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RHS Hampton Court Garden Festival 2024 /in , /by

RHS Show Gardens at Hampton Court Garden Festival 2-7 July 2024

RHS Hampton Court Palace Garden Festival is the world’s largest flower show, stretching over 31 acres and attracting around 120,000 visitors. It is a celebration of gardening set in the historic grounds of Hampton Court Palace within easy reach of central London.

Practicality Brown are delighted to support Garden Designers at the event again this year. There is a real variety of ideas at the 2024 festival, bringing gardening traditions of other countries to the classically British setting of Hampton Court Palace,

Show Garden

We have supplied Yew Practical Instant Hedge™ and Pine trees for Sadie May Stowell’s Oregon Show Garden.  This showcases the natural beauty of the state of Oregon, including wildflower planting, natural crisp clear waterfalls and forest planting. The planting is natural in appearance and focuses on pollinating plants and flowers.

Oregon Show Garden at RHS Hampton Court featuring Yew Practical Instant Hedge and Pine trees

Oregon Show Garden design by Sadie May Stowell

Get Started Gardens

The “Get Started Gardens” category aims to inspire beginner gardeners and spark ideas that can be achieved at their own home. We supported two Garden Designers in this section, both of which were awarded a Silver Gilt medal:

 

A Four Seasons Sanctuary created by Tim Jennings included our Hornbeam Elements and Purple Beech Practical Instant Hedge™. Combining striking modern design features with traditional materials.  With naturalistic ‘drift’ planting, this is a garden to be enjoyed by humans and wildlife alike. This garden has a strong stylish aesthetic that also provides the natural, seasonal wild space to sustain a diverse kaleidoscope of life

Four Season Sanctuary designed by Tim Jennings featuring Hornbeam Elements and Purple Beech Practical Instant Hedge

Four Season Sanctuary Garden designed by Tim Jennings

Lastly, Melanie Hick used our Elaeagnus evergreen screens for her award-winning Climate Forward Garden.  A front garden re-imagined for our changing environment with style and sustainability front and centre. It is influenced by Australian garden design.  It has evolved to cope with the demands of harsh climate conditions like drought and flooding rains.

Climate Forward Garden designed by Melanie Hick features Elaeagnus evergreen screens

Climate Forward Garden designed by Melanie Hick

Come and visit our nursery in Iver, Bucks and talk to our Horticultural team about your own garden. Call us on 01753 652022. You can also email us at hedge@pracbrown.co.uk. Or browse our website for specimen trees and instant hedges.

 

 

colour logo of RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2024 with single multi-coloured flower and text
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RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2024 /in , /by

RHS Exhibits

This year, our contribution to RHS Chelsea Flower Show took us inside the Great Pavilion, for two gardens designed for special Royal Horticultural Society exhibits and a special showground installation sponsored by Saatchi.

All About Hedges

This Discovery Zone feature, designed by Dave Green with RHS Science showcased the importance of hedges as part of urban and suburban landscapes.  Practicality Brown supplied Yew, Privet, Elaeagnus, Portuguese Laurel and Griselinia from our Practical Instant Hedge™ range for this special exhibit.

RHS x UBS A day on the nursery

This Feature Garden in the middle of the Great Pavilion, was sponsored by UBS and designed by Emma Tipping. It gave visitors an immersive experience of being in a plant nursery. We supplied Practical Instant Native Mix Hedge™ that surrounds the exhibit. The current mix in this very wildlife friendly hedge is Hawthorn, Hornbeam, Hazel, Blackthorn and Common Privet.

Abeba Esse

This showground installation, sponsored by Saatchi Gallery, by Zak Ové and Dave Green depicts a Black Diasporic journey, with planting representing Africa, the Caribbean, and the UK. The garden encourages important conversations about the themes. We supplied Practical Instant Native Mix Hedge™ as a back drop to the exhibit and the yew at the front.

Come and visit our nursery in Iver, Bucks and talk to our Horticultural team about your own garden. Call us on 01753 652022. You can also email us at hedge@pracbrown.co.uk. Or browse our website for specimen trees and instant hedges.

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RHS Chelsea 2024 /in , /by

RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2024

RHS Exhibits

This year, our contribution to RHS Chelsea Flower Show took us inside the Great Pavilion, for two gardens designed for special Royal Horticultural Society exhibits.

All About Hedges

This Discovery Zone feature, designed by Dave Green with RHS Science showcased the importance of hedges as part of urban and suburban landscapes.  We supplied Yew, Privet, Elaeagnus, Portuguese Laurel and Griselinia from our Practical Instant Hedge™ range for this special immersive exhibit.



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

RHS x UBS A Day on the Nursery

This feature garden in the middle of the Great Pavilion, was designed by Emma Tipping to give visitors an immersive experience of being in a plant nursery. We supplied Practical Instant Native Mix Hedge™ that surrounds the exhibit. The current mix in this very wildlife friendly hedge is Hawthorn, Hornbeam, Hazel, Blackthorn and Common Privet.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Come and visit our nursery in Iver, Bucks and talk to our Horticultural team about your own garden. Call us on 01753 652022. You can also email us at hedge@pracbrown.co.uk.  Or visit our website:  www.pracbrown.co.uk

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RHS Hampton Court 2023 /in , /by

RHS Hampton Court Palace Garden Festival 2023

Every year, top garden designers choose Practicality Brown’s hedges and trees as an integral part of their show garden, forming an important green backdrop or as part of the structure within the design itself.

This year we exhibited at Hampton Court ourselves, with a trade stand and garden installation showcasing Practical Instant Hedge™ and evergreen screening trees. The clever design incorporated both, “Playing with Shapes” used a selection of instant hedges and trees from the nursery in Iver, Buckinghamshire together with the stunning “Diana, The Huntress” sculpture by David William-Ellis.

In addition to exhibiting ourselves, our Practical Instant Hedge™ featured on three different gardens at this prestigious show.

Explore Charleston – Welcome To Charleston

Show Garden designed by Sadie May Stowell – Silver Gilt medal winner

The garden provided visitors with a glimpse of the historic courtyard gardens of Charleston, South Carolina, capturing their spirit, charm and elegance.  The planting colour scheme is blue, pink, and white and showcases a number of hardy exotic plants. Practical Yew Instant Hedging gives the design a classical formal backdrop.

 

RHS Wildlife Garden

Feature Garden designed by Jo Thompson

The garden represented an urban corridor reclaimed by nature, showing how wildlife can thrive in what are often thought of as unexpected or forgotten places. Re-framing the idea of re-wilding, this garden observed nature and took inspiration from it, whilst maintaining the balance of plants for biodiversity through light intervention. Practical Instant Native Mix Hedging was perfect for this design.

 

The Inghams Working with Nature Garden

Get Started Garden designed by Butler and Parker – Silver medal winner

The garden was inspired by summer holidays, using natural stone for tracks and seating.
The planting had a natural feel that aims to handle future UK climates, such as temporary periods of flooding as well as dry periods. The planting palette was inspired by woodland and lower valley glades, with Practical Instant Hornbeam Hedging providing the backdrop.

 

Come and visit our nursery in Iver, Bucks and talk to our Horticultural team about your own garden. Call us on 01753 652022. You can also email us at hedge@pracbrown.co.uk.  Or visit our website:  www.pracbrown.co.uk

 

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RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2022 /in , , /by

Practical Instant Hedge At Chelsea Flower Show

The Container Garden category at this year’s RHS Chelsea Flower Show create positive green spaces for health, wellbeing and the environment. The aim is to show that any space, no matter how small, can be turned into a gardening haven. These small gardens offer plenty of inspiration for making the most of limited space and resources.

We are delighted to be working with multi award-winning garden designer Paul Hervey-Brookes again at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show. As well as creating his own show garden, Paul is mentoring five newly qualified designers for the Container Garden category.

Each of the five gardens is enclosed by our Practical Instant Hedge™.

Container Gardens

The Still Garden

Designed by Jane Porter Gold Medal and Best in Category Winner

This is inspired by the plants that thrive across the Highlands and Islands. The plants reference native species and the climate to evoke an atmosphere that is immersive, secluded and still.

Wild Kitchen Garden

Designed by Ann Treneman Silver Gilt Medal and People’s Choice Winner

Wild edible plants and trees are brought into a small urban setting. The planting is informal colourful, airy, natural, and tasty too. It would work perfectly in the back garden of a city terrace.

The Enchanted Rain Garden

Designed by Bea Tann Silver Gilt Medal

Inspired by a rainy garden in Manchester, this container garden is designed to thrive in wet conditions, influenced by UK forests

Mandala, Meditation and Mindfulness Garden

Designed by Nikki Hollier Silver Medal

This garden offers a safe haven to spend time sitting and meditating, listening to the tranquil water, bees humming and birds singing – a calm and restful but rejuvenating space.

Mediterranean Reflection

Designed by Tanya K Wilson and Johanna Norlin – Mallorca Garden Design Silver Medal

Inspired by the Mallorcan landscape, this container garden utilises the colours and stone textures of the Mediterranean through artisan elements.

 

Gallery



More Information

You can see these gardens, and much more of the Chelsea Flower Show, in the BBC’s comprehensive TV coverage on the BBC iPlayer.

Talk to our Horticultural team about how Practical Instant Hedge™ could be right for your own garden.

Instant Hedge at RHS Tatton Park
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Young Garden Designers at RHS Tatton Park

RHS gives young garden designers the chance to kick start their careers and gain invaluable exposure at a prestigious RHS Show with its Young Designer Competition, now in its 11th year. This year, four young designers created gardens at the RHS Tatton Park Flower Show.

Practicality Brown like to support young designers, see blog post on Hampton Court for the garden we were involved with this year.  At Tatton Park, we supplied our elegant Portuguese Laurel Practical Instant Hedge for a garden in the Young Designers category.  Grown here at our nursery in Iver, we have taken great care with these instant hedging solutions to supply a premium quality product, as befits a Show Garden.

The Phytosanctuary Garden

Gold medal  winner and Young Designer of the Year 2019

Our Practical Instant Hedge on Kristian Reay’s Phytosanctuary Garden

This beautiful garden was designed by Kristian Reay and is planted with a Mediterranean theme to raise awareness of Xylella fastidiosa disease that poses a threat to many of our much-loved plants.

At first glance, this garden is a beautiful and desirable space awash with ornamental grasses and a palette of fragrant perennials evocative of the Mediterranean. But look beyond its fragile beauty and a darker message is revealed – the growing threat of the deadly plant disease.

At the centre of the garden is a graceful Olea europaea, the olive tree that has been devastated by the disease throughout southern Europe.

Similarly, the Lavandula (lavender), and Prunus lusitanica hedge are also ‘at-risk’ species that have been severely affected by Xylella. We supplied the Practical Portuguese Laurel Instant Hedge, which in integral to this statement garden.

The art designed on the back wall depicts Xylella. The circle represents xylem, while Xylella can be seen inside. It shows how Xylella multiplies and restricts water flow within the xylem, threatening the plant.

Kristian was announced as the winner of the Young Designer of the year 2019 at the RHS Flower Show Tatton Park and will also take home an RHS Gold medal for his thoughtful design.  Speaking ahead of the competition, Kristian said: “As a Young Designer I’m deeply concerned about the risk from plant diseases like Xylella to our gardens and landscapes, so I think this is a really important topic to discuss at the show.

“I’ve included at-risk garden favourites like lavender in the planting to highlight the impact the disease could have if these plants were to vanish.”

The role of gardeners and the scientific community in responding to the threat posed by Xylella is explored in a display describing the BRIGIT project and the Defra and Animal and Plant Health Agency’s Don’t Risk It! campaign.

Congratulations to Kristian, a Gold medal winner and now Best Young Designer!

RHS Tatton Park 2019 instant hedge

Phytosanctuary Garden designed by Kristian Reay

 

 

 

Links

RHS Young Designer of the Year 

The Phytosanctuary Garden

Practical Instant Hedge

Kristian Reay

BBC coverage

RHS Hampton Court
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RHS 2019 Hampton Court Garden Festival /in , , , /by

Practicality Brown at RHS Hampton Court

Every year, Practicality Brown have the pleasure of working with talented Garden Designers at the Royal Horticultural Society’s prestigious Garden Shows and this July we supplied six gardens at Hampton Court with 75m of our Instant Hedge as well as five semi-mature trees.

Five gardens used our Practical Native Mix Instant Hedge, which has plants that are all native to the UK, reflecting traditional country hedgerows and are therefore very wildlife friendly. Grown here at our nursery in Iver, we have taken great care with these instant hedging solutions to supply a premium quality product.

BBC Springwatch Garden (Feature Garden)

Practical Instant Hedge for BBC Springwatch garden

This special Feature Garden, designed by Jo Thompson, was inspired by Kate Bradbury’s wildlife garden for BBC Springwatch. British gardens cover an area bigger than all of the country’s nature reserves combined which is being represented in the BBC Springwatch Garden, as it shows three gardens belonging to different neighbours. Each with its own character and features to attract wildlife, working towards a common cause through gardening. Our Practical Native Mix Instant Hedge reinforces these wildlife benefits. Built by Bespoke Outdoor Spaces

Through Your Eyes (Show Garden)

Practical Instant Hedge for Lawrence Roberts

Silver medal winner

This Show Garden, designed by Lawrence Roberts  of Elements Garden Design, provided an immersive experience for the show visitor. The garden was overlooked by a large William Roobrouck sculpture that can be entered, allowing each person a moment alone to contemplate the garden and its message. Mental health, age, family and friendships are all addressed in the garden through the materials and the choice of planting. Our Native Mix formed the borders to this thoughtful garden. Built by Shrub and Stone.

The Naturecraft Garden (Lifestyle Garden)

Practical Instant Hedge for Naturecraft Garden

Silver medal winner and Peoples’ Choice Award for Lifestyle & Global Impact Garden

Designed by Pollyanna Wilkinson, and inspired by botanical crafts, the garden explored how we can create beautiful objects from the plants that we grow. Crafts included natural dyes, herbal medicines, flower pressing and willow weaving. As well as their decorative value, the plants in this country garden all have a purpose, whether it be medicinal, edible or practical. Our Native Mix instant hedge created a framework for the garden’s features, which form a sanctuary where creativity can thrive. We also supplied the trees for this beautiful garden. Built by Burnham Landscaping.

The Urban Pollinator Garden (Lifestyle Garden)

Practical Instant Hedge for Urban Pollinator garden

Silver Gilt medal winner

The garden, designed by Caitlin McLaughlin, was a magnet for bees and other insects, fusing design, function and wildlife-friendly values. After a long day at work this garden is designed to offer a place for the owners to relax, connect with nature, and surround themselves with pollinators, without the pressure of keeping bees themselves. Our Native Mix Instant Hedge helped support a range of wildlife and promote biodiversity. Built by Conway Landscapes
This garden is now rehomed at Cransley Hospice in Kettering, Northamptonshire, for patients, visitors and staff to enjoy.

Stop and Pause Garden (Lifestyle Garden)

Practical Instant Hedge for Dave Green

Gold medal winner Best Lifestyle & Global Impact Garden and Best Construction Award

Designed by Dave Green, this garden is a calm, still and quiet space offering mental wellbeing and meditation opportunities. Surrounded by trees, the space has a slightly secretive quality, hiding its sense of tranquillity within. At the centre, a reflection pool, surrounded by soft woodland planting, adds to the relaxed feeling. Seating areas create places to stop, pause and reflect while enjoying the sight, sounds and smells of nature. Our Native Mix Instant Hedge is integral to the design. Built by PC Landscapes.
The garden has been donated to Solihull Hospital Charity and will be reconstructed in the hospital grounds.

Outdoor Living Garden (Lifestyle Garden)

Purple Beech Instant Hedge

Silver Gilt medal winner

This garden is a nod to the growing trend of outdoor living and alfresco dining, designed with a young couple in mind. Designed by Robert Grimstead, its features an almost seamless terrace within the garden and an outdoor kitchen for an alfresco dining experience, providing the ability to cook and socialise with friends. A reflective gravel pool creates a sanctuary away from the hustle and bustle of everyday life. UK grown Purple Beech Instant Hedge provides a framework to this stylish garden. Built by Lower Barn Farm

Inspired?

If you would like a garden inspired by RHS Flowers Shows please contact us on 01753 652022 or email to talk to our friendly Horticultural team.

See more about these gardens on the RHS Hampton Court Garden Festival web page

Award Winning

Congratulations to all the designers, builders and volunteers involved with these fabulous projects; see more on the BBC coverage of the RHS Hampton Court Garden festival on BBC iPlayer

Links

RHS Hampton Court Garden Festival – The Gardens

Jo Thompson

Lawrence Roberts

Pollyanna Wilkinson

Caitlin McLaughlin

Dave Green

Robert Grimstead

BBC coverage Chelsea trees
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Trees at RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2019 /in , , , /by

Specimen Trees at RHS Chelsea Flower Show

There was a strong green colour scheme at this year’s RHS Chelsea Flower Show and the BBC coverage showed many of the talented garden designers’ creations. Once again, Monty Don, respected gardener and broadcaster chose his favourite Trees from this year’s show.

Including the impressive resident avenue of London Plane trees, these specimen trees that stood out:

Hornbeam

Hornbeam treesAndy Sturgeon used large Hornbeams in the woodland feature of his M & G Garden, which was inspired by nature’s power to regenerate. This Gold medal winning garden also received the Best Show Garden award.

Carpinus betulus (Common Hornbeam) is a native tree. It has bright green leaves which turn a shining yellow through to brown in the Autumn. Hornbeam often retains these brown leaves through the Winter and into the Spring.

 

Many large unclipped evergreens were left to their natural best in these Show Gardens:

Altas CedarAtlas Cedar in Wedgwood garden

Jo Thompson reflected 260 years of history in her Wedgwood Garden, creating an impressive architectural arched structure, and used textural and structural trees to line the boundary, including Atlas Cedar. The garden was awarded a Silver Gilt medal

The Cedrus atlantica is a fast growing tree, named after the Atlas Mountains in Morocco and Algeria, from where it originates. This imperial tree can reach 30 metres in height, with branches that growing horizontally from the base of the tree all the way up to the top.

 

Monkey puzzleMonkey puzzle tree

Jonathon Snow’s silver medal winning Trailfinders garden was inspired by the temperate rainforests of South America, where the Monkey puzzle is a native tree.

Araucaria Araucana (Monkey puzzle) is a stately slow growing evergreen and structural tree, well known for its distinctive long slender branches densely covered with overlapping spiking leaves.

 

Black pine

Black pine tree

Centre stage of Chris Beardshaw’s Morgan Stanley Garden is the Black Pine. This Gold medal winning garden is inspired by the UK’s love of beautiful gardens.

The Black, or Austrian Pine is a rich, robust evergreen tree, with deep green glossy needles and a picturesque (and usually) rounded growth habit.

Pinus nigra is excellent in exposed and coastal areas, and makes the perfect selection for wind break planting and protection from the sea.

 

Semi-mature trees can make a real statement in your garden; why not browse our Tree Finder or ask us about our in stock availability.

Please either fill out the contact form, email trees@www.pracbrown.co.uk or call us on 01753 652022