What happens to the display gardens of Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) Chelsea Flower Show long after the show is over?
Landscape Designer, Stuart Johnson and Horticulturalist Wes Fleming and their team won Gold and Best in Show in 2013 at the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS), Chelsea Flower Show.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-05-21/australian-wins-top-prize-at-chelsea-flower-show/4704720
What happened next is the most exciting part of the story.
Fast forward ten years and last week, I visited the stunning garden that Phillip Johnson designed and has now recreated but 20 times bigger than the Chelsea display garden in the stunning hills outside of Melbourne known as the Dandenong Ranges on Wurundjeri Country in the Dandenong Ranges Botanic Gardens.
Deep in the ubiquitous Eucalypt forest outside of Melbourne, we find ourselves breathing deeply as we walk towards the entrance gate, first in line at the mornig gate and in awe of the majesty of these stunning, enormous life-giving treasures.
The new garden still very much in its infancy, sits in a part of the old Olinda golf course within the Dandenong Ranges Botanic Garden. I can’t wait to return in another 5 years to watch it as it matures.
Winding pathways allow immersion into a clever garden design that offers some 15,000 plants mostly sourced from 400 native Australian species. It was such fun for this West Australian to feel botanically- speaking, right at home and yet so far from home at the same time. The garden includes rare and critically endangered species such as the Wollemi Pine (Wollemia nobilis) as well as the latest Anigozanthos ‘Landscape Lilac’ new releases from Kings Park in WA.
The stunning and enormous Warratah corten steel art piece towers over the new garden.
Sustainable practices and water-wise garden design elements include an essential bushfire protection system, solar power, and highlights artistically crafted recycled and reclaimed materials, such as mindfully executed seating which has been sourced from local timbers.
During my garden consultations, I am always banging on about incorporating elements of water and natural stone as well as featuring plants to create a habitat in the garden, in our urban landscapes, for all creatures who come to visit, not just humankind.
This garden provides little vignettes of wonderful design inspiration that can be replicated by the home gardener to encourage planting and landscape features to encourage birds, reptiles, and insects into the garden.
We were lucky enough to see a lyrebird nesting as we wandered back to the entrance after we visited the garden. These birds masterfully mimic the sounds of nature and people, like babies crying as well as other birds. The frogs were happily ensconced in the water feature.
We heard both Pobblebonks and Clicking Frogs as we stood beside the body of a reflective large body of water. Nature has moved in and is there to stay. Butterflies were all around and the birdlife was abundant. In such a young garden, this is quite something…and as Kevin Kostner said in ‘Field of Dreams’ “if you build it and he will come” instantly comes to mind.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0097351/quotes/
Sustainability being the key driver, this project has been funded by The State Government of Victoria and the Federal Government of Australia so that all Australians can bask in the glow of winning gold at The Chelsea Flowers Show for generations to come. I will be back.
