College Designers Shine at RHS Chelsea Flower Show

Once again there were several gardens at RHS Chelsea 2007 designed by young designers from our Colleges and Universities. In the City Gardens Category, Capel Manor College was awarded Silver Flora for a lovely design "A Garden to Take Tea In."

Sponsored by the National Benevolent Fund for the Aged, the garden (pictured above) was designed by Jane Howden, Caroline Cheek, Robin Dyer and Ena Singh. I really liked this garden which had clean lines in a classic contemporary design. A garden for all seasons and an extension of the living space it certainly was but it was also inviting with its palette of neutral background, hard landscaping and furniture to enhance the colour and texture of planting. Lovely colours ranging from purples through blue with splashes of orange and yellow really made this garden for me.

University College Falmouth produced their vision of Porthgwyr (Green Harbour) a garden that combines a Cornish arts café area in a Cornish Coastal Town. The garden was awarded a Bronze Flora so well done designers Aline Dejaegher, Debra Craig and Karen Narramore, all of whom are third-year students at the University on the BA (Hons) Degree in Garden Design.

Berkshire College of Agriculture brought us 'Tufa Tea' designed by Kati Crome (Silver-Gilt Flora) in the Courtyard Gardens. Taking tea after tennis in a garden in the 1930s home counties, the garden contained period plants and features such as the tufa rock garden, sunk garden and rustic pergola. Almost all the plants were grown in the greenhouses by horticultural students at the college and students from the construction department got plenty of practise on the hard landscaping.

In the Grand Marquee in the roof gardens category, Pershore College was awarded a Bronze Flora. In the Lifelong Learning in the Garden category, the University of Reading was awarded Gold, Capel Manor College a Silver-Gilt Lindley and Writtle College was awarded a Silver Lindley.

New Hall, University of Cambridge, were awarded Bronze Flora for “The Transit of Venus and is the first Cambridge College to have a show garden at Chelsea. Designed by Sue Goss, who studied at New Hall and who is a designer and lecturer, the project enlisted the support of Jo Cobb, New Hall's Head Gardener, with the able assistance of other College gardeners. The rest of the team was made up of alumnae: Anne Cooper, who is the College's Consultant Architect; Ursula Buchan, columnist for The Spectator and Daily Telegraph and Kate Gadsby, a professional gardens photographer.