Landscape Institute members and practices set to make their mark at RHS Chelsea 2019 as LI celebrates its 90th year

The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) has revealed the designs for all gardens to feature at the 2019 RHS Chelsea Flower Show and the Landscape Institute (LI) is delighted that this year it features a number of LI members and registered practices tackling some of the main challenges of the day.

From how we manage resources sustainably and the interconnectivity between our online and offline lives, to the incredible health benefits of nature, some of the UK’s leading landscape architects will be showcasing their work and promoting the landscape profession at RHS Chelsea Flower Show, sponsored by M&G Investments.

Those gardens designed by landscape architects or garden designers who employ landscape architects include:

RHS Back to Nature Garden
The prestigious RHS Back to Nature Garden, is co-designed by HRH The Duchess of Cambridge and landscape architects Andrée Davies and Adam White, who is the President of the LI. The garden draws inspiration from childhood memories triggered by the natural world. Key elements of the design include a hollow log, a den building area, a stream and a tree house all woven together by playful planting and trees.

The aim of the garden is to promote the physical and emotional well-being that access to green spaces and gardening provides. The RHS’s partnership with NHS England is at the heart of the project, and after RHS Chelsea, much of the planting will feature in an NHS Mental Health Trust garden also being designed by HRH The Duchess of Cambridge with Davies White Ltd.

Continuing the collaboration and to engage even wider audiences, The Duchess of Cambridge and Andrée and Adam will be co-designing two further RHS Gardens, incorporating many of elements from the RHS Back to Nature garden at RHS Chelsea, at RHS Hampton Court Palace Garden Festival (2-7 July 2019) and a permanent children’s’ garden at RHS Garden Wisley in Surrey.

Facebook: Beyond The Screen (Designer: Joe Perkins)
A dynamic garden of water and stone inspired by interconnectivity between our online and offline lives.

Family Monsters Garden (Designer: Alistair Bayford)
Every family faces pressures; this garden represents the journey of a family facing these everyday pressures and challenges in their lives.

The Manchester Garden (Designer: Exterior Architecture)
The garden aims to showcase a city reinvented and inspire conversations about the potential of green space within UK cities.

The Morgan Stanley Garden (Designer and contractor: Chris Beardshaw)
A garden inspired by the UK’s love of beautiful gardens that explores how to continue the tradition of creating herbaceous-rich spaces, while managing resources more sensitively.

The Resilience Garden (Designer: Sarah Eberle)
This garden celebrates the Forestry Commission’s centenary year, marking 100 years of forestry and looking ahead to the biggest challenges facing forests of the future.

M&G Investments Garden (Andy Sturgeon): The garden draws inspiration from nature’s power to regenerate. The woodland landscape will feature young trees, ferns and jewel-like flowers, interspersed with stone platforms and huge burnt timber sculptures. Andy employs 18 landscape architects and is a registered practice.

Welcome to Yorkshire (Mark Gregory): Winner of the 2018 People's Choice Award, Mark has this year drawn inspiration from the canals and waterways in the West Yorkshire landscape. Mark employs 3 landscape architects.

The Dubai Majlis Garden by Thomas Hoblyn: A Middle-Eastern feel is inspired by the sculptural beauty found in arid landscapes. Thomas employs landscape architects including, Daisy Parson CMLI.

Helen Tranter, Vice-President of the Landscape Institute said: ‘This is an important year for the Landscape Institute as we celebrate ninety years of the organisation, which was actually formed at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show almost a century ago, so it is fitting that the work of our members, practices and our current President will be featured so prominently in such a high profile horticultural show.’

‘What is also important are some of the issues these garden designs address and the prominence that the RHS Back to Nature Garden in particular, places on how contact with nature can significantly improve our health and wellbeing. As an organisation supporting and promoting the benefits of the landscape profession, we are particularly pleased that the RHS’s partnership with NHS England, promoting the physical and emotional well-being that access to green spaces and gardening provides, is at the heart of this initiative. The focus on children and on health more generally, is a key component in improving peoples’ lives and working with communities in this way is key for all landscape professionals.’ For further details and a full list of RHS Chelsea Flower Show exhibitors visit: www.rhs.org.uk

Image credit: Alistair Brayford