Gardening inspiration to beat the heat, July 4-9

Gardens packed with innovative ideas to reduce water use will star at RHS Hampton Court Palace Garden Festival 2023. Featuring drought-tolerant planting schemes demonstrate how gardeners can adapt their plots to become more climate resilient. Here’s my review of Hampton Court Palace Garden Festival 2022 and last year’s inclusive gardening theme.

Helena Pettit, RHS Director of Gardens and Shows said: “Climatic extremes are becoming increasingly common in the UK. Our green spaces will need to adapt to weather them. The gardens at RHS Hampton Court provide plenty of inspiration for visitors to try at home to help make their own gardens more resilient.”

Show Gardens

America’s Wild, presented by Trailfinders & Visit The USA – BEST SHOW GARDEn and BEST CONSTRUCTION – GOLD

Designed by Inspired Earth Design, built by Yoreland Design and sponsored by Visit The USA and Trailfinders.

• Inspiration: Three natural landscapes associated with North America: desert, forest and prairie.
• Design features: Larger expansive vistas on film screens and a waterfall.
• Key plants: Succulents in the desert area; aspen trees in the forest area; and grasses and wilder perennial planting in the prairie.

The Cancer Research UK Legacy Garden – GOLD

Designed by Paul Hervey-Brookes; built by G.K Wilson Landscapes and sponsored by Cancer Research UK.

• Inspiration: How a gift in your will funds vital research and celebrates hope, reflection and conversation.
• Design features: With varying levels, plants screen the garden from the outside. Inside, streams lead to a pond with an isolated jetty – a metaphor for fear and loneliness. The Pledge Pavilion symbolises hope.
• Key plants: Tranquil woodland planting.

Hampton Court Palace Garden Festival 2023 – Explore Charleston – Welcome To Charleston – SILVER-GILT

Designed by Sadie May Stowell, built by SM Corporate Events Ltd and sponsored by Explore Charleston.

• Inspiration: The historic courtyard gardens of Charleston, South Carolina.
• Design features: Key materials highlight the history of Charleston. Wrought iron railings, hand-made brick and crushed oyster shells. Water features represent the famous Charleston ‘pineapple’ waterfront fountain, a symbol of welcome and hospitality.
• Key plants: The colour scheme is blue, pink, and white, with hardy exotic plants.

Hampton Court Palace Garden Festival 2023 – Hurtigruten: The Relation-Ship Garden – SILVER-GILT

Designed by Max Parker-Smith, built by Living Landscapes and sponsored by hurtigruten.co.uk.

• Inspiration: The relationship between Hurtigruten cruises and Norwegian coastal farmers. The space focuses on a fruit farmer’s lakeside garden in SW Norway.
• Design features: A reclaimed timber boardwalk cuts the space between planting and water. A terrace of reclaimed granite setts offers a view over the lake and pathways wind around the garden.
• Key plants: Edible plants mix with ornamental flowers and trees.

Hampton Court Palace Garden Festival 2023 – Plastic Fantastic – SILVER-GILT

Designed by Hana Leonard, built by Armstrong Landscapes Ltd and sponsored by EnviroBuild, NBB Recycled Furniture and George Davies Turf.

• Inspiration: A sustainable version of a wasteland returning to its former glory. The garden tackles the issue of plastic waste in horticulture with creative alternatives to landfill.
• Design features: Plastic waste makes seating, fencing, hard landscaping and artwork. Composite recycled plastic material decking leads through a meadow and birch grove resembling a restored landfill.
• Key plants: Birch is a coloniser and highly adaptable. Native herbs self-seed and attract pollinators. The birch grove has five semi-mature Betula jacquemontii, with wildflower turf.

Korea LH Garden (garden with land) – SILVER

Designed by Danbee Kim, built by Crowton Rowarth Ltd and sponsored by LH (The Korea Land and Housing Corporation).

• Inspiration: Promoting communities around resident-friendly public gardens. Inspiration comes from the Korean city of Incheon. The garden looks at the question of ownership of shared spaces and how people can live harmoniously with nature.
• Design features: A box structure surrounds the central concrete paving, which represents architecture and, itself enveloped by a natural forest.
• Key plants: Korean natives, such as Cornus kousa, Rhododendron spp, Sorbaria sorbifolia and Astilbe rubra.

Hampton Court Palace Garden Festival 2023 – The Traditional Townhouse Garden- SILVER

Designed by Lucy Taylor, built by Sam Perry Gardening Ltd and sponsored by Lucy Taylor Garden Design and Sam Perry Gardening Ltd.

• Inspiration: To inspire urban gardeners to create beautiful and sustainable sanctuaries for people and wildlife.
• Design features: Traditional straight lines are softened by the repetition in form and colour of the planting. Gravel planting softens hard edges. A bronze ‘Apple’ sculpture references Eden.
• Key plants: Multi-stemmed Prunus serrula sit amid pollinator-friendly flowers in large planters. Whites, greens, deep purple and dusty pinks repeat, as do the flower forms. Look for Verbascum, Digitalis, Ammi and Scabiosa.

The Oregon Garden – BRONZE

Designed by Sadie May Stowell, built by SM Corporate Events Ltd and sponsored by Travel Oregon.

• Inspiration: Showcasing the character and beauty of the state of Oregon.
• Design features: Large boulders create a craggy backdrop, with woodland bark-chipping pathways and a natural water feature.
• Key plants: Gnarled grape vines represent wine-growing regions. Cream, burgundy and pink flowers dominate, with Ammi majus, Agrostemma Ocean Pearl and Achillea chosen to attract insects.

Get Started Gardens

The Wildlife Trusts: Renters’ Retreat – BEST GET STARTED GARDEN – GOLD

Designed by Zoe Claymore and sponsored by The Wildlife Trusts.

• Inspiration: Around one in three households in England are rented homes with over seven million having access to outdoor space. The garden aims to show what can be achieved to help nature and climate using small outside areas in towns and cities.
• Design features: A hügelkultur mound (permaculture method), raised pond, log planters, modular beds that can be dismantled and home composting and capturing rainwater.
• Key plants: Pollinator and wildlife-friendly planting.

The Landform Mental Wealth Garden – BEST CONSTRUCTION – GOLD

Designed by Nicola Hale, built by Landform Consultants Ltd and sponsored by Landform Consultants Ltd.

• Inspiration: Based on a parterre, the garden aims to promote the feeling of well-being by using scent and beautiful planting.
• Design features: The central water feature in weathered mild steel, is evocative of the seasonal changes in nature. A woven willow pattern is repeated in the natural panels of the garden’s boundaries and the metal screens of the raised planters. An area is devoted to experimenting with herbal remedies and tinctures.
• Key plants: Yellows, subtle pinks and calming blues, lilacs, and white combine to form a cohesive planting scheme. Evergreen herbs are shaped as semi-structural hedges, along with three ornamental trees.

Nurturing Nature in the City – SILVER-GILT

Designed and sponsored by Caroline Clayton and Peter Clayton of Viriditas Garden Design Studio, built by Viriditas Garden Design Studio and CJ Landscapes.

• Inspiration: Created using affordable, and largely reclaimed materials, taking inspiration from inner city green developments along such as the High Line in New York and Parkland Walk in Highgate, London.
• Design features: Natural stone, water, reclaimed sleepers and scaffold boards dominate the hard landscaping. Crushed stone creates the seating areas and waste stone/materials make the gabions.
• Key plants: There are multiple habitats: gabion walls, mini wildflower strips, pollinator planting, ponds and nest pockets around a central seating area.

Hampton Court Palace Garden Festival 2023 – The Inghams Working With Nature Garden – SILVER

Designed by Butler and Parker, built by Acacia Gardens and sponsored by Inghams.

• Inspiration: The garden reflects on summer holidays
• Design features: Natural stone creates gravel tracks. Large stone-bench seating means you can listen to the sound of water from running streams. Stepping-stone paving over a shallow dry creek fill during periods of intense rainfall whcih leads to the central space with seating, shaded by multi-stem trees. The willow fence reimagines the movement of water. Rainwater filters through the planting, creating cleaner waterways.
• Key plants: The planting aims to handle future UK climates, such as willows for temporary periods of flooding as well as dry periods. The palette is loosely inspired by woodland and lower valley glades with flowering perennials and grasses. 
• Permanent home: ARK at Egwood in Somerset.

Hampton Court Palace Garden Festival 2023 – The Lunar Garden – SILVER

Designed by Queenie Chan, built by Topoforma Landscape Ltd and sponsored by CED Stone, Tendercare Nurseries and The Nunhead Gardener.

• Inspiration: Everything has a lunar theme, enabling visitors to enjoy outdoor living from day to night.
• Design features: Subtle light features don’t overwhelm the space with a flood of artificial light. Circular shapes are woven through the design; a winding gravel path, circle paving and planted beds representing the different phases of the moon.
• Key plants: Oriental and Western planting work together in tones of white and silver. Herbaceous plants feature along the two undulating bamboo fences. Plants are drought-tolerant and attractive to pollinators. Structural trees and shrubs such as Acer, Pinus, Cornus, Osmanthus, Viburnum and bamboo bring an Oriental aesthetic.

Hampton Court Palace Garden Festival 2023 – Feature Gardens (not judged)

RHS Iconic Horticultural Hero Garden

Designed by Carol Klein, and built by Landform Consultants.

• Inspiration: Designed by this year’s Iconic Horticultural Hero, Carol Klein. The garden is divided into six habitats: wetland, woodland, hedgerow, meadow, exposed mountain and seaside and a vegetable patch.
• Design features: One enters a sunken boggy wetland, followed by a slightly raised woodland area with beech trees and a native hedgerow boundary. From the hedge to the exit there is a ‘meadow’, using a mix of herbaceous perennials and grasses. There’s also an oval seating area and a table with an inset herb planter.
• Key plants: In the vegetable garden are three sisters’ plantings, using sweetcorn Swift, climbing bean Blauhilde and an Uchiki Kuri squash. Sweet pea Cupani fills the air with scent.

RHS Resilient Garden – Supported by ACO

Designed by Tom Massey, built by Landscape Associates, and sponsored by ACO.

• Inspiration: The physical manifestation of the virtual garden detailed in Massey’s book of the same name. How our gardens can adapt to a warming climate and be resilient in the face of heatwaves or heavy rainfall.
• Design features: The garden slows the movement of surface water to stop mains sewers being overwhelmed. Rainwater is harvested to irrigate planting and provide habitat and shelter for wildlife.
• Key plants: The garden is full of biodiversity – a sunny and dry front garden with plants chosen to cool the space and reduce air pollution. The rear garden has a ‘food forest’.

Hampton Court Palace Garden Festival 2023 – RHS Wildlife Garden

Designed by Jo Thompson.

• Inspiration: The garden represents an urban corridor reclaimed by nature. Urban greening is the idea that increased proportions of green spaces in our urban areas benefit people, wildlife and the climate.
• Design features: The design is inspired by an abandoned railway track which has been reclaimed by nature.
• Key plants: A canopy of tall natives such as Crataegus monogyna and Salix babylonica Tortuosa sits above ornamental versions of wild plants including Angelica sylvestris Vicar’s Mead and Daucus Dara.

RHS-BBC Morning Live Budget-Friendly Garden

Designed by Mark Lane, and built by Augustine John Developments Ltd.

Inspiration: Gardening on a budget.

Design features: Quirky elements such as a recreated TV set and a vertical living wall in the form of the BBC Morning Live mug. Landscaping uses recycled materials such as scaffold boards, plant pots and pallets. The garden is fully accessible to help inspire gardeners of all abilities.

Key plants: Cheap, easy-to-find drought-tolerant plants such as Eryngium bourgatii Picos Amethyst and Armeria maritima Splendens. Fruit, vegetables and flowers grow in small spaces. There’s even produce that can be grown from food waste and ways to reduce water use.

Hampton Court Palace Garden Festival 2023 – The Floral Marquee Awards

• Best Exhibit: Hampshire Carnivorous Plants for an exhibit of Carnivorous Plants.
• Best Plant Heritage Exhibit: Hogarth Hostas for an exhibit of Hostas.
• Best Rose Exhibit: David Austin Roses Ltd for an exhibit of Roses.
• New Design Award: In the Garden Limited for an exhibit of Houseplants and container gardening.
• Best Exhibit in the Plant Village: The Palm Centre for a display of hardy exotics.

Gold medal winners

• D’Arcy & Everest: Alpines, succulents and perennials.
• Kitchen Garden Plant Centre: Herbs and edibles.
• New Forest Hostas & Hemerocallis: Supercalafragalistichostafabulosous.
• Hogarth Hostas: Hostas.
• Philip Oostenbrink and Newbury Farm Plants: A jungle garden.
• Green JJam Nurseries: Penstemon, white flowering plants and perennials.
• Brighter Blooms: Container-grown Zantedeschia (calla).
• Plantagogo Heuchera, × Heucherella and Tiarella.
• Derbyshire Bonsai: Bonsai trees.
• Daisy Roots: High summer perennials and grasses.
• Hardy’s Cottage Garden Plants: Seasonal flowering perennials grown peat free.
• Roualeyn Fuchsias: Fuchsias.
• Jacques Amand International Ltd: Bulbous plants and flowers.
• Hare Spring Cottage Plants: Seasonal hardy perennials in a garden setting.
• Pheasant Acre Plants: Cut gladioli, dahlias and alstroemerias.
•  H.W. Hyde & Son: Tulips and other spring flowering bulbs.
• Hoyland Plant Centre: Agapanthus, × Amarine and Nerine.
• W.S. Warmenhoven: Allium and Nectaroscordum.
• Harts Nursery: Lilies.
• David Austin Roses Ltd: Roses.
• Norfield Nurseries Ltd: Acers and Japanese maples.
• Lincolnshire Pond Plants Ltd: Pond plants.
• Driftwood Bonsai: Bonsai trees.
• Tissington Nursery: Perennials and grasses.
• Dibleys Nurseries: Streptocarpus and other gesneriads.
• Tynings Climbers: Hardy and tender climbers.
• Ottershaw Cacti: Cacti and other succulents.
• Beech Tree Farm Plants: Herbs and topiary.
• Kelnan Plants: Restios and South African plants.
• Every Picture Tells a Story Ltd: Bromeliads in a natural setting.
• Mandy Plants: Mandevilla.
• In the Garden Limited: Houseplants and container gardening.
• Surreal Succulents: Rare and unusual succulents.
• Dibleys Nurseries: Begonias, Coleus and other houseplants.
• Alchemy Ferns: Hardy ferns and tree ferns.
• Orchid Society of Great Britain: Anguloa.
• Hampshire Carnivorous Plants: Carnivorous Plants.
• Bowdens Nursery Ltd: Hostas.
• Brookfield Plants: Hostas.
• Jurassic Plants Nurseries: Rare trees, shrubs, exotic fruits and living fossils.

Hampton Court Palace Garden Festival 2023 – Silver-gilt medal winners

• Brogues Gate Nursery: Japanese maples.
• Burncoose Nurseries: Trees and shrubs.
• Westdale Nurseries: Bougainvilleas.
• Potash Nursery: Pelargoniums.
• Peter Beales Roses: Old fashioned and contemporary roses.
• Plant Heritage: The National Plant Collection scheme through the decades.
• Fryer’s Roses part of Blue Diamond Group: Roses.
• Eastcroft Roses: Garden roses.
• Foster’s Exotic and Unusual Plants: Cacti and succulents.
• Harkness Roses: Roses.
• David Cheshire Nurseries Ltd: Niwaki, bonsai, acers, choice and rare plants.
• W & S Lockyer: Specialist succulents and perennials.
• Ledburns: Mixed perennials.
• Heucheraholics: Heuchera, × Heucherella, Tiarella, Pulmonaria and ferns.
• Hoyland Plant Centre: Dierama and companion plants.
• John Cullen Gardens: National Plant Collection of Achillea millefolium.
• Potash Garden Centre: Garden perennials and shrubs.
• Priorswood Clematis: Seasonal flowering clematis and decorative climbers.
• Ashcroft’s Perennials and Ornamental Grasses: Ornamental grasses.
• Laurence Hobbs Orchids Ltd: Exotic, colourful orchids.
• H.W. Hyde & Son: Lilies and dahlias.
• The Botanic Nursery: Salvias, foxgloves, hollyhocks and hydrangeas.
• Brookfield Plants: Hemerocallis.
• The Sir Harold Hillier Gardens: The Retreat Garden.
• G & K Carnations: Cut flower Dianthus.
• Middleton Nurseries: Potted salvias.
• Orchid Society of Great Britain: Orchids in a naturalistic setting.

Silver medal winners

• The Sir Harold Hillier Gardens: Plants from the garden’s National Plant Collections.
• Darren Everest Dahlias: Cut dahlias.
• The Hebe Society/Australian Plant Society: Plants of Australia and New Zealand.
• Keith Partington Premier Alpines: Alpines and perennials.
• National Plant Collection of Calycanthus: Species and cultivars from the National Plant Collection.
• National Plant Collections of Asclepias and Gomphocarpus: Species and cultivars from the National Plant Collection.
• Floyds Climbers & Clematis: Summer flowering clematis.
• Redman Hardy Plants: Modern perennial plants.
•  Redman Hardy Plants: Plants for a dry garden.
• Bean Place Nursery: Herbaceous perennials, grasses and ferns.
• The Cottage Garden Society: Cottage garden plants, many grown from the seed exchange.
• Jonathan Sheppard: National Plant Collection of Cosmos bipinnatus.
• Bowdens Nursery Ltd: Ferns.

Bronze medal winner

• Plantbase: Acacias.

RHS Hampton Court Palace Garden Festival 2023

• Venue: Hampton Court Palace, Surrey KT8 9AU.
• Opening times: Tuesday 4 July & Wednesday 5 July – RHS members, 10am-6.30pm; Thursday 6 July to Saturday 8 July, 10am-6.30pm; Sunday 9 July, 10am-5.30pm.
• Tickets: www.rhs.org.uk/hamptoncourt.