RHS Journals
The Garden
July 2007
RHS news
Royal presentations for Society awards
Her Majesty the Queen, Patron of the RHS, is presenting the Victoria Medal of Honour (VMH), the Society’s highest accolade, to four recipients at the official opening of The Glasshouse at RHS Wisley.
For former RHS President Sir Richard Carew Pole there could be no more fitting venue. Sir Richard was instrumental in getting the project off the ground and was a champion fundraiser for its cause. The merger with the Northern Horticultural Society, and the adoption of its Harlow Carr garden, were other highlights of his tenure (2001–2006).
Colin Ellis has been honoured for his long and distinguished service since 1983 with RHS Council and numerous committees. Well known to exhibitors through his work as a show judge, he is also an authority on Japanese gardens, bonsai and bamboo.
The award of VMH to Christopher Grey-Wilson recognises his many achievements as botanist, photographer, botanical explorer and author of many books and articles. A previous Principal Scientific Officer at Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, he is editor of the Alpine Garden Society’s journal.
Brian Self was awarded the VMH for his lifetime of service to amateur and professional fruit growers. He worked for 35 years in research at East Malling in Kent. A former member of Council, he serves on, and has chaired, various RHS committees since 1961.
Other awards
Her Royal Highness Princess Alexandra will present eight other RHS awards at the Hampton Court Palace Flower Show Charity Gala Preview later this month.
Veitch Memorial Medals go to Charles Howick, Lord Howick of Glendale, for his support of arboreta, and the development of his own in Northumberland, and to Rex Dibley of Dibley’s Nurseries, North Wales, for his work with Streptocarpus. Nurseryman and plant hunter Daniel Hinkley, co-founder of Heronswood Garden and Nursery, Pennsylvania, receives the medal, as does John Gallagher for his lifetime contribution to rhododendrons, camellias and magnolias.
Associateships of Honour go to Medwyn Williams, for his cultivation and displays of vegetables at RHS shows, and to Ian Webster for 34 years’ service to the gardens of Chatsworth in Derbyshire. Honorary Fellowships go to Viscountess Boyd, for her service to the RHS on Council and committees, and Suzanne Mitchell, former RHS Publisher and Editor of The Garden.
For further information on the Society awards see www.rhs.org.uk/news/rhsawards
Alternative bedding
Lettuce plants are providing an alternative bedding display at RHS Garden Wisley. The ‘Tudor knot’ design, opposite Wisley’s laboratory building, uses eight cultivars (all with the Award of Garden Merit) such as looseleaved red ‘Lollo Rosso’ and redfreckled ‘Mottistone’. The bed holds more than 300 plants and will be replanted three times to provide a display until September.
Family fun
To celebrate the relaunch of the new RHS Family Membership package, the Society is holding a garden party at all four RHS gardens on 14 July. For young gardeners, Great Garden Treasure Hunts, minibeast hunts and seed-planting activities have been organised.
An exciting part of the new family membership package is the Garden Explorer’s Club for younger members. It includes the RHS Garden Explorer’s Handbook, a plant passport for recording garden visits, seeds, and a duffel bag for keeping everything safe.
Family members will also be entitled to free use of special Garden Explorers activity packs (available for hire to non-members) when they visit any RHS garden.
For garden party details, contact the gardens directly or visit www.rhs.org.uk
Teaching Garden opens
Garden designer Cleve West and children from Amherst Junior School in Kent have put the finishing touches to the Teaching Garden now in use at The Glasshouse at RHS Wisley (see The Garden, June, pp394–399).
The garden, with its pond, living-roof shed and minibeast towers for insects, is a vital part of the new environmental education facilities for all ages at Wisley. It includes The Clore Learning Centre (which is supported by the Clore Duffield Foundation and other funders) which has three distinct areas for different aspects of teaching. In an area called The Growing Lab students can, for example, take cuttings and pot up plants, while an adjacent indoor space has interactive screens and facilities for cooking and science experiments.
The Glasshouse Gallery in the main structure provides space for educational exhibitions.
For further information visit www.rhs.org.uk/theglasshouse
Design mentor for future shows
One lucky designer will get the opportunity to be mentored by Chris Beardshaw with the aim of creating a garden at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2009.
The initiative was announced at the Malvern Spring Gardening Show in May where Chris was awarded a gold medal for his ‘Three Counties Garden’.
Designers with a garden at next year’s Malvern show are invited to apply. During the 12-month apprenticeship, the winner will work with nurseries and design contractors and become enrolled on an RHS course. As part of a midway test, the apprentice will create a show garden for the Malvern Autumn Show in 2008, but the ultimate challenge will be a Courtyard Garden at Chelsea.
Contact: Sharon Gilbert, 01684 584929.
RHS shows
RHS FLower Show at Tatton Park
Designers local to Tatton Park have been sponsored to create Back-to-Back Gardens by pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca. The four grouped gardens commemorate 50 years of research and development at the firm’s Alderley Park site in Cheshire.
A former historic country estate, the park now houses modern research facilities in 160ha, 80 percent of which is woodland, water and farmland.
This landscape is represented by Robert Frier’s garden ‘The AstraZeneca environment and heritage garden’. He will incorporate dressed stone, glass, cobbles and grassland to replicate Alderley Park and use native trees, wild flowers and ferns.
Purple and yellow, the company’s corporate colours, have been used by Toby and Stephanie Hickish, in ‘Roots’ (above). It centres around a wooden arch and seat made from trees from Alderley Park.
The wooded parkland garden of Clive Scott called '50 years of support in the community' has a wooden signpost as its centre. Each finger post points to aspects of AstraZeneca’s community involvement.
Students from nearby Reasheath College will create a ‘Science and innovation’ garden to symbolise the company’s work – including a central path with a molecule-like hexagonal pergola and double-helix water feature.
Gooseberries are being celebrated in the National Plant Societies Marquee at the show, with a display to illustrate the history of competitive gooseberry growing. Organised by the Cheshire Landscape Trust, it aims to help preserve and record the heritage of Cheshire’s eight gooseberry societies.
Hampton Court Palace Flower Show
Water Gardens feature extensively at this year’s show again, and include regulars Lilies Water Gardens from Surrey with ‘View across the water’ and World of Water with ‘Summertime’ (left). Mount Venus Nursery, from Dublin, returns this year with its Water Garden ‘Infinity’. The design is inspired by the green spaces and canals of Dublin and bears similarities to a Tibetan mandala (an imaginary palace contemplated during meditation).
Get a first glimpse of the Rose of the Year 2008 in the Festival of Roses marquee when Rosa Sweet Haze (‘Tan97274’) is unveiled to the public. Bred in Germany by Rosen Tantau, this cultivar already has a growing list of international awards. Its single, sweetly-scented lilac-pink flowers are attractive to bees.
A new feature at the show will be cookery talks and demonstrations in a theatre called Quaglino’s Kitchen. Chefs from Quaglino’s, London (in association with National Savings and Investments) will show how to create meals based on home-grown fruit and vegetables. Of the gardens joining in with the grow-your-own revival is ‘Mange Tout’, a culinary garden by Francesca Cleary and Ian Lawrence. It is based on a parterre, with raised beds mainly planted with vegetables and herbs, and water features in each corner.
RHS shows in 2007
Information on all RHS shows
Hampton Court Palace Flower Show: 3-8 July (3 & 4 July: RHS Privilege Days)
RHS Flower Show at Tatton Park: 18-22 July (18 July: RHS Preview Day)
To book tickets call 0870 842 2234 (direct booking line) or order online
Obituary:William Flemer III
American nurseryman William Flemer III, whose introductions include Acer rubrum ‘October Glory’ and Tilia cordata ‘Greenspire’, has died aged 85. Much of William’s working life was devoted to the family’s Princeton Nurseries in New Jersey, founded in 1913, where he was joint president, with his brother John, from 1972 to 1992. He achieved international renown with his selections of flowering and shade trees; his many awards included an RHS Gold Veitch Memorial Medal in 2000. He died on 22 April 2007.
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