Charity’s patron casts thumbprint for RHS Chelsea show garden
Horatio’s Garden patron, HRH Princess of Eugenie of York, has cast her thumbprint to be featured in the charity’s show garden at RHS Chelsea.
She created the print during a visit to Horatio’s Garden London & South East at the London Spinal Cord Injury Centre in Stanmore. She toured the garden where she met beneficiaries, staff and volunteers. Princess Eugenie visited a creative painting workshop and viewed the grapevine she planted when opening the garden in 2022.
Her thumbprint appears in an artwork in a woodland room within the charity’s garden on Main Avenue. Charlotte Harris and Hugo Bugg from Harris Bugg Studio, in collaboration with architects McMullan Studio, designed the garden.
It will join 1,000 other thumbprint stamps collected across the UK with the help of ceramicist Vinicius Les. This will involve patients, staff and volunteers within its garden in spinal injury centres and show garden workers.
‘Pleased to be supporting Horatio’s Garden’
HRH Princess Eugenie said: “I am so pleased to support the Horatio’s Garden show garden at Chelsea this year. As a former spinal patient, I understand the impact that Horatio’s Garden has on people in hospital and the difference it makes to their lives.”
Dr Olivia Chapple, founder and Chair of Trustees, said: “We started to gather prints from the broad community of Horatio’s Garden for our Chelsea show garden. This is a wonderful initiative by Harris Bugg Studio and architect Andrew McMullan. They will tell the powerful story of the many hands involved in caring for beneficiaries of Horatio’s Garden.”
Charlotte Harris and Hugo Bugg said: “We have been so fortunate to meet people supported by the Horatio’s Garden charity. We have listened to their stories. The charity plays a vital role in their lives. We wanted to visually represent the collective power of the whole Horatio’s Garden family. Since this garden will be permanently located in Sheffield, the idea of a personal hallmark resonated yet further.”
Horatio’s Garden at RHS Chelsea will be a place of sanctuary and hope. It reflects the special qualities of the charity’s gardens that nurture people after spinal injury. It will be an immersive, restorative haven. The antithesis of a busy, clinical hospital environment and puts the requirements of people with mobility needs at its heart. Project Giving Back funds the garden.
For more information, visit www.horatiosgarden.org.uk.
