Hampton Court Palace Flower Show - July 2000

Thousands of gardeners enjoyed the best ever flower show at Hampton Court this year. Flowers at their peak of perfection and new ideas helped to make the show memorable. Interesting themes included the changing practice of gardening, from pre 1900 to 2000 and beyond, new organic gardening methods, and the recycling of industrial waste products.

Show Gardens

Best Show Garden

YOU magazine’s GO ORGANIC garden gained Best Show Garden and one of the Royal Horticultural Society’s Gold Medals. The design came from Gabriella Pape and Isabelle Van Groeningen of Land Art, who were inspired by the kitchen garden at Audley End in Essex - recently restored by Henry Doubleday Research Association HDRA. (YOU magazine and HDRA run organic gardening day courses).

In the Go Organic garden, a self-supporting arch of expertly trained hornbeam trees formed a striking feature. Slate chippings, a waste product of Welsh quarries, and oak sleepers were set in the paths. Among the edible plants, pea ‘Purple Podded’ was placed prominently in rectangular, wood edged beds of organically grown herbs and vegetables. Succulents on pavilion roof tops demonstrated the insulating and oxygenating qualities of plants. But the stopping place for many spectators was to observe the semi-random planting of herbaceous perennials, including Allium, Lavandula, Eryngium, Verbascum. The flowers attracted numerous bees in the sunshine.

Gardening Which? presented an exhibit called Gardens for People, designed to illustrate the physical and mental benefits of gardening in inner city regions, and the importance of promoting community gardens. Emphasis was placed on food growing, sheltering wildlife and decorative planting.

In The Flower Fairies garden, the actress June Whitfield and two pretty little girls, one with her feet in a circular pool, drew attention to the 75th anniversary of Cicely Mary Baker’s enchanting book The Flower Fairies of Summer. The publisher Frederick Warne is equally famous for Kathleen Hale’s Orlando the Marmalade Cat and Beatrix Potter’s books.

June Whitfield kindly also helped promote the Gala Preview, the benefits of which this year go to Scope - the cerebral palsy charity.

The Marshall’s Generation Garden was really four gardens, designed for stages of life. In the retired person’s version, various types of walling and paving stones were on view. A cushioned chair beside a teapot on a table completed the scene, which invited relaxation.

Daily Mail Pavilion

Inside a vast marquee, three exhibits created an educational experience. Gardens changing over time from labour intensive to easy upkeep were represented by the following: a Dream Cottage and Garden of the 1900s; Gardens of 2000 – a façade of modern town houses with front gardens; and a Future Garden of 2100. The trend towards outdoor rooms and simple planting ideas for busy people was shown.

The Future Garden was notable, not so much for the exotic trees, echeverias, Nerium oleander and cacti plants, but for the extraordinary use of recycled materials. Planting was minimal in this Gold Medal winning roof garden from Pantiles. The following were all by-products of industry: green glass gravel, an umbrella of titanium alloy (recycled from Harrier jump jets), a flooring of stainless steel and copper chippings that looked like grey and orange gravel. And amazingly, a quarter of a million CDs had been utilised for a plastic mulch, which resembled fragments of crushed mirror. Global warming had been taken into consideration as well as the conservation of materials, including water.

Garden Courts

Among many splendid gardens, the Urban Calm garden designed by Patrick Wynniatt-Husey and Patrick Clarke, stood out for its symmetry. Glass, slate and water featured strongly, as did aloes in pots against white walls, an orange background behind metal drums, a glass-topped steel table and slate-topped metal chairs. Again planting was minimal.

Woodcote Green Nursery’s Beauty Is In The Eye Of The Beholder garden tried to show that no one style is correct. A cartwheel and an old lawn roller in long grass on one side contrasted sharply with a contemporary area on the other side of the display.

Plants

An astonishing number of species and varieties could be found at the show. Rare types in The Plant Heritage Marquee, colourful sorts in the Hanging Baskets and Window Boxes Village, and in the Gardens. Thymus species and varieties in Jekka’s Herb Farm design, Mediterranean garden plants on the Botanic Nursery exhibit, and ornamental trees and shrubs on Burncose Nurseries’ stand - just three of many marvellous displays in the Floral Marquees. And favourite rose blooms of old and new varieties, to suit a variety of tastes, filled the Rose Marquee.

Among merchandise

There was so much to see, from stands devoted to willow wigwams, lawn mowers, all kinds of power products - hedgecutters, blowers, loppers, shears, chainsaws - plants in baskets, greenhouses, and various containers, to metal watering cans hanging on chains.