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Victorian Aviary Garden at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show

on March 30, 2010 – 2:00 am

Garden designers Jonathan Denby and Philippa Pearson’s coloured-filled ‘The Victorian Aviary Garden’ is one of 14 show gardens at this year’s Chelsea Flower Show (May 25-29, 2010).

The pair, new to Chelsea, are not the typical entrants to this year’s show. Out of the 14 main show gardens, Jonathan Denby is the only amateur designer and Philippa Pearson, renowned for her colourful planting schemes, is the only female designer. Read full story here.

The setting for Jonathan and Philippa’s garden is an ornate, rich blue and gold Victorian aviary creating an enchanting focal point and an informal outdoor room to relax, eat in and to enjoy the garden from. The two side wings of the aviary, commonly used to keep exotic birds in during its Victorian heyday, are now open and planted with shrubs for year round interest. The aviary is typical of the grand designs from the late Victorian period and is inspired by the elaborate Rococo aviary at Waddesdon Manor, Buckinghamshire. A beautiful regal peacock continues the bird theme in a mosaic pebble path by artist Maggy Howarth.

Planting in the show garden includes a woodland edge style using a cool palette of green, white, soft apricot and pale cream with splashes of maroon. The formal layout of the lower terrace has two large square box-edged borders set in lawn, a layout inspired by the late Victorian period, where planting style is modern and colourful and a tapestry of perennials and grasses create a ‘jewel-like’ planting effect.

The Victorian Aviary Garden has a strong Cumbrian provenance, a first for a Chelsea show garden. Cumbrian slate is used for paving, and slate and limestone make up the terrace’s traditional stone walls. Stone for the wall comes from an old garden wall at the Newby Bridge Hotel, one of the sponsor’s hotels, near Windermere.

The garden’s two sponsors are South Lakes Hotel, who own three family-friendly hotels in the Lake District and Kirkstone Quarries, near Ambleside, who are supplying the Cumbrian slate. The garden will be re-built afterwards at one of the sponsor’s hotels in Cumbria.

The Chelsea Flower Show is held May 25-29, 2010.

Top Image: A model displays a 35 inch hat designed by Sean Barrett, inspired by the features of the Knightsbridge Urban Renaissance Garden at the Royal Horticultural Society’s Chelsea Flower Show 2004. The show garden has been designed by Phil Jaffa of Scape Design Associates in association with Patrick Collins. Photo by Michael Crabtree/ Troika

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