’ World Live 2023 runs from June 15-18 at the NEC, Birmingham. More information and tickets here.
You can read my interview with Frances Tophill, winner of last year’s Best in Show, here.
Win Tickets to BBC Gardeners’ World Live 2023
Win a pair of standard adult tickets to attend BBC Gardeners’ World Live 2023 at the Birmingham NEC, which includes entry to the BBC Good Food Show Summer. Tickets valid for Sunday June 18 entry only, entry from 10am. RRP £54.00 per pair.
Approximately two weeks before the event, winners will be emailed their winning e-tickets. Paper tickets will not be issued. Tickets are non-refundable, non-exchangeable and non-transferable, and do not include travel, accommodation or expenses. Full ticket terms & conditions are available at: https://www.immediatelive.com/ticket-terms-and-conditions/
To enter, please leave a comment under this post saying what you are most looking forward to at the show. Entries close at 5pm on Tuesday May 9, 2023. One entry per person. The winner will be drawn at random from the entries and notified by email. If I do not get a reply by noon on Monday May 15, a new winner will be drawn. Please, see the T&Cs below.
T&Cs One comment per person. This draw is open to UK residents only. This competition is promoted by The Chatty Gardener and is not open to employees of the BBC or relatives of The Chatty Gardener. By posting a comment, The Chatty Gardener will have access to your email address. This will not be made public or used for anything other than to contact you, if you are the lucky winner. The results of the draw will be posted on The Chatty Gardener.
Discount Offer on Tickets to Gardeners’ World Live 2023
Use the following codes to get discounts off ticket prices – please, note the deadlines for applying.
· LIVE2023: 20% off standard adult/concession entry tickets (excl. Saturday 17th June) until 10 May
· GARDENS2023: 15% off standard adult/concession entry tickets (excl. Saturday 17th June) from 11 May – 2 June
*Discounts valid on adult/concession standard entry tickets. Not valid on Saturday, VIP, 2-day tickets, added extras or with any other offer. 20% discount offer ends at 23:59 on 10 May 2023. 15% discount offer starts on 11 May and ends at 23:59 on 2 June 2023. £3.95 transaction fee per e-ticket order. Details correct at time of print.
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I’m looking forward to an inspirational, immersive, innovative icksperience at Gardeners World Live 2023!
There’s certainly plenty of inspiration.
I love GWL, so much inspiration and of course the chance to buy plants ! My first visit since before the pandemic and the first day out anywhere since February 2020.
The chance to buy plants is always a bonus.
I am looking forward to meeting other like minded gardening-lovers and
buying new plants as I can ALWAYS find room in my borders for more gorgeous perennials
There’s always room for more plants.
Without a doubt I’m most looking forwards to seeing all the wonderful inspiring gardens to ‘borrow’ their ideas.
It’s always a great way of picking up inspiration.
Far too late to enter this comp 😥, but just love the inspiration I get from all the beautiful plants.
There’s still time for a discount on tickets. 😍