Honouring the head gardeners across RHS Partner Gardens, the RHS Head Gardeners Show Feature by Dave Green will pay tribute to the historic estates, botanic collections, public gardens and specialist landscapes that are cared for by these talented horticulturists. The display is in a courtyard setting and represents British landscapes stretching from Cornwall to Cumbria and Kent to Somerset. Through information boards, visitors can discover the stories of the head gardeners’ careers, journeys and achievements, including the very first female and black head gardeners.
Reimagining a traditional orchard in an English suburban smaller garden, Mindful Chef’s Gathering by Sophie Godber is a highly sustainable, naturalist garden that includes apple, plum and nut trees. 90% of Britain’s traditional orchards have been lost since the 1950s, so the space imagines an inter-connected patchwork of habitats going from a garden, kitchen, orchard and home. The garden also includes a quirky edible understorey with vibrant colour, quiet spaces for nature, innovative wildlife boxes, a bespoke green roof shed, a natural pond and a A native plant is one that originated or arrived naturally in a particular place without human involvement. In the British Isles, native plants are those that were here during the last ice age or have arrived unaided since.
The RHS Crafted from Nature Garden by Laura Strand and Sam Stark-Kemp is an immersive, meadow-inspired space filled with soft, naturalistic planting, rich textures and handcrafted features that reflect Norfolk’s distinctive character. The garden will show how using natural, locally sourced materials from the local environment of Norfolk can inspire biodiverse, sustainable spaces for the future. Highlighting how traditional skills can be used in a contemporary way, Norfolk water reed, which is iconic to the Norfolk Broads and traditionally used for thatching, will be reimagined as contemporary tactile walls.
Children attending RHS Sandringham will have the opportunity to write ‘leaf letters’ directly to the King and Queen through an activity that will help them learn and identify the King’s favourite trees. This follows a 2019 study by Hoop that asked a thousand children to identify various flora and fauna, finding that 82% did not recognise an oak leaf. Plane, oak and lime-shaped leaf letters will be sent directly to the monarchs.
In further recognition of the King’s passion for arboriculture, the Tree Listening Project created by Alex Metcalf is a Show Feature that will let visitors hear the very life of the tree surging up from the roots towards the leaves. Through headphones, visitors can listen to the audible popping sound produced by water passing through the tree’s Xylem vessels are the pipework in plant stems that transport water and minerals from the roots to the rest of the plant.
