Interviews with the stars
Alan Titchmarsh
“What I notice each year is how much faster the fashion in garden design changes. For instance, one or two of the gardens that were here last year would possibly look ‘old hat’ this year. It stretches us all as gardeners, making us use plants more effectively.
“This year I particularly like Arabella's pond and Tom Stuart Smith’s cloud trees. I find the older I get the more I appreciate line and form rather than colour and that is reflected this year because there’s a lot of green.
“That’s the great thing about garden design - it will just progress, it’s rather like travelling hopefully; we never arrive.
“What’s interesting to me is that the old days of vistas and focal points have gone. Now it’s texture and patterns of foliage and the repetition of things that provide plant interest, rather than a focal point itself.”
Interview by Jean Vernon