More than any other show I’ve visited this year, the gardens at RHS Hampton 2019 seem to be full of ‘messages’. Mental health, plastic pollution and climate change are just some of the topics tackled and there are few designs that are without an underlying theme.
True, the show does have a new category, Global Impact Gardens, designed to explore topical subjects, but the idea of gardens with a message is not confined to that section.
There are more trees than ever, adding to the sense of gardens being a refuge from the world, and feeding into the current conversation about their place in tackling climate change.
The sense of a garden enveloping you and providing a place of escape is particularly strong in Dave Green’s Stop and Pause Garden.
Again, trees wrap around the garden, creating a quiet central space that has been inspired by meditation.
The move towards looser, more free-flowing planting that surfaced at RHS Chelsea is still a strong theme at RHS Hampton 2019 and there’s a lot of froth in the borders and on some of the nursery displays. The Daisy Roots’ stand is really beautiful with an inspiring mix of shapes and colours.
It was that light, airy planting that appeals in The Naturecraft Garden by Pollyanna Wilkinson. It’s inspired by botanical crafts , including herbal remedies and using natural dyes.
More beautiful planting is found on The Urban Pollinator by Caitlin McLaughlin. Quite apart from the fact it’s designed to be bee-friendly, I liked the mix of colours, shapes and textures.
The garden also has some nifty ideas for providing somewhere for bees without having to have a hive.
A honeycomb-shaped wall has habitat for solitary bees and bee-printed slabs in the paving hide underground bee nests.
Sometimes, it’s the small details in a garden that catch my eye rather than the general, overall design.
There are bug hotels and bird boxes peeping out among woodland on The Thames Water Flourishing Future Garden by Tony Woods.
A great contrast of textures with soft planting set against hard landscaping on The Viking Cruises Lagom Garden by Will Williams.
Through Your Eyes, by Lawrence Roberts and William Roobrouck, explores the journey of life and obstacles that we have to overcome.
It was the path itself that interested me. Thin pieces of yellow quartz paddle stone have been set into a Corton steel frame to give a stepping stone path full of texture.
“It’s supposed to be uneven and slightly difficult to slow you down, ” explained Lawrence.
Each piece of stone had to be hand-cut to size: “Not quite what I imagined when I came up with the design,” he admitted ruefully.
The strong colours of The Lower Barn Farm Outdoor Living Garden, by Richard Grimstead, in the Lifestyle Garden section, are a contrast to the often muted tones of other gardens.
The weather on press day was perfect for The Dream of the Indianos, by Rose McMonigall, which is inspired by the Indiano gardens of north-west Spain. They were built by emigrants who had made their fortune in America and the West Indies, which is reflected in the exotic planting.
My favourite garden at RHS Hampton 2019 was The BBC Springwatch Garden, a feature garden, designed by Jo Thompson. Conceived as three neighbouring, small plots, all three have different designs, albeit with the same overall aim.
The first is cottage-style for an older owner, with a mix of flowers and even vegetables.
In the second, a family garden, there’s a small pool, while the third, designed for a young couple, is more contemporary with some perennials and topiary. All are aimed at encouraging and supporting wildlife.
“It’s showing how a wildlife garden doesn’t need to be one particular style,” Jo explained.
Barely there boundaries between the three spaces are designed to encourage interaction between the neighbours.
Asked to pick out just one take-home feature from each of the sections, Jo suggested the mix of flower shapes in the first garden, which will appeal to different insects.
In the contemporary garden, she singled out the use of topiary to give structure to the loose planting, while the family garden’s top feature is the clover lawn.
“It’s lovely underfoot and the bees love it.”
One of the most interesting displays at RHS Hampton 2019 is by Franchi Seeds and highlights the threat to many seed varieties.
It was designed by 15-year-old Noah Rivas-Delpoio from London, who is using the design for his GCSE art exam.
Varieties of seeds are seen ‘marching’ into an ark with those that have been lost represented by tombstones.
Paolo Arrigo, from the family-run seed firm, explained that the ark was the Slow Food ‘Ark of Taste’, a register of foods that are endangered.
“People think of animals when they think of endangered,” he said. “They don’t think of vegetables.”
Among the veg on show are spinach that dates from 1635 and varieties of sweetcorn grown by indigenous people in Brazil and Peru.
And to get the point home, Franchi are selling packs of seeds of endangered varieties.
RHS Hampton is one of the biggest shows, somewhat sprawling in its layout and near impossible to get around in one day, let alone the few hours I had there. There is quite simply too much to see, with gardens just one element. I would have liked to have spent longer on the smaller exhibits – the community allotments, Festival of Roses and the Floral Marquee.
At the end of a long, hot day, this message in the sand on the Franchi stand just about summed it up.
The RHS Hampton Court Palace Garden Festival runs until July 7, 2019.
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