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RHS Summer Shows

Summer Flower Festivals 2022

 

Following on from a successful Chelsea Flower Show, the RHS hosted two events in July, which also featured Practical Instant Hedge™ at Hampton Court Garden Festival and Flower Show Tatton Park.

RHS Hampton Court Garden Festival

This event is the world’s largest flower show, full of colour and wonderful summer gardens of inspiration. It is set in the stunning grounds of the Historic Royal Palace in Richmond upon Thames

Award-winning garden designer, Dave Green created a beautiful Feature Garden at this year’s show. The RHS Forest Bathing Garden drew on a purposeful practice of spending time under the canopy of trees surrounded by nature to relax and de-stress, which can decrease both anxiety and depression.

Forest bathing often takes place with a guide and focuses on exploring the natural environment using the senses (sight, sound, touch and smell) to create mindfulness awareness. The garden was designed to for all the sense, including sight, sound and aroma.

We are delighted to have supplied Practical Native Mix Instant Hedge for this beautiful, restful garden.

You can find out more on the RHS website, and watch highlights of Hampton Court Garden Festival in a BBC Gardeners’ World special programme.

RHS Flower Show Tatton Park

Celebrating colour, creativity, community and the positive power of plants and flowers, RHS Flower Show brings the joy of gardening to the historic grounds of Tatton Park.

Crowned at the show, RHS Young Designer of the Year Will Scholey created the Working From Home Garden which was a perfect working environment, while reducing the homeowner’s carbon footprint. The ‘daily commute’ was a winding gravel path through native meadow planting with multi-stemmed trees. There was plenty of native wildlife-friendly planting including our Practical Native Mix Instant Hedge, from our range of Deciduous Instant Hedges. Will received a Silver-Gilt award for this garden, as well as his title.

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

Instant Hedge at RHS Tatton Park
RHS Tatton Park 2019

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

Practical Instant Hedge at Hampton Court Flower Show - Hampton Gardens 2018
RHS Hampton Court Flower Show 2018 Awards

Hampton Court Flower Show 2018

The RHS created a new category at Hampton Court Flower Show 2018 this year;
Lifestyle Gardens: real gardens for real people

The featured gardens were designed to resonate with different lifestyles and reflect the owner’s way of life and was perfect for visitors wanting ideas to take away for their garden at home.
The RHS, as part of their commitment to inspiring new talent and encouraging more young people to pursue a career in horticulture, invited four up-and-coming female designers from the next generation for their take on garden design.

Practicality Brown proudly supplied Practical Instant Hedge to three of the four gardens in the Lifestyle Garden category at the RHS Hampton Court Flower Show 2018.

The Family Garden designed by Lilly Gomm

Silver Gilt medal winner

Gardener, designs seen at Tatton Park. First time at Hampton

Hampton Court Flower Show 2018

Family Garden at Hampton Court

The Family Garden: A garden to inspire young environmentalists

A relaxing space where insects thrive and children are immersed in nature. Intended for an environmentally-conscious family, the garden is a learning environment inspired by the enchanting and lasting impression a garden can have on children through play and discovery, instilling an awareness of our collective responsibility towards our natural surroundings. The garden is relaxed and unmanicured. Fruit trees and a shaggy lawn are surrounded by soft, informal planting, creating habitats for insects and other wildlife.

We supplied Practical Instant Native Mix Hedge

The Health and Wellbeing Garden designed by Alexandra Noble

Silver medal winner and People’s Choice Best Lifestyle/Conceptual/Changing World Garden

Winner of The One Show Garden Design Challenge, second year at Hampton

Practical Instant Hedge at RHS Hampton Court - Hampton Gardens 2018

Health & Wellbeing Garden at Hampton Court

The Health and Well-being Garden: A new look at medicinal plants.

This garden’s scheme was to create “naturalistic, floaty, dreamlike” experience with masses of fragrance around a clever continuous path that takes its inspiration from both abstract art and meditative process. The aim of the garden is to slow one’s pace and mind and encourage a sense of being in the moment.

We supplied Practical Instant Griselinia Hedge

The Entertaining Garden designed by Anca Panait

Silver medal winner

Landscape architect and illustrator, first time at Hampton

Practical Instant Hedge at RHS Hampton Court - Hampton Gardens 2018

Entertaining Garden at Hampton Court Flower Show

The Entertaining Garden: Gin and botanicals

The garden celebrated gin, the nation’s most fashionable alcoholic drink, and its botanicals. Designed as an entertaining space for parties, it’s perfect for mingling with friends and exploring new botanical associations. Immersed within the

planting, visitors are indulged with both the taste and aroma of the plants

We supplied Practical Instant Native Mix Hedge

 

 

 

We supplied elegant taxus hedge elements for Paul Richardson’s Steel Sculptures trade exhibition,

RHS Hampton Court trade exhibition - Hampton Gardens 2018

Steel Sculptures

which was awarded 5 Stars by the RHS

During June, we were also involved with two other award-winning gardens – see blog for details.

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

Beech instant hedges at Chatsworth
Garden Flower Shows 2018

Flower Shows 2018 focusing on Instant Hedges

June

Congratulations to everyone at the June Flower Shows, Practicality Brown proudly supplied instant hedges to:

  • The Brewin Dolphin Installation designed by Paul Hervey-Brookes won People’s Choice at RHS Chatsworth Flower Show
  • Inspiration in the Raw designed by Peter Cowell awarded Gold Medal at BBC Gardeners’ World Live

The Brewin Dolphin Installation

Inspired by a past landscape of the Chatsworth Estate, this conceptual garden echoes a ‘lost’ village that once stood in the shadow of Chatsworth House before being removed to make way for Capability Brown’s famous landscape. The planting references the indigenous landscape combining native plants with decorative varieties introduced in later years.

Sponsored by Brewin Dolphin, this garden affirmation from the public with The People’s Award for Installation at RHS Chatsworth Flower Show. We supplied Elveden Instant Beech Hedge for this garden.

Inspiration in the Raw

The garden focuses on using natural materials to create a more peaceful area to live in the garden. With an emphasis on recycling and reusing materials, this garden caters for a family, the garden is divided into sections by sliding barn doors. At the rear of the garden there is a dedicated play area with rope swing and playhouse, meanwhile, parents can entertain in the free-form concrete seating and dining area or relax in a quiet corner.

This garden was awarded a Gold Medal by the judges at the BBC Gardeners’ World Live. We supplied Practical Instant Native Mix Hedge for this garden.

July

At RHS Hampton Court, we are supported three out of the four Lifestyle Gardens, as well as a trade exhibit.

And Paul Richardson’s Garden Steel Sculptures – see blog here for more details

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

The Landscape Show, trade show
Practical Instant Hedge at Landscape Show

The Landscape Show

This year Practicality Brown’s new hedging range Practical Instant Hedge™, can be seen on the Avant exhibition stand at the Landscape Show in Battersea Park, London.

The show, which is on Tuesday 19th & Wednesday 20th September 2017, is one of the UK’s leading landscape trade events, dedicated to bringing the industry together.

Avant Tecno (UK) distributes the Finnish made, internationally acclaimed and innovative compact loaders. Avant pioneered the compact machine sector 25 years ago and have been innovating ever since; no other manufacturer offers the range of compact loaders and attachments.

Practicality Brown use Avant machines to help creating mature gardens; with over 35 years of experience, we have specimen trees and instant hedges available to garden designers, landscape architects and property developers for bespoke UK-wide projects.

Practical Instant Hedge™ at The Landscape Show:

Practical Instant Hedge™ is UK grown to maturity and available in 1m bags to aid handling and planting.  We can offer supply only, as well as supply and plant, and can offer a recommended irrigation system for all our trees and hedges.

Come and see us at the AVANT stand CP2 at the Landscape Show and talk to us about your project.

Not to be missed

We are having an end of summer sale, with 50% off our current containerised tree stock; the discount will be applied to ex VAT orders of trees.

These trees are in stock NOW and currently half price to make way for new trees arriving in the Autumn. See our stock list for all trees that are included in this limited offer.

RHS Chelsea Flower Show
Chelsea Flower Show Awards

BBC RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2017: People’s Choice Award

There are three People’ Choice awards that the public can vote for at this year’s Chelsea Flower Show:

  • Best Show Garden
  • Best Fresh Garden
  • Best Artisan Garden

Voting for Best Show Garden is via the www.bbc.co.uk/chelsea website only and voting is only open for one day, opening 21:00 Wednesday 24th May and closing at 21:30 on Thursday 25th May 2017.

This vote is for the best of the large 8 Show Gardens. These display the latest innovative designs and must-have plants, crafted with skill by highly-talented designers and their teams.  Each of these gardens feature on the BBC’s coverage of the RHS Chelsea Flower show. The winner will be announced during the BBC’s coverage on Friday 26th May 2017.

Voting for Best Fresh and Artisan Gardens is via theThe RHS Peoples’ Choice Award web page; voting is open now and closes on Friday 26th of May 2017.

Vote for the best of the 5 Fresh Gardens: Bold and daring, the Fresh category uses innovative materials and daring design to present and question concepts

Vote for the best of the 9 Artisan Gardens: The artisan category demonstrate traditional designs, materials and craft skills revitalised by contemporary approaches

The RHS medals have been awarded at this year’s Chelsea Flower Show, and the next big honour is BBC/RHS Peoples’ Choice Award, which as its name suggests, is voted for by the public.

See the BBC’s Chelsea coverage to a review of the gardens or RHS’s Chelsea pages for more details on each of the gardens.

Practicality Brown is proud to have been able to supply our Native Mix hedging to two gardens this year:

Welcome to Yorkshire Show Garden

Welcome to Yorkshire Show Garden

World Horse Welfare Artisan Garden

World Horse Welfare Artisan Garden

Read more

Welcome to Yorkshire show garden design by Tracy Foster
RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2017 preview

RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2017 preview

Practicality Brown are proud to be supporting garden designers for Show and Artisan Gardens at RHS Chelsea 2017 this May by supplying top quality large hedging plants.

Show Garden: The Welcome to Yorkshire Garden

Welcome to Yorkshire show garden design by Tracy Foster

Welcome to Yorkshire

 

Designed by Tracy Foster | Built by Landform Consultants

This Welcome to Yorkshire garden is inspired by the Yorkshire coast, the drama of the county’s many historic buildings and Yorkshire’s special relationship with its agricultural heritage.  The garden will feature a ruined abbey, chalk cliffs, a beach and the sea, with gently rolling waves lapping the shore. The inclusion of a trompe l’oeil painting within the ruin links this coastal paradise to the farmland beyond. The planting has a wild feeling with plenty of colourful wildflowers, grasses and native trees.

With seven RHS medals to her name including four gold, Tracy Foster has also won Best in Show, People’s Choice and Best in Category at Hampton Court Palace Flower Show.

Tracy is keeping her facebook up to date during the Chelsea 2017 building phase.

 

Artisan Garden: The World Horse Welfare Garden

World Horse Welfare designed by Woolcott Smith

World Horse Welfare

Designed by Adam Woolcott and Jonathan Smith | Built by Conway Landscapes

The garden has been designed to celebrate 90-years for World Horse Welfare charity and aims to highlight the plight of abandoned, neglected and abused horses in the UK and abroad. The garden is a traditional wildflower garden that will tell the story of one of these ‘invisible’ horses. A derelict stable in one corner will be surrounded by plants harmful to horses, which open up into an open, bright and secure meadow, with horse friendly plants. It will feature a life-sized sculpture of a horse made from reclaimed horseshoes by Tom Hill.

Woolcott Smith have won three Gold medals at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show and two BBC/RHS People’s Award for Best Small Garden in Show as well as Best Courtyard Garden in Show.

Adam and Jon had kept a diary of their work during the process for Chelsea 2017.


The designers have been working hard in the preceding months, sourcing materials and plants for their gardens, ensuring their vision comes to fruition at the world’s most prestigious flower show. The show opens on Tuesday 23 May 2017.

Pro Landscaper Nursery Factfile

Practicality Brown have a full page editorial feature in the January 2017 edition of industry publication, Pro Landscaper in their Nursery Factfile section.

Pro Landscaper

Pro Landscaper January 2017

Our top five bestselling plants

  1. Prunus laurocerasus Novita semi mature trees
  2. Carpinus betulus pleached tree (great for screening)
  3. Betula jacquemontii semi mature trees
  4. Practicality Brown Instant Native Hedge
  5. Elveden Instant Hedge Green Beech

Pro Landscaper also sourced some testimonials from top Garden designers to accompany the feature with thanks to

Rae Wilkinson

We used an instant hedge from Practicality Brown for our RHS Hampton Court garden this year. I had struggled to find what I was looking for with other suppliers and Practicality Brown was extremely helpful and accommodating.  It found what I wanted and sent me photos prior to delivery as I was not able to visit to hand pick them. I have specified its hedging on other projects which has always been good quality.

Tracy Foster

I have loved working with Practicality Brown over the years because I know it offers sturdy field grown stock, including the lovely mixed native hedging that I recently ordered for RHS Chelsea.  The other great thing about ordering is the service, which is always friendly and helpful.  Its cliché but really nothing is too much trouble.

Paul Martin

I have had the pleasure of working with Practicality Brown on major projects and show gardens over the years. It has helped enormously in our attaining of three Gold medals at RHS shows including Chelsea and Hampton Court, which is a testament to its staff, products and company

and Lisa Cox

I worked with Practicality Brown on a domestic project where we needed to screen off a house. We wanted a solution that would do the job from day one and chose Elveden beech instant hedging. This was more subtle than a wall or fence and looked amazing from day one – you wouldn’t have known it had just been planted

Beautiful Taxus baccata Topiary Spiral

A stunning pair of matching Yew Topiary Spirals; standing at over 2.5m above ground level, this pair will make a stunning statement, gracing any garden landscaping project.

Measurements:    2.5m  Height x  0.60m  width, at the base

Unexpectedly available at short notice, these Taxus baccata topiary specimens are a timeless classic that will add structure to any garden. Contact us for more details 01753 652022

We have more information on Topiary

The Landscape Show 2016

The Landscape Show is a trade event, aimed at garden designers, architects, landscape contractors, local authority landscaping professionals, facilities managers and interior designers from all over the UK and beyond.

Once again we exhibited at the event, which is in Battersea Park London, showcasing the Elveden Instant Hedge.  We were able to talk to new customers and meet up with existing ones.

Thank you to everyone that visited us – we hope to see more of you soon!