Cotswold designers are celebrating after picking up gold and Best in Show at the 2018 RHS Chelsea Flower Show. Words by Mandy Bradshaw
It’s a day of celebration for Cotswold designers at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show with Chris Beardshaw picking up gold and Best in Show and Paul Hervey-Brookes also getting the top award.
And ‘The Silent Pool Gin Garden’, featuring a piece by Cotwold water sculptor Giles Raynor, has got Silver-Gilt in the Space to Grow category.
For Cheltenham-based Chris, it is a fitting end to what he says is the final design in a 20-year show garden career.
“This is going to be the last,” he said. “I’m going back to my client base, who have been very patient, my family and my own garden, which has been put on hold for 10 years. It will be nice to reacquaint myself with it.”
Chris launched his career at Malvern and has designed gardens all over the world. Finishing on a high at Chelsea with his fourth garden in a row for Morgan Stanley, this time highlighting the work of the NSPCC, has thrilled him.
“I’m absolutely delighted – the whole process is a very humbling experience from the moment you engage with the charity and sponsor to the moment you work on the ground with the team that help pull this all together.
“The designer often gets the credit but the award is for the whole team so this is for everyone who worked with us. Thank you all so much.”
Paul, from Stroud, also started his garden design career at the Malvern show and is this year celebrating 10 years of making show gardens.
He was delighted with a gold medal for his Nordic-inspired Viking Cruises Wellness Garden in the Artisan section, his first design at the world-famous show after a four-year gap.
“It’s been lovely to work with Viking Cruises again after our gold at Hampton Court last year and it’s been great to show what you can achieve in a small space.”
Much of the garden, which is designed as a place to relax, is planted with herbs grown by Cotswold herb queen Jekka McVicar.
Paul has now won 10 gold medals, seven of them from the RHS, over the past 10 years and is in the middle of building a conceptual garden Brewin Dolphin at the RHS Chatsworth show, which opens next month.
Read Mandy’s features on Cotswold gardens and garden designers every month in the magazine.
Follow Mandy on Twitter: @ChattyGardener
