I never seem to have enough time at flower shows and RHS Hampton 2023 was no different. With garden ideas ranging from big show gardens down to small spaces and even ‘pocket planting’ borders, there’s plenty to see and many of the exhibits repay close inspection. And that’s before you get to the nursery exhibits in the Floral Marquee. So, this is a round-up of just a few of the things that caught my eye at this year’s press day.
There’s plenty of water at RHS Hampton 2023 not least on the Cancer Research UK Legacy Garden by Paul Hervey-Brookes, which won gold. It’s the first time he’s included a natural-style water feature in a show garden and it’s at the heart of a comforting space for those affected by cancer to think and remember.
“I wanted a space that would allow you to engage with yourself, where people could come and let their minds wander,” said Paul, who has personal experience of loss through cancer. Indeed, the ‘wilder’ feel to the garden and the use of water are a nod to the things his partner liked.
His own journey has also influenced things like the seats that he designed to have wooden rods that can be rotated – he found that facing trauma often makes people need to fidget with things.
Handprints on rock reference the way cancer not only affects all age groups but also how pledges of help to the charity can help future generations.
A natural water feature is also the main element of Max Parker-Smith’s ‘Hurtigruten: The Relation-Ship Garden’, which celebrates the link between cruise operator Hurtigruten and the Norwegian farmers who supply their ships.
Mixing different elements in the hard landscaping – reclaimed timbers for a boardwalk, granite and shingle – gave extra layers of interest and I liked the pops of colour from the plants and things such as cushions. The garden won silver-gilt.
Sadie May Stowell takes us to America with two gardens based on the courtyard gardens of Charleston (silver-gilt) and the wine-growing region of Oregon (bronze).
The result is two completely contrasting gardens: one rugged with water tumbling down boulders, the other, a formal space with clipped hedges and statement plants.
America is also the inspiration for the design by a team from Inspired Earth Design. ‘America’s Wild’ gives glimpses of three iconic American landscapes – desert, forest and prairie.
It was the prairie planting that I particularly liked with its contrasting textures and colours.
This dramatic design won gold, Best in Show and the Best Construction award for show gardens.
Designer Mark Lane, working with BBC Morning Live, has produced an RHS feature garden that offers ideas for gardening on a budget.
There are suggestions of recycled materials that can be used to make a garden (including the chest of drawers in the top picture), ways to save water, and an impressive range of edibles grown in pots.
Tom Massey has brought the subject of his latest book the ‘Resilient Garden’ to life in another RHS feature. I was particularly interested in the drought-tolerant planting in the front garden part of his design as inspiration for my own dry soil.
Other features include maximising planting areas with a green roof over a reycling store, and ideas for a ‘food forest’.
There are some great small gardens at RHS Hampton 2023 and this by designer Nicola Hale from Landform Consultants won gold and best construction in the Get Started Garden category.
The Trachelospermum jasminoides mixed with willow and hazel fencing gave the garden an enclosed feel while adding colour and scent, and the planting palette of pastel shades with highlights of brighter pink was really good.
The water feature with its motif of circles was also something that I could easily have taken home.
Lucy Taylor got silver for her townhouse show garden based on her first London garden. It would be a tranquil place to sit in the middle of the city.
Breaking up the path with inset cobbles is an attractive idea and I liked the outsized pots that she’s used for prunus that give height to the planting and make them a moveable feature.
City gardening is at the heart of ‘Nurturing Nature in the City’ by Caroline and Peter Clayton. It reuses materials such as sleepers and scaffolding boards and has a series of ponds on different levels. There’s plenting of seating and it was somewhere I could easily have lingered.
The RHS Iconic Horticultural Hero Garden celebrates the career of Carol Klein and her design follows her idea of planting to suit the natural conditions. So, the garden is divided into different areas – wetland, woodland, hedgerow, meadow, exposed mountain and seaside – with appropriate planting. There’s truly something for every type of garden.
The Nurseries at RHS Hampton 2023
In the floral marquee, it’s dianthus specialists Calamazag Plant Nursery who are being celebrated as Hampton’s Master Growers.
This Cornish nursery is family run and well-known on the show circuit for their displays of dainty but highly scented dianthus.
I’ve made a note to find space for more of these as they fare well on my sandy soil.
Coleus is something I’ve not had in the garden since one of my children grew it as an end of year present for a teacher. Looking at Dibleys’ display and after reading Harriet Rycroft’s book on pots that recommends using lots of foliage plants, I’m tempted to give them another go. (Read my review of the book here.)
Hardy’s Cottage Garden Plants have been at RHS Hampton since it started 30 years ago. Their display this time reuses some of the sculptures from Rosy Hardy’s RHS Chelsea show garden of 2016.
Among the many good plants, this hemerocallis stood out for me. I just need to find more space!
July seems to be too early to be thinking about spring and Christmas displays but it will soon be time to order bulbs. I’m undecided about the tulip (HW Hyde and Son) but the red of that hippeastrum (Jacques Amand International Ltd) was stunning.
There’s always something different to see on the nursery stands and RHS Hampton 2023 was no exception.
I rather liked the foxglove (The Botanic Nursery) and the gladioli (Pheasant Acre Plants) but I’m not so sure about the heliopsis (Bean Place Nursery).
I’d not come across Dodonea viscosa ‘Purpurea’ (Burncoose Nurseries) before or known about curcuma (Jacques Amand International Ltd), part of the ginger family. That’s the real joy of a garden show, finding something different.
RHS Hampton Court Palace Garden Festival is on until Sunday July 9, 2023. More details on the RHS website.
You can read more of my show reports here.
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