Time to have a wander through the show gardens at Hampton Court. With the show having its 25th anniversary this year we were expecting a high standard of show garden.
The gardens were mixed in with the trade displays a lot more this year. Whilst I can understand the thoughts behind this it made finding the gardens a little trickier. The day was extremely bright and the contrast levels have impacted on the photos.
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Living Landscapes: Healing Urban Garden
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This was garden we enjoyed the concept for, the idea is a small courtyard surrounded by houses. The houses being picked out in coloured metal work that would make a fantastic trellis in a different setting. We didn't take many pictures, i think we were just enjoying the garden!
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| Secret Garden Party |
Slightly surprised to see this garden, we were looking for the National Rifle Association logo here. Ready...Aim...Flower! was an excuse to display a large gun with some pretext about flowers... or something. Sorry but the planting was mediocre and the shock value attempt with a large gun just seemed rather juvenile.
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| Ready...Aim...Flower! |
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| Ready...Aim...Flower! |
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| DialAFlight: Synaesthesia Garden - Average planting in a tent with coloured lights. Liked the hanging objects but otherwise it was a quick walk though and on with the show. |
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| TSLGRUPPO: The Gallery of Mirrors - Opuntias in front of a mirror. I really was not inspired by this at all. |
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| Africa Vision Garden |
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| Africa Vision Garden - Portholes into a mirrored box full of corn. |
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"The SMART Vision Garden: Having the Vision to See Beyond Mental Illness" had a selection of tree ferns, cycads and Wollemi pines contained in a mirrored box. You had to look though viewing holes to see the garden - hence the view holes in the picture below. This has been done before - and also in the Africa Vision garden just this year at Hampton Court, but this is probably the best I have seen for this type of concept garden.
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| The SMART Vision Garden: Having the Vision to See Beyond Mental Illness |
Another favourite for us was the he Macmillan Legacy Garden by Ann-Marie Powell, with a pleasant informal feel, and a lovely design for both the hard and soft landscaping.
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| The Macmillan Legacy Garden by Ann-Marie Powell |
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| The Macmillan Legacy Garden by Ann-Marie Powell |
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| World Vision Garden |
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| World Vision Garden |
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| Scotty's little soldiers garden |
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| Normandy Impressionist Garden |
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| Noble Caledonia brings the Spirit of the Aegean to the World Gardens, |
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| Great Gardens of the USA: The Charleston Garden |
Probably our favourite garden was the Turkish Garden, which was a real delight, and captured the feeling of mystery and romance one associates with Arabian gardens, the attention to detail was fantastic.
We could imagine this one working well as a private garden, a great place to escape to in the evening after work.
All in all an interesting mix of gardens, but for us the general standard and interest was less than in previous years. However there were a couple of stand out gardens that we did love.
Gaz :)
This gardening blog follows our journey as we create our Tropical and Exotic themed garden. We hope you'll enjoy the journey as much as we do. We started our Exotic Garden in 2005 and this site will show its development, as well as our travels, both abroad and within the UK to gardens, nurseries and friends.
I agree with your favourite garden, I like it too. And I enjoyed the casserole with sempervivums, hehehe.
ReplyDeleteThe casserole with sempervivums struck a chord Lisa, it's a similar look to some of our succulent pots this year :)
DeleteTurkish delight indeed! What a great garden. Loved the garden in the first image. In the second picture, those black things look like trash cans or maybe compost bins. What were they? Opuntias under a ceiling - who does that?
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure Peter, they could be stools with storage perhaps? The opuntias under the ceiling was just odd....
DeleteOh thanks for the illustrated tour guys on what must have been a most hot day. I must admit that I find it difficult to get my head round some of these concept gardens. The garden featuring a large gun should not have been accepted. I like the tranquility of both Ann- Marie Powell's garden and the Turkish Garden. I'm looking forward to the television coverage later this evening.
ReplyDeleteIt was a warm day Anna but it wasn't too bad. But I can I,agile how uncomfortable it must have been yesterday and today...
DeleteHmmm...so many of them just look like they were trying too hard. Still, I enjoyed your post, of course!
ReplyDeleteInteresting! I think that any garden, even if we don't' like it, teaches us something, gives us a lesson (for ex.: Don't do it in your own garden!)
ReplyDelete