RHS Queen’s Green Canopy Garden

In more detail

• Underplanting the trees, are drifts of hostas and ferns that surround clipped domes of box. Colour comes from cloud-like wisps of purple Thalictrum, pale pink Japanese anemones, dark purple Actaea and interestingly UK native Lamium album (white dead nettle) which helped blend the wilder meadow areas with the more ornamental
• Some of the planting areas below the trees are mounded up. In one area below a silver birch are banks planted with shade-loving epimedium and Saxifraga stolonifera; leaves of both are spangled beautifully with drifts of dainty flowers of white Cyclamen hederifolium popping up in between; an easy but effective planting combination

About the garden

Two paths weave their way through a tapestry of grassland and wildflower meadows, beneath a canopy of trees in this stunning garden. Created in partnership between the RHS and The Queen’s Green Canopy (QGC), a unique tree-planting initiative to mark Her Majesty’s Platinum Jubilee in 2022, this garden delivers a powerful message on the importance of woodland and biodiversity.

Designed by David Dodd, the garden is a tableau vivant of biodiverse regeneration in its various phases. The grassland that scatters the space signifies the poor diversity typical of grass landscapes and the potential they present for regeneration. Woven by Jay Davey, the three full-scale hay-bale sculptures spotted around the garden conjure thoughts of agriculture, another reminder of the inherent opportunity farmland possesses to become rich with woodland.

Branching upward from the garden floor, the garden’s trees signify the cruciality of planting trees and their capacity for strengthening biodiversity. It is the space created by woodlands and the beautiful wildflower meadows around the garden that represent land used to its fullest potential, blooming into kaleidoscopic diversity.

This opportunity for change and engagement through tree planting is at the heart of the QGC initiative, which is encouraging the nation to ‘Plant a tree for the Jubilee’. Focusing on encouraging sustainable planting by creating a legacy in honour of Her Majesty’s leadership of the nation, the QGC seeks to celebrate the innumerable benefits of trees, which create vital wildlife habitats, improve our health and wellbeing, clean our air
and help mitigate the effects of climate change.

Following the show, the trees from this garden, supplied by Majestic Trees, are being replanted at RHS Garden Bridgewater as part of the QGC initiative.