Worcestershire
WR13 6NW UK
Tel: 01684 584900
For more information please contact:
Sharon Gilbert
Press & PR Manager
Telephone:
01684 584929
Fax:
01684 584930
E-mail: sharon@threecounties.co.uk
Editor's Notes:
The Malvern Spring Gardening Show is a fund raising event and a joint venture of the Three Counties Agricultural Society (Registered charity no: 511868) and the Royal Horticultural Society (No: 222879), and is now in its 24th year.
Gardening Show Sets A New Record In 24th Year
There will be no shortage of inspiration for visitors coming to the national Malvern Spring Gardening Show (7 – 10 May), this year, as the first big event on the horticultural calendar celebrates a record-breaking collection of 22 innovative show gardens.
In spite of a challenging economy, landscape designers are forging ahead to build themed spaces in pursuit of coveted Royal Horticultural Society medals, and recognition in the garden design world.
This year’s collection is the highest ever in the Show’s 24 year history and for the very first time, there will be a People’s Choice Award, allowing visitors to vote for their favourite garden!
Not content with the enormous task of creating one garden, Gloucestershire designer, James Steed of Outdoor Living Space, is electing to build two, and his ‘Modern Victorian Outdoor Space’ is a contemporary take on traditional Victorian style, where raised decking and a grass-topped bench sit happily with cast iron urns, ferns and a path of red clay brick.
James has also been commissioned to create a spectacular garden catwalk for Malvern’s popular Design For Living Theatre, which will feature a central stage, a natural sandstone mosaic, a ‘virgin rainforest’ backdrop and a spectacular display of some 400 purple alliums grown by Tony Devine of Devine Nurseries, Yorkshire.
Stroud firm Graduate Gardeners Ltd is building ‘Chic City Space’, a private garden designed by Mark Draper, for a young professional couple, with pleached hornbeams, box topiary, two simple water features and a stunning piece of boundary artwork by Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen.
Fellow Gloucestershire talent, Jonathan Bishop, is creating the enchanting ‘Merlin’s Cave’ in association with 3 Shires Garden Centre. Protected by fire-breathing dragons sculpted by Dragonswood Forge, the garden boasts a cave with a planted roof, and an ash path formed from the leftovers of Merlin’s cooking fire. An old enemy has been turned into a gargoyle and set into the wall!
Steven Wollaston and Matt Yates of Cheltenham bring a relaxed sunny terrace to Malvern with beds of soft-textured perennials and grasses and structured phormiums and clipped box balls, retained by Cotswold stone walls. Three wooden balls represent the eggs within the ‘Family Nest’.
Nottingham-based Halcyon Days Garden Design celebrates the 25th anniversary of the death of Eric Morecambe OBE with a garden inspired by the famous 1971 Andre Previn and the grand piano sketch, and designed to ‘bring a little sunshine’ into the day. Sculptural steel musical notes pop up around the beds and structures and plants represent the piano, the orchestra and a raised podium.
Keith Southall’s garden, Herne’s Forest, for Worcestershire’s Creative Landscapes, laments the loss of our native woodland, and man’s hand in its gradual destruction.
Herne the Hunter, an eight foot giant, made from three species of ivy, purple sedum and a crown of antlers, is the protector of the wild wood, and an emblem of the days when our woodland flourished. He watches over the garden which uses Welsh border rock and slate, and oak, birch and rowan, ferns and bluebells – a planting which gently becomes more cultivated with hybridised visitors like azaleas, pieris and rhododendrons.
16 year old Jack Dunckley of West Sussex is building his second Malvern show garden this year. ‘Not Any Garden, My Grandma’s’ is based on a real 1930s/1940s working florist’s complete with paved frontage. It has been designed with his grandmother in mind, who used to work in her father’s florist shop, and now suffers from dementia, and houses some of her favourite plants like marguerites and herbs such as rosemary, lavender and thyme.
Carol Smith, a lecturer at Worcestershire’s Pershore College, is creating ‘The Tree of Life Garden’, in association with St. Richard’s Hospice – a garden which has its roots in ancient Islamic gardens and in Celtic astrological symbolism.
Its focal point is the metal ‘tree of life’ sculpture with a rill encircling its base, and further rills to portray the four rivers of life. A moon window of metal hoops marks the entrance. The garden will be relocated at St. Richard’s Hospice after the Show.
West Sussex designer, Alex Bell, runner up in last year’s Chris Beardshaw Mentoring Scholarship sponsored by Bradstone competition, is working with pupils and Malvern’s St. Matthias School, on ‘Learning Curve’ – a mysterious labyrinthine space with coloured posts, a giant abacus and a wildflower meadow, all sustainable, and all designed to allow imaginative, creative learning to flourish.
Somerset’s Secret World Wildlife Trust, which rescues, rehabilitates and eventually releases orphaned and injured wild creatures, was the inspiration behind ‘The Secret World Garden’, by Mark Walker of Walkers Garden Retreats.
The garden is in two parts – the first representing a contemporary front garden featuring dogwoods, bamboo and variegated shrubs and a mural. The second part will be on display at the Malvern Autumn Show (26 & 27 September 2009).
Oxfordshire designer Matthew Jackman of Topiarus Horticulture, remembers being stuck behind a desk all day in his previous career and ‘Take A Break From The Old Routine’, which uses warm sandstone, Cotswold stone and granite setts, evergreens, an Olive tree and Cercis Canadensis ‘Forest Pansy’, is a garden which provides the perfect excuse to get out of the office and into the garden for a break.
Experienced RHS show garden designer and medal winner, Paul Dyer, of Stratford upon Avon, is at Malvern once again this year, with ‘A Garden Within A Garden’ - a sheltered, private terrace created for a client with a windswept coastal site in Cornwall. A natural rock pond provides the relaxing sound of water and attracts birds, and climbers add height.
The Malvern Spring Gardening Show features 10 more exciting Show Gardens, courtesy of the Chris Beardshaw Mentoring Scholarship sponsored by Bradstone, 2009 and seven school gardens.
Other attractions include the RHS Malvern Floral Marquee, the Design for Living Theatre with garden catwalk and garden fashion parades, celebrity guests, Felice’s Kitchen, floral art, Eco Home & Garden area, crafts, food and wine and quality shopping.
For more information and interview opportunities, please contact:
Sharon Gilbert – Press & PR Manager
Three Counties Agricultural Society
Telephone: 01684 584929 (direct dial)
E-mail: sharon@threecounties.co.uk
Show Web Site and Box Office: www.threecounties.co.uk/springgardening
Ticket Hotline: +44 (0) 1684 584 900/924
Released: 28/04/2009