RHS Hampton

Walking in sunshine at the RHS Hampton Court Flower Show 2018

There’s no getting away from the heat at this year’s RHS Hampton. From the relentless sun, to show garden planting and conceptual ideas, everything shouts sunshine.

Matthew Childs’ garden showcasing new downy mildew-resistant busy lizzies for B&Q seems particularly apt. The ‘Imara Busy Lizzie’ range are mixed with foliage plants, palms and cannas in an outdoor entertaining space with a distinctly tropical feel that fitted perfectly with the blue skies of press day.

RHS Hampton
Busy lizzies are given a makeover on Matthew Childs’ garden.

I asked if he’d known we would be in the middle of a heatwave when the firm approached him to do the garden back in February.

“I did a little sun dance,” he said with a smile.

What was particularly interesting about the planting was seeing the often rather brash busy lizzies toned down by copious amounts of green foliage and reveling in the shady spots of the design. Some have even been grown taller than usual to show their normal size in East Africa forests.

“What I really wanted to do was change perceptions of busy lizzies because previously they’d got this really 1970s personality where they were planted in hanging baskets or mass planting,” Matthew explained.

“I wanted to show them in a different way so I looked to where they grow naturally in East Africa and I was surprised to find that busy lizzies actually grow best in shade.

“Where they actually grow all the foliage is palm-like, exotic and I think by pairing the green with the busy lizzies it softens them and they look right.”

The RHS Hampton judges also liked this garden and it won gold, Best in Show and the Best Construction awards.

RHS Hampton
The plight of rainforests is highlighted in Joseph Gibson’s garden.

Joseph Gibson’s ‘Garden for a Changing World’, which highlights the threat meat production poses to rainforests, transports visitors to the Amazon with lush planting and birdsong. It got Best in Show in the Garden for a Changing World section.

RHS Hampton
A slice of northwest Spain

Heat slightly closer to home is suggested by Rose McMonigall’s World Gardens design, inspired by the coastline of northwest Spain.

RHS Hampton
Rose McMonigall’s garden is very atmospheric.

A fisherman’s cottage, a boat pulled up into a cove and naturalistic planting all combine to create a garden packed with atmosphere.  A nice touch is the background wall of shells.

RHS Hampton
Alan Rudden’s garden is inspired by Chile.

And Alan Rudden takes us to the vineyards of Chile with some great colour combinations between planting and hard landscaping.

RHS Hampton
The planting fitted the press day sunshine perfectly

An added feature was a wine artist painting with red wine.

RHS Hampton
Using red wine in art.
RHS Hampton
Crocosmia Firestars ‘Scorchio’.

Even the RHS Hampton Floral Marquee has a touch of the heat with two new introductions, Crocosmia, Firestars ‘Scorchio’ and ‘Hot Spot’, on the Hardy’s Cottage Garden Plants’ stand.

RHS Hampton
Crocosmia Firestars ‘Hot Spot’.

Meanwhile, the prime RHS Master Grower spot is this year taken by Hampshire Carnivorous Plants with a stunning display of pitcher plants, Venus flytraps and other slightly sinister bug-eating things.

RHS Hampton
One of the many pitcher plants on Hampshire Carnivorous Plants’ stand.
RHS Hampton
Tom Simpson is showing how to prevent flooding in his garden for South West Water.

Somewhat ironic given the weather is South West Water’s garden showing how gardeners can manage excess rainwater to avoid flooding through measures such as permeable paving.

RHS Hampton
How to collect more water on the Raymond Blanc garden.

There’s a great water-saving idea on the Grow Your Own garden – an RHS and Raymond Blanc Gardening School collaboration.

On a year when designers and their teams were endlessly watering, the water features on so many of the designs were particularly appealing.

RHS Hampton
Troughs on Southend Young Offenders’ A Place to Think garden.
RHS Hampton
An easy to copy feature on the Association of Professional Landscapers’ A Place to Meet garden by Cherry Carmen.
RHS Hampton
A natural water feature on The Oregon Garden by Sadie May Stowell.

There was also some good planting.

RHS Hampton
Lovely colours on Best of Both Worlds by Rosemary Coldstream.
RHS Hampton
A mix of herbs from Hooksgreen Herbs.
RHS Hampton
Brilliance in Bloom by Charlie Bloom is designed to be ‘a riot of fun’.
RHS Hampton
The RNIB garden.

There’s a good mix of colour and texture on the RNIB Community Garden by Steve Dimmock and Paula Holland.

RHS Hampton
I liked this mix of blue and purple.

And also in Tom Simpson’s planting on the South West Water garden.

I particularly liked the cool tones of Alexandra Noble’s Health and Wellbeing Garden, which would look really good in low light. It was one of the Lifestyle Gardens, a new feature this year at RHS Hampton.

RHS Hampton
The Health and Wellbeing Garden by Alexandra Noble.
RHS Hampton
Piet Oudolf’s walk-through borders.

Naturally, the plant combinations in Piet Oudolf’s walk-through border are stunning. He’s the first in a new RHS initiative to celebrate ‘Iconic Horticultural Heroes’.

RHS Hampton
Achillea in sunshine shades.

There’s also a mass planting of Verbena bonariensis along the Long Water offering another chance to immerse yourself in plants.

RHS Hampton

Elsewhere, Franchi Seeds and the Eden Project have joined forces to create The Borough Market Kitchen Garden to inspire visitors to grow vegetables.

RHS Hampton
Part of the Borough Market exhibit.

And there’s nostalgia in the land of Mr Men with a garden showing how children deal with cancer.

RHS Hampton

While it’s always better to visit a flower show in the sun, it did make for a tiring trip and near impossible conditions for photography. By the end of a long, hot day me and Raymond Blanc’s chard weren’t the only things wilting at the show.

RHS Hampton

RHS Hampton Court Flower Show 2018 runs until July 8. More details on the website.

2 Comments

  1. Thank you for a really interesting review of the Show. Your pictures and comments are the next best thing to being there for me – much better than watching gardening “celebs” talking endlessly to TV cameras with not a plant in sight!

Join the conversation

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.