This year there are are total of 27 Chelsea gardens, divided into six categories:
• Six Show Gardens
• Six Sanctuary Gardens
• Five Balcony Gardens
• Five Container Gardens
• Three Feature Gardens
• (Plus the Houseplant Studios)
And here are the two RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2021 Artisan Gardens.
These gardens, while smaller than the grand Show Gardens, are no less perfectly planned and impressive. They're designed as pockets of colour that can be taken in from a single vantage point to create a stunning vista with a nod to the master craftsman.
Guide Dogs' 90th Anniversary Garden
Designer Adam Woolcott & Jonathan Smith www.woolcottandsmith.com
Sponsor The Guide Dogs for the Blind Association www.guidedogs.org.uk
Contractor Conway Landscapes www.conwaylandscapes.com
Celebrating the 90th anniversary of the association’s very first guide dog partnerships, this garden illustrates the journey of somebody with sight loss. Using sculpture and sensory elements, the emotive wildflower garden tells a story going from a place of darkness, fear and isolation into a world of enrichment, acceptance and joy with the help of their guide dog.
The garden is a nostalgic and thought-provoking look back to the 1930s as it reflects on the importance of the work of guide dogs.
The garden is characterised by two areas, one area representing isolation characterised with ferns and dark foliage plants with limited flower colour, featuring a single seated solitary figure.
The larger area of the garden features meadow planting and more flower colour. Some plants are in bold blocks of contrasting colours for partially-sighted users to appreciate. Others add various other sensory elements. The garden will feature a mixture of September flowering wildflowers and late flowering perennials.
Its main focus is a confident figure cast in shining steel, walking proudly with their guide dog leading the way.
The Blue Diamond Forge Garden
Designer: The Blue Diamond Group Team www.bluediamond.gg
Contractor: Conquest Creative Spaces www.conquestspaces.co.uk
The second Artisan Garden takes inspiration from a National Trust owned forge located in Branscombe, Devon. The working forge, originally built in the fifteenth century, has been used over centuries with each blacksmith having left their mark in the garden that surrounds it, providing inspiration for them to create iron works of beauty.
Most notable in the garden is the large blacksmith's forge building that appears to have been on site for hundreds of years. It features a thatched roof, limestone walling and cobbled floors and sits within a natural woodland setting with a flowing stream surrounded by trees as climbers and foliage that make their way upwards over the roof, softening the edges such that the forge becomes at one with nature.
The garden aims to demonstrate how heritage and traditions have been retained whilst simultaneously embracing modern needs without losing its artisan qualities – values shared by The Blue Diamond Group.
In the midst of the informal wild cottage planting, bursts of oranges and reds will echo fire and embers, and black foliage and flowers will also be used to represent smoke and soot to subtly reflect the working forge. Edible herbs and medicinal plants are mixerd with wildflowers and marginals along the stream which flows through the landscape and push upwards through gaps in the cobbled floor.
Head to our Chelsea Flower Show hub page for all our coverage of Chelsea
