Floral prettiness meets with practically in The Caravan Club’s ‘Celebration of Caravanning’, Chelsea show garden Royal Horticultural Society Chelsea Flower Show: Tues 22 May to Sunday 26 May 2012
Floral prettiness meets with practicality in an infusion of catwalk ice cream pastels and a refreshing take on cottage planting in Jo Thompson’s garden for the Caravan Club at RHS Chelsea this year.
Jo has created a familiar garden that rejoices in our love of the British countryside and caravanning, of all things floral, of being outdoors, of craftsmanship, of structures at the end of the garden and of man’s best friend, the dog, with the inclusion of a kennel in the design.
The ‘Celebration of Caravanning’ garden combines the latest colours and planting trends with a practical and useable space. It takes inspiration from a bygone era, of nostalgic family caravanning holidays, a very British past time. This is the first time that a caravan has appeared at the Chelsea Flower show, and The Caravan Club want people to see caravans and caravanning in a different light.
“The sugar summer colours of the catwalk like fondent fancy pinks, sherbet lemon yellows and pistachio ice-cream greens are all here” says Jo who has taken plants that might be seen on a walk through fields and woodland and set them amongst more traditional garden plants, in a very loose, modern take on cottage planting.
The liberal use of pink and cream roses and peonies soften a fairly geometric and simple layout based around a vintage caravan at the far end of the garden.
The creamy-white bark of Betula albosinensis ‘Fascination’ sits against a simple green backdrop of a hornbeam hedge. Anthriscus sylvestris ‘Ravenswing’, Pimpinella majorrosea and Chaerophyllum hirsutum ‘Roseum’ form a veil in front of Paeonia ‘Bowl of Cream’ and P. ‘Mr. Ed’ and pink roses. The semi-translucent stems of Stipa tenuissima and the wispy Linum perenne, together with Lychnis flos-cuculi ‘White Robin’ and Silene fimbriata soften and blur the edges between Iris ‘Ever After’ and I. ‘Success Fou’, together with Erodium perlagonifolium and Geranium himalayense ‘Gravetye’. Shade-tolerant planting comes in the form of Digitalis ‘Serendipity’, Thalictrum ‘Elin’ and Geranium phaeum ‘Samobor’, hostas and ferns such as Osmunda regalis and Polystichum setiflorum Plumosomultilobum.
“This garden was always intended to be a real garden. A place that people could identify with, recreate at home, a space that you might find at the bottom of your own garden. I hope people find it welcoming with familiar and traditional plants arranged in a fresh way.”
Working with UK craftsmen, Jo’s designs for a water rill, to cool bottles of English sparkling wine, oak benches and a dog kennel echoing the shape of the 1950’s caravan are important British-made details in the garden. As are the cut flowers grown on a smallholding in Somerset which will decorate the interior of the caravan.
The RHS Chelsea Flower Show, a celebration of the highest quality of horticulture and design, is one of the most famous gardening shows in the world. Held every May and running for five days it attracts over 157,000 visitors. The event is run by the Royal Horticultural Society and takes place on the large grounds (11 acres) of the Royal Hospital in Chelsea, London. The show has become an important place for observing trends.
Recently tipped as the ‘designer of the moment’ Jo was awarded a gold medal and Best Urban Garden in Show at Chelsea in 2010, the year before she received a silver-gilt medal for her first ever Chelsea garden. In October 2011 she gained a silver medal at the Gardening World Cup Japan, and her design for a beachside garden in Sussex was recently awarded The Best Rural Garden Award in the New Homes and Gardens Awards 2011, sponsored by The Express Newspapers and Ecocatalyst.
Jo has been invited to the Ideal Home Exhibition London to talk about show gardens as real gardens on Wednesday 28 March at 1.30pm.
More about Jo’s project on her blog: Chelsea, the idea
