September 2016 | The Garden 7574 The Garden | September 2016

Tatton Park 2016Amid scorching temperatures this year’s show, supported by Bruntwood, placed

even more emphasis on encouraging emerging horticultural talent, including a new competition for young planting designers and contractors

Photography: Lee Beel, Neil Hepworth and Tim Sandall

‘Nature & Nurture’Her take on an urban nature reserve won Caitlin McLaughlin (inset) the title of RHS Young Designer 2016. Inspired by hedgerows and meadows, loose nature-inspired planting (including many native wildflowers) under multistemmed birches surrounded a shallow pond around a central seating area. All three of the competition’s finalists produced gardens of an extremely high standard.

Silver-Gilt; Best Show Garden Gold; RHS Young Designer 2016 ‘Through the Looking Glass’Pip Probert’s complex, dual-levelled contemporary design for a large family, with sliding glass panels, an outdoor kitchen and dark metal arches, was awarded Best Show Garden. The more secluded lower section was planted with tree ferns and naturalistic herbaceous planting. The higher level towards the rear included an all-glass ‘Solarlux’ garden room, for shelter in inclement weather, and horizontally pleached plane trees. (Sponsor: Hultons Landscapes.)

RHS Flower Show

Gold; Best Back to Back Garden

Pick of the plants on show

Hydrangea macrophylla Magical Coral (‘Hokomac’) Selection with green flowers developing pink or blue centres with age (according to pH). Height 1m (39in). Golden Hill Nurseries, Kent.

Nemesia Nesia TropicalPlant with vibrant flowers of red and orange, ideal for seasonal containers and hanging baskets; best grown as an annual. Shown by Marsh Road Nursery of Lancashire.

Disa seedlingOrchid specialist Dave Parkinson showed un-named Disa seedlings including one with yellow-suffused lateral sepals. Not yet for sale. Dave Parkinson Plants of East Yorkshire.

Gladiolus ‘Raspberry Sorbet’New small-flowered gladiolus with soft pink flowers marked deeper pink in the throat. Corms will be available in 2017. Shown by Pheasant Acre Plants of Bridgend.

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‘A Drop of Urban Green’Designed as a ‘pocket park’, a small public urban space, this garden made much use of recycled and reclaimed materials. It featured artwork and poetry to celebrate Nottingham being named as a UNESCO World City of Literature in 2015, and was relocated there after the show. (Design: Hosta Consulting; sponsor: Nottingham City Homes.)

Roald Dahl’s BFG – Big Friendly Giant (above) – in woven willow.

Attractive shade-loving perennial with unusually wide foliage that is blue tinted, similar to a blue-leaved hosta. Exotic-looking purple flowers appear in summer. Shown by Hartside Nursery Garden, Cumbria. Limited stock available.

Roscoea cautleyoides blue-leaved Compact

evergreen perennial with foliage that emerges green but ages to deep red; by autumn all leaves are red. Short flower spikes appear in summer with tiny white flowers. Plant shown by Plantagogo of Cheshire.

Heuchera ‘Red Dress’

September 2016 | The Garden 7776 The Garden | September 2016

UrbanKatie Maude from Manchester took the title of RHS Young Planting Designer 2016 and a trophy, presented by RHS Director General Sue Biggs, for her lush, shade-tolerant, foliage-based composition largely in greens and purples.

CoastalEwan Sewell from York was not only named RHS Young Landscape Contractor 2016 for his immaculate build on the coastal design, he also took the Best Construction Award judged across all the show’s gardens. His garden included a wooden sheltered seating area, rusty metal cubes, sections of green walling and a wall-mounted waterfall feature.

‘Plant Evolution’Designed by Michael Vinsun, this garden was inspired by different types of plants and their evolution, from ‘lower’ plants such as mosses, liverworts and ferns through conifers and cycads to ‘higher’, flowering plants. The tall glass panels represent DNA slides, used in taxonomy. (Sponsors: AP Matthews Nurseries and Rolawn Turf.)

‘The Green Retreat’One of five Back to Back Gardens to take Gold, this garden relied almost entirely on foliage, contrasted beautifully with a backdrop of wattle panels and a circular, decked seating area. Selections of Japanese grass Hakonechloa macra, seemingly a signature plant at Tatton this year, went well with Japanese maples – as the two do in the wild. (Design: Frazer McDonogh.)

‘The Tale of Hill Top’Joanne Kennedy’s evocation of the garden at Beatrix Potter’s house, Hill Top in the Lake District, won the Blooming Borders category. It packed much into a tiny (2m/6½ft) square space, finding room for climbing roses, cottage-garden borders and a vegetable plot.

RHS Young Landscape Contractor 2016 & Best Construction Award: Ewan Sewell

RHS Young Planting Designer 2016: Katie Maude

Supporting the futureThe inaugural year of a new competition, RHS Young Landscape Contractor and RHS Young Planting Designer, supported by the British Association of Landscape Industries, was a resounding success, with all three gardens – each made by a pair of finalists – taking well-deserved Gold medals.

To a design by last year’s RHS Young Designer Tamara Bridge, each pair had a different location for their plot: urban, country-side and coastal. All had to include certain design elements such as a green wall, shelter and water feature. The landscape and planting competition winners worked on different gardens.

Silver; Best Evolution Garden

Gold

Gold; Best Blooming Border

Durable hardwood screens (here, Eucalyptus with an open, curving design) can be used to intersect planted beds, divide garden areas and allow glimpses of the space beyond.

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Structures to house insects can take on many forms; a painted wooden framework, infilled with different materials, makes a refined architectural feature for an urban setting.

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An instant boundary has been created with panels of variegated ivy (Hedera helix ‘Goldchild’) grown in biodegradable troughs and trained onto a metal mesh.

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This well-positioned statue creates focal interest without dominating the intimate space. Feathery planting of grasses and Veronicastrum complement the bold form.

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Inspiring details from the show

Recycled clay roof tiles, laid side on, create a textured surface against a rusted steel border edge. The change in tile orientation on the step adds interest and movement.

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More on the showFor more on the RHS Flower Show Tatton Park 2016 visit: www.rhs.org.uk/tattonpark

✤ Download medal lists for winners.

✤ Browse profiles of all the gardens, and find inspiring elements for your own plot.

✤ View video highlights from the Floral Marquee.

✤ Watch a video from the show of the three Young Designer entrants interviewed by The Garden Editor Chris Young.

RHS Flower Show Tatton Park

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