Highlights of 2005
The RHS put on a fantastic show at Tatton Park for 2005, delivering horticultural excellence with 10 RHS Gold Medal-winning gardens and 33 top honours in the floral marquees. The RHS National Flower Bed Competition had the nation gripped and there were more talks and demonstrations going on than ever before.
Tatton proved its appeal with every age group by welcoming Channel 4’s Hollyoaks to the show. A major storyline ran on the drama in which gardening character Jake Dean (right) competed at the RHS Flower Show at Tatton Park. Fiction became fact when the team from Mersey TV brought the story to life with the RHS Gold Medal-winning Party Garden show garden.
It was also two young designers, Alex Daley and Alice Devaney (left), who celebrated an RHS Gold Medal win along with the prestigious title of the Best Creative Show Garden for Inside Out. This ultra-modern garden featured an outdoor room, bringing to reality the concept of outdoor living, surrounded by grasses and perennials in shades of green, white and orange with warm russet tones.
However, the Best Show Garden, the ultimate accolade, went to Cheshire County Council for Living Today with Tomorrow in Mind. Inspiration for the project came from the United Nation’s decade of Education for Sustainable Development. The team demonstrated how school grounds can be transformed into an area that can be used for small groups, quiet play and outdoor teaching, all within a low maintenance planting scheme. Plants were selected to appeal to a child’s senses of touch, sight and smell, as well as being attractive to wildlife.
In the back-to-back gardens Paul Hensey took a daring move by creating a garden on concrete designed for an urban space. The new system along with its low maintenance planting impressed the judges so much that as well as an RHS Gold Medal he won Best in Show in this category.
One of the particular highlights for the thousands of people who visited Tatton this year was the RHS National Flower Bed Competition in which 24 different local authorities and communities put on displays to symbolise their local areas. The Pendle Witches, Highwayman Higgins and a phoenix rising from the ashes were just some of the ways that the competitors made their mark.
The Floral Marquees had an outstanding year, stretching the high standards at Tatton still further with a record number of 33 RHS Gold Medals.
To view our full show coverage of 2005 click here