Press releases

RHS teaching garden to have the designer touch

Award winning garden designer Cleve West has been chosen to design the teaching garden at the heart of the Royal Horticultural Society’s (RHS) £7.7million Bicentenary Glasshouse at RHS Garden Wisley in Surrey. The glasshouse, which will open to the public in June 2007, includes an outdoor teaching garden, where children and adults will be able to learn in a purpose designed garden setting.

“We are delighted to have Cleve on board with the project, his extensive and award-winning design experience will ensure that this teaching garden pleases all Wisley visitors, as well being the perfect location for learning,” said Dr Ruth Taylor, Head of RHS Education.

“Cleve’s design stood out because of the creativity he showed in understanding how gardens can excite and inspire children. He also encapsulated strong environmental messages in his design. Furthermore, he is working with children’s own ideas and developing them as part of the design.”

Work on the teaching garden is due to start in early December and RHS Garden Wisley teams will carry out the landscaping and planting. Cleve West is working alongside them in the supply and selection of plants, ongoing development and maintenance of the garden.

Ruth continued, “Cleve will be working very closely with the Education team based here at Wisley to ensure that the garden will work as a curriculum resource for teachers and children. Exciting features will include: the not-so-ordinary garden shed with environmentally-sustainable features as such green roof and reclaimed timber; wind and solar devices to demonstrate how energy may be harvested; a vegetable and fruit area, which will allow children to get actively involved in growing food and encourage healthy lifestyles; compost heaps to demonstrate how integral a process recycling can be within the garden; and the minibeast towers and a variety of habitats, including a pond will enable children to learn about the teeming life of all our gardens.”

Education is at the heart of the RHS’s charitable aims. In the past academic year alone over 370 school visits took place across the four RHS Gardens (1); altogether over 11,000 school children were able to benefit from hands-on experience of living things and learning through gardening. The new glasshouse Learning Centre and Teaching Garden will mean that Wisley will be able to offer 50% more school visits (2).

Construction of the RHS Bicentenary Glasshouse started in April 2005, and planting has begun inside the glasshouse this month. The glasshouse site also houses a Learning Centre, which includes a practical ‘growing lab’ for hands on learning, where children and adults will be able to have a go at planting and propagating.

Notes to Editors

For more information and plans of the teaching garden contact: Leah Colthorpe RHS Press Office on 020 7821 3046, e-mail: leahcolthorpe@rhs.org.uk

The RHS Bicentenary Glasshouse project, including the Learning Centre and Teaching Garden has formed the largest fundraising appeal in the organisation's history. Generous funding support has been received from major donors, charitable trusts and foundations, companies and many individual RHS members.

Cleve West Bh (Hons), MSGD
Cleve has been designing gardens since completing a design course with John Brookes at The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew in 1990.

From gold medal winning show gardens to private havens, his creative use of space and harmonious planting is at the forefront of contemporary garden design and is featured widely in publications and on television. His imaginative solutions are sensitive to both the needs of the client and of the site itself, producing sanctuaries both stimulating and calming. His work has been featured on several garden makeover shows including Small Town Gardens and The Garden Makers.

His self-financed show garden, Homage to the Green Man at the Hampton Court Flower Show 1994 was his first public success winning an RHS Silver-Gilt Medal and the George Cooke Award for the most innovative garden at the show.

He has worked with sculptor Johnny Woodford on a number of projects including the Wetland Centre in Barnes, and has won three RHS Gold Medals at Hampton Court (1996, 1997, 1998) with two more George Cooke Awards (1996, 1997). His Garden for Learning won an RHS Silver-Gilt Medal at the Chelsea Flower Show 2001 for Merrill Lynch.

At the 2006 Chelsea Flower Show, Cleve won an RHS Gold Medal for his sponsor, Saga Insurance. The garden has since been re-located at Saga’s head office at Enbrook Park, Folkestone.

Cleve is a member of the Society of Garden Designers (MSGD) and judges for the RHS at the Chelsea and Hampton Court Flower Shows. Current projects vary from large country estates to small urban spaces both at home and abroad.

For the last three years he has written a weekly column, Urban Gardener for The Independent Magazine. He contributes regularly to other publications including a 12-part series on garden design for Gardens Illustrated. His passion for his allotment in West London is currently being serialised in the same magazine.

(1) RHS Garden Wisley in Surrey, Rosemoor in Devon, Hyde Hall in Essex and Harlow Carr in North Yorkshire

(2) Any schools who wish to know more about the teaching programmes on offer, including opportunities for visiting the new glasshouse at Wisley, should visit the RHS website www.rhs.org.uk/learning

• The Teaching Garden is 13.85m by 23.95m, slightly larger than a professional tennis court.
• There are currently 4,200 RHS Schools Membership Scheme members, an increase of 20% since Sept 2005. In Sept 2007 look out for the Campaign for School Gardening - the RHS’ new scheme to support schools to benefit from gardening.
• The RHS ran 49 Continuing Professional Development (CPD) days during the last academic year, helping over 300 teachers.
• All four RHS gardens hold family events throughout the year, including a Taste of Autumn in October and Family Fortnight during the summer holidays and seasonal garden trails.
• Over 90 different plants will be used to illustrate different learning ideas in the teaching garden - a full plant list is available on request.

For more information about what the work of the RHS Education Department visit www.rhs.org.uk/learning
For more information about family events at RHS Gardens please visit www.rhs.org.uk/WhatsOn/index.asp

www.rhs.org.uk/pressoffice

The RHS is the UK’s leading gardening charity dedicated to advancing horticulture and promoting good gardening. RHS work includes providing expert advice and information, advancing horticulture, training the next generation of gardeners, helping school children learn about plants, and conducting research into plants, pests and environmental issues affecting gardeners.

An interest in gardening is all you need to enjoy being a member of the RHS. For more information visit www.rhs.org.uk or call 0845 130 4646.

Founded in 1804, the Royal Horticultural Society is Britain's largest gardening charity and is committed to being the leading organisation demonstrating excellence in horticulture and promoting gardening. Renowned for its outstanding gardens and inspirational flower shows, the RHS is a key source of advice and information for all gardeners. It encourages gardening through its publications, trials, lectures, education programmes and scientific research and is home to the Lindley Library, which contains the most comprehensive collection of horticultural books in the world.

Membership of the Royal Horticultural Society offers many exclusive benefits including a monthly copy of The Garden magazine; free entrance to RHS Gardens Wisley in Surrey, Rosemoor in Devon, Hyde Hall in Essex and Harlow Carr in North Yorkshire; free access to a further 88 beautiful gardens across Britain and 20 gardens in Belgium and France; access to seeds collected at RHS gardens; free gardening advice and privileged tickets to 18 RHS flower shows, including the Chelsea Flower Show, the Hampton Court Palace Flower Show and the RHS Flower Show at Tatton Park.

For further enquiries about membership of the RHS contact: Membership Department, Royal Horticultural Society, PO Box 313, London SW1P 2PE; 0845 130 4646 Monday - Friday 9.30am - 5pm or via the RHS website

For more information e-mail the Press Office or visit the online Press Office