Conquest Spaces, based in Sussex, will work with designers Colm Joseph and Duncan Cargill to build the Perennial Lifeline Garden at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2019. In addition, Perennial is working directly with the APL on the garden, giving apprentices the opportunity to help build it on site.
Inspired by Sir Roy Strong’s autobiographical The Laskett Gardens, the Perennial Lifeline Garden helps mark Perennial’s 180th anniversary this year and highlights the long-standing and ever-evolving role of Perennial in supporting everyone working in and retired from horticulture. Further confirmed suppliers and contributors include: London Stone, Stark & Greensmith, Kelley Peers Design Partnership Ltd, Hardy’s Cottage Garden Plants, Peter Beales Roses and Majestic Trees.
Speaking about his involvement with the garden, Ross Conquest, MD of Conquest Spaces, says: “It is a pleasure to be working with Colm, Duncan and the team at Perennial on this garden. Through our involvement with the Association of Professional Landscapers we will combine some of the UK’s best talent on the build and give the next generation of young apprentices some much valued show experience on one of the biggest show garden platforms in the world. This is something we all hope will help keep them inspired in their careers to come.
“We know what a difference Perennial’s support can make during difficult times and look forward to helping bring the charity’s message to visitors and the wider Chelsea audience. It’s fantastic to see the industry working together to support our trade charity and the 180th anniversary makes it even more special this year.”
Chosen following a design competition run jointly by Perennial and the London College of Garden Design, Colm and Duncan’s garden celebrates Perennial’s role at the heart of horticulture and captures the spirit of Sir Roy Strong CH and Julia Trevelyan Oman’s The Laskett Gardens, which Sir Roy bequeathed to Perennial in 2015.
Anita Bates, Director of Marketing and Fundraising at Perennial says: “Our aim in 2019 is simple – to reach more people than ever before with the message that Perennial is here to help everyone who works in horticulture. From gardeners to greenkeepers, foresters to landscape designers, if you work with plants, trees or turf, we’re your lifeline when times get tough. We’re working with colleagues from across the industry to realise Colm and Duncan’s ambitious design and look forward to speaking to visitors about how Perennial is both rooted in the history of the UK horticulture industry and evolving to ensure its people flourish well into the future.”
The Perennial Lifeline Garden features a classical rose garden reimagined as a more sustainable and low maintenance ‘rose meadow’. Roses intermingle with ornamental grasses, perennials and annuals to create a striking and texturally rich display with long seasonal interest. Providing formality and structure, three forms of hedge (beech, yew and hornbeam) are asymmetrically arranged and clipped to varying heights, while classical sculpture is replaced by the organic forms of multi-stem trees, helping to frame views through the space.
Freestanding metal screens, stone and topiary columns, and a pair of modern ‘fountains’ combine in a modern reimagining of a classical colonnade, in which visitors can move around and walk beneath the cascades. The fountains flow into a contemporary rill which flows through and around the garden, adding life and sound to the structural planted elements, representing the ‘lifeline’ that Perennial is so often described as by the people it supports.
The Perennial Lifeline Garden at RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2019 is one of a series of show gardens and events designed to mark Perennial’s 180th anniversary this year. They are also supporting show gardens at RHS Flower Show Cardiff and Harrogate Spring Flower Show and will be exhibiting at a full range of horticulture, forestry and arboriculture trade events throughout the year. You can get involved by supporting Perennial at one of their special events, fundraising events or by telling people you know about Perennial’s free and confidential help and advice services for people in horticulture.
Perennial115 - 117 Kingston Road
Leatherhead
Surrey
KT22 7SU
T: 0800 093 8510
info@perennial.org.uk
perennial.org.uk