Fixed budget designs, houseplants in the spotlight and gardens that the head judge described as full of “take home ideas”, there’s certainly plenty to think about at the RHS Malvern Spring Festival 2022.
The show returns this week after a two-year absence to once again start the gardening season. It’s not quite back to its pre-pandemic scale – the gardens are smaller and generally created by newer designers, while the numbers are a little down in the Floral Marquee.
Unusually, there are no gold medals in the show gardens this year. Tamsin Westhorpe, who headed up the judges, said: “There are lots of wonderful gardens and they are all very, very different with lots of take home ideas and using lots of different materials.”
Here’s just some of what caught my eye.
Emily Crowley-Wroe’s The Hide Garden has a riverside room with plenty of naturalistic planting.
This bubble pool would easily translate into a garden feature and I like the stepping stones through the pebble pond.
Abigail’s Footsteps by Rick Ford is a quiet space intended to comfort those who have lost a baby. I liked the raised reflective pools and planting that wrapped around paths through the garden.
The Longcroft Press by Laura Ashton-Phillips has a sense of timelessness and was inspired by apple pressing days for the village in Laura’s family orchard.
A complete contrast is the stylised A Peaceful Escape by Jamie Langlands with the striking artwork. This design makes good use of ‘windows’ allowing views both out of and into the garden while the walls give some privacy.
Karen Tatlow’s The Cancer Research Legacy Garden has two distinct parts: the first full of colour and representing people who have pledged a legacy to the charity; the second dominated by white to reflect the clinical nature of research. The contrast was strong and worked well.
There are several feature gardens at the RHS Malvern Spring Festival 2022, including a new permanent garden to mark the Platinum Jubilee, which has some of the Queen’s favourite plants and those named in her honour.
The Vitamin G Garden, a collaboration between designer Alan Williams and radio presenter and keen gardener Jo Whiley, shows the positive benefits of gardening, both mentally and physically.
The design incorporates different areas for things such as entertaining or relaxing and has a circular motif running though.
The festival breaks new ground with the first ‘Affordable Gardens’, designed by the show lead Jess Russell-Perry, and constructed to a strict and transparent budget of £500-£1,000.
The three areas represent what you could do with the front, back and side gardens at an average two or three-bedroom house.
She explained that the idea was to show people how they could garden on a budget, using recycled items – many bought via Facebook Marketplace and similar sites, and filled with plants that are easily grown from seed or propagated.
Perhaps the most unusual feature comes from Peter Dowle of Leaf Creative, winners of Best in Show at the last RHS Malvern in 2019.
His Welcome to the Jungle is a walk through feature in two domes that starts by taking visitors to a jungle setting using houseplants and garden plants. Jungle sounds and mist add to the atmosphere.
It ends with a tropical beach and juice bar, again surrounded by plants that are commonly grown in our gardens.
Possibly not one to try at home but it certainly makes you look at houseplants in a new light.
The RHS Malvern Spring Festival 2022 runs from May 5 to 8. More details on the website.
You can read my roundup of the nursery exhibits here.
Enjoyed this? Sign up for an email alert for future posts.
Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2022 Mandy Bradshaw
Many thanks, a very good introduction to the gardens. There will be a report on Gardeners’ World this Friday, I see.
Yes, they were filming there yesterday.