Roof Garden Exhibitors Chelsea 2007

4 June 2021 4:53 pm
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Roof Gardens

Please note that information in this document is subject to change and information about the gardens is supplied by the exhibitors.

Acorn Garden Design
‘Ad astra per aspera’ (To the stars through adversity)
Designer: Wayne Richards
Site number: GPC 15
Press Contact: Wayne Richards
Press Tel: 07736 241520
Email: [email protected]
Contractor: Brittaine Landscapes Ltd
Exhibitor Address: Acorn Garden Design, 131a Nashgrove Lane, Finchampstead, Berks. RG40 4HG

This is a rooftop observatory designed to pursue an interest in astronomy in a relaxed garden setting. ‘Ad astra per aspera’ is a fusion of the classical with the contemporary and utilises modern matierials to overome the challenging rooftop environment.

An elliptical deck runs diagonally across the rooftop, darkly stained and impregnated with fibre lights to resemble the sky at night. Tails of planting flow out behind illuminated hemispheres that represent planets. A seating area to observe the stars is back by a contemporary colonnade. At the margin, planting billows indicative of the celestial firmament.

The garden designer, Wayne Richards, says that a green roof improves stormwater management by reducing immediate water run-off by up to 90%. Green roofs provide habitats that encourage wildlife within built-up areas and also cool and humidify the surrounding area, benefitting the local microclimate. They also reduce carbon emissions, pollution and noise levels.

This is Wayne’s first time at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show. He previously exhibited at Hampton, where he was awarded a Gold Medal.

DHL Logistics in association with Bespoke Gardens
‘The DHL Sun Chariot Garden’
Designer: Andrew Marson
Site number: GPC 10
Sponsor: DHL Logistics
Press Contact: Andrew Marson
Press Tel: 020 7993 4567
Press Email: [email protected]
Contractor: Bespoke Gardens
Exhibitor Address: DHL Logistics in association with Bespoke Gardens, Solstice House, 251 Midsummer Boulevard, Central Milton Keynes, MK9 1EQ

The Sun Chariot is a 3400 year old Bronze Age statue of the sun, gilded on one side, on a horse drawn chariot. It depicts the belief that the sun was pulled across the heavens from east to west during the day, showing its bright side, and back again at night showing its dark side.

In ‘The DHL Sun Chariot Garden’ visitors can swing into the sun or shade at a press of the button. The latter day Sun Chariot, at the heart of this garden, has a sunny and shady side too. The sun reference in this garden relates to global warming; the garden designer, Andrew Marson, believes our relationship with the giver of life is ambiguous to say the least. The garden addresses climate change and water shortages in the south east of England; the planting is drought tolerant.

The centrepiece within ‘The DHL Sun Chariot Garden’ is the large, semi-circular oak seat, which allows the visitor as much or little sun as they like. The floor area is an oak deck, which articulates in a series of circles from the doorway.

The drought-tolerant planting is inspired by Beth Chatto’s dry gravel garden. The dominant colour theme is blue with yellows and creams. Helictotrichon sempervirens and Stipa tenuissima grasses are used to further delineate the circular structure of the garden and a Eucalyptus pauciflora subsp. niphophila adds height.

This is Andrew’s first garden at Chelsea. After a decade of cerebral gymnastics, working as a conference interpreter for the EU, he felt his creative calling and, in his late thirties, turned his passion for design and plants into reality.

Heavenly Gardens
‘The Rhus Garden’
Designer: Freya Lawson
Site number: GPC 11
Sponsor: Heavenly Gardens & To Grace
Press Contact: Freya Lawson
Press Tel: 0117 9413 488 / 078633 25689
Email: [email protected]
Contractor: Heavenly Gardens
Exhibitor Address: Heavenly Gardens, 14 Richmond Street, St George, Bristol, BS5 8EJ

‘The Rhus Garden’ aims to reflect what can be achieved in a small urban roof space. Inspiration for the garden was drawn from the Italian city Rome. It is a modern space, incorporating classic materials with contemporary features.

Simplicity balances with ornate, bespoke, stainless steel wall panels by To Grace, and sumptuous double-skinned red fibreglass planters. These oppulant features are balanced with natural materials in neutral tones, such as travertine and limestone paving and oak furnature and boundries.

Four raised planters surround the space to increase the impact of the planting. The planter wall tops are finished with oak to provide seating and elegent oak tables overlap to unify shapes in the hard landscaping.

Planting is ornamental and the layout and planting designs clean and simple. The principle plant in this garden is a mature Rhus typhina, which provides height and structure. Iris ‘Spartan’ and a selection of red perennials provide flamboyancy and unifies with the red fibreglass; Astelia chathamica ‘Silver Spear’ complements steel features and Selaginella kraussiana creeps around decorated cobbles.

This is the garden designer’s, Freya Lawson, third successive exhibit at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show.

Pershore College
Designer:
Site number: GPC 12
Sponsor:
Press contact: David Feaver
Press contact tel: 01386 552443
Press contact email: [email protected]
Exhibitor Address: Pershore, Worcestershire, WR10 3JP

Samuelson Design
Patio Povera! A Roof Garden with Found Objects
Designer: Anthony Samuelson
Site number: GPC 13
Sponsor: TBC
Press contact: Rosie Harkness
Press contact tel: 0203 076 1331
Press contact email: [email protected]
Exhibitor Address: The Manor House, 2 Totteridge Common, Totteridge, London, N20 8NL

The theme for ‘A Roof Garden with Found Objects’ was inspired by a patio seventy-seven year old Anthony Samuelson created for his wife. An early purchase, a magnificent Tree Fern, was too big for any pot that Anthony owned. On a whim he asked his gardener to plant it in an old rusting water tank saying, ‘This is Arte Povera. You know: A found object? Objet trouvés? Ready-made? Duchamp. That lot.”

‘Roof Garden with Found Objects’ is centered on using a variety of objects as plant containers. It is based on what is known in the art world as ‘objets trouvés’ (found objects) or ‘ready-mades’.

Sunflowers grow up a tall chimney stack, which is surmounted by chimney pots with television aerials, satellite dishes, drain pipes and cables in abundance. A barbeque adapted from an ancient cast stove lies against the right hand wall, with a fire extinguisher close at hand. To the right an upside-down tomato plant tumbles out of a giant ketchup bottle.

The influences of art are everywhere in this roof garden; Mr and Mrs Andrews, from the National Gallery’s portrait by Gainsborough, are represented by two life-sized window mannequins. Othello, the 8ft-high Great Dane, which once graced the Biba Food Hall and was ‘found’ at Billy Smart’s Circus sale, stands next to Mr Andrews, as in the portrait. Secured high up on the chimney is a yellow ladder-back chair with sunflowers growing through its rush seat – an allusion to two pictures by Van Gogh.

The tubular supports of a double hammock, at the centre of the garden, are covered in Clematis montana and the tree fern, which started it all, features within the rusty water tank. Mrs Andrews’ 18th century gown is made from Carpet Violas, which is set into sphagnum moss fed into a stainless steel frame. Her hair is a spotted deadnettle and on her lap sits a rubber chicken planted with common sage.

This is the garden designer’s, Anthony Samuelson’s, first time at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show. He says that does not have a horticultural background and admits he has never been to a flower show in his life!

Aged 77 years old, this garden designer admits that he has never even visited a flower show! With no horticultural knowledge, he teamed up with ‘plant guru’ Daniel Lloyd Morgan, who won a gold medal at Hampton in 2002, to bring his design to life.

Anthony sums up what exhibiting at Chelsea means to him in three words; anxiety, fear, hope.

Roof Garden Exhibitors Chelsea 2007