Exhibitors
SHOW GARDENS | WATER GARDENS | SMALL GARDENS | CONCEPTUAL GARDENS
INSPIRING SPACES | WINDOWBOXES & HANGING BASKETS
PLANTS | GROWING & SHOWING MARQUEE | MARKET PLACE |
Small Gardens
The American Museum
American Museum Mayflower Garden
Designer: Anthea Gunthrie
Click on the image to view a hi-res version
The garden is intended as an outdoor museum piece to show the exchange of plants between Britain and America in the early seventeenth century. It shows which plants could be found in the New World, the methods of transportation and protection of the plants on the voyage back, and which plants were considered essential to be taken, and why.
As well as being aesthetically pleasing, the garden is educational; it includes an example of early garden equipment (e.g. a wheelbarrow) and, where possible, only uses materials that would have been available at the time (e.g. natural paint pigments).
The garden includes a full-scale reploca section of The Mayflower. On the handrail are lashed willow baskets showing how the plants could be protected from salt spray with rush or reed lids.