The world’s largest flower show takes place every year in July – high summer in the northern hemisphere – on the grounds of Hampton Court Palace, just west of London.
Highlights of the annual show include designer gardens by top landscapers, marquees featuring new plants and floral displays, as well as garden competitions of various sorts. Visited by more than 1.5 million people, the new plant species on display and the trends in the designer gardens inevitably make their way into the gardens around the world.
This year’s trends included colourful planting, edible gardens and design gardens rich in biodiversity.
Colourful planting
The cottage garden style of planting made a big comeback at Hampton Court. Old-fashioned annuals in every shade of the rainbow – as well as new hybrids of old favourites – featured in many of the 26 show gardens. The colourful Stockman’s Retreat was given the People’s Choice Award via online voting, showing that the gardening public prefer bright and cheerful gardens to those with more subtle themes.
A garden of subtle shades was, however, the only large show garden awarded a gold medal by the Hampton judges. Gray’s Garden was in shades of cool blues, lavenders, creams and greens. It featured a distinctly neo-modern design of block planting supported by a hard landscape.
All the angles and lines in this garden related well to each other and the plantings were clean, calm and defined.
Grow your own
With the world in recession, the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) sponsored a huge central area at Hampton to demonstrate how to grow your own food.
In fact, there were no fewer than nine food gardens, each devoted to a different aspect of fruit and vegegetable gardening.
Visitors saw how to rotate crops, which vegetables can grow in partial shade, how to mix attractive vegtables with flowers, a herb garden and a greenhouse for growing exotic fruits. Five of the show gardens were exclusively food gardens.
Awarded a gold medal, the 5-A-Day small garden was particularly impressive, demonstrating how it is possible to grow one’s daily five portions of fruit and vegetables in a small area – there was just 10m2 of planted space within the garden.
Every single plant in this vibrant courtyard was edible, with no sacrifices made to style or colour. All surfaces, from roof to walls to stairs, provided space for planting. The garden was crammed with more than 50 varieties, including many rare, delicious vegetables.
Protect wildlife
Last year was the UN-designated Year for Biodiversity, to draw attention to the worldwide declining numbers of flora and fauna species. Attracting wildlife into the garden and preserving natural habitats was the theme of many gardens. Wild in the City, a tiny city garden, demonstrated how urban spaces can be important havens for wildlife and yet remain stylish. Plantings provided nectar and berries, and grasses a sheltered hidden spot for shy creatures. Hollow tubes set in the woodlog wall and an insect hotel offered safe shelters for insects.
The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) sponsored an ecological garden to celebrate its 50th anniversary. Why We Care About Chalk Streams provided a haven for an abundance of wildlife, with gentle running water and meadow plantings. A rotting tree stump set among pretty wildflowers provided a place for beetles and other insects to thrive – an easy idea to use in one’s own garden.
Night garden
Finally, there were also fascinating gardens. Hampton Court’s first night garden, set in a blacked-out marquee, featured low-heat level lighting that allows light to shine through plants without burning them.
Pavers were made from recycled crushed glass with a central pool surrounded by light, coloured polished sandstone.
Plants were chosen for their light colours and fragrance, such as white nicotiana and silver birch trees.
Eleven rose nurseries were on show in The Wonderland of Roses marquee.
This year’s theme was Alice in Wonderland, with playing-card figures and bronze sculptures of the Cheshire Cat, White Rabbit and Alice amid beautiful rose displays.
The 2012 Rose of Year was on display, a bright red floribunda called “Moment in Time”, bred by Kordes Roses and displayed by Mattocks Roses, winner of the Best Rose Exhibit.
Seven new roses were launched, among these Rose “Virginia McKenna”, named for the actress and wildlife campaigner.
In the RHS Floral Marquee, Hampshire Carnivorous Plants was judged Best Exhibit and a salmon-pink fragrant sweet pea named “William and Catherine” was bred by Eagle Sweet Peas to commemorate the royal wedding.
Dave Parkinson Plants won a gold medal for their exhibit filled with South African disa orchids.
* Find out more about the Royal Hampton Court Flower Show at www.rhs.org.uk/Shows-Events/Hampton-Court-Palace-Flower-Show/2011/Gardens/ - Weekend Argus