2006 Garden Shows & Events

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RHS Hampton Court Palace Flower Show

Top designers vie for historic prize

It's pruning shears at dawn for three of Britain's leading women garden designers who are all in the running for 'Best in Show' next month at the world's largest annual flower show.

Multi-RHS Gold Medal winning designers Sarah Eberle, Claire Whitehouse and Rosy Hardy will all be creating show gardens at this year's Hampton Court Palace Flower Show (4-9 July).  Both Sarah and Claire have won the coveted Tudor Rose award for 'Best Show Garden' in previous appearances at the show, and Rosy Hardy has accomplished a total of 14 RHS Gold Medals for both show gardens and floral displays at the Hampton Court Palace Flower Show.  This year the top designers are up against each other amongst a strong line-up of 17 designers, or design teams, in the show garden category.

Claire Whitehouse, winner of an RHS Gold Medal and the Tudor Rose award in 2004 for the Christian Aid garden 'Seeds of Hope', is back with Christian Aid for the 2006 show.  The 'Wish you were here…?' garden, full of lush tropical planting, will take visitors on a journey beyond the picture postcard image of the Caribbean and tackles the subject of HIV whilst highlighting Christian Aid's education projects in Jamaica.

Rosy Hardy has won RHS Gold Medals for the 'Daily Mail Cottage Garden'at the Hampton Court Palace Flower Show in 2004 and 2002 and has won a record number of top medals at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show for floral displays with husband Rob as Hardy's Cottage Garden Plants.  Rosy is returning in 2006 with another 'Daily Mail Cottage Garden' within the theme of the South Downs countryside. The well-tended garden incorporates a vegetable garden, ornamental grass planting area and a gravel garden with drought-resistant plants.

Sarah Eberle, fresh from her RHS Gold Medal-winning triumph at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show, ('Walking Barefoot with Bradstone' show garden - pictured below) has a total of six top medals including the Tudor Rose at Hampton Court in 2003 for the 'Woodland Garden'. This year, Sarah is designing 'A Fisherman's Retreat', a calming, semi-wild garden bordered by a chalk stream.

A number of other show gardens are vying for the one Tudor Rose award as well as preparing to be judged for prestigious RHS medals. Paul Stone has designed 'The Sunshine Garden' for the Mayor of London, demonstrating that you can have a beautiful garden with minimal water use; making his debut at the show Irish designer Paul Martin of Paul Martin Design will be creating 'Falling Waters’; Fern Adler and Heidi Harvey, regular exhibitors at the show for Hadlow College, are back with 'Kent CaCO3', a garden inspired by the chalk downland landscape of Kent; and Thomas Hoblyn returns, after his debut at the show last year, with 'Volvo: The Artist’s Garden', designed for artist Simon Carter and taking colour and style inspiration from his paintings.

For tickets to the Hampton Court Palace Flower Show, call the ticket hotline on 0870 906 3791 (public line) or 0870 906 3790 (RHS Members).  Tickets range from £12.50 to £29 with children aged 5-15 years £5 and under-5’s going free.  For further show information and online booking visit www.rhs.org.uk/flowershows.

© Reckless Gardener Magazine 2005 - 2006 Mill Cottage New Media