Sunlight breaking through the trees in the New Forest
Not content to sit on their laurels and bask in the success of their gold medal haul that included ‘Best in Show’ and the ‘People’s Choice’ at the Chelsea Flower Show 2012, Robin Wallis and Mark Straver are firing on all cylinders at their Hook nursery and have produced in excess of 10,000 plants for a dozen Hampton Court Palace Flower Show gardens, including Chris Beardshaw’s five garden extravaganza.
Hortus Loci grew 3600 plants for Groundwork, The Urban Oasis designed by Chris Beardshaw. The aim was to bring a whole range of transformed landscapes together at the show and for these gardens Mark, Robin and his team have grown hundreds of foxgloves, pennisetums, shrub roses and four wonderful standard grape vines.
Hampton Court Palace Flower Show is a great launch pad for young garden designers and they don’t come much younger than 17 year old James Callicott who has designed a garden to examine dyslexia and the wider effect it can have on an individual. Filled with hundreds of stone pieces, a stream that runs through the garden illustrates the many ideas dyslexic people have. Hortus Loci have grown the perennials such as Thalictrums, achileas and salvias for this talented young designer.
Garden landscapers Landform are building several gardens at the show and Hortus Loci have grown the plants for those designed by Catherine MacDonald, Nilufer Danis and Simon Webster.
Catherine’s garden is inspired by aspects of Piet Oudolf’s High Line in New York, the linear park created by the refurbishment of a derelict elevated railway line, this garden includes linear hard landscape elements that contrast with soft, naturalistic planting such as Hortus Loci’s expertly grown Digitalis parviflora ‘milk chocolate’, three fabulous varieties of burnt orange achilea and Stipa arundinacea.
Simon Webster’s ‘Do Not Adjust Your Set’ aims to bring colour to a monochrome world. To achieve Simon’s defined black and silver planting, Hortus Loci have grown plants such as Salvia argentea, Teucrium fruiticans and Artemisia stelleriana ‘Boughton Silver’.
Robert Kennett’s garden entitled, Las Mariposas (Hopes of a Nicaraguan girl) uses contrasting planting, strong forms and tropical butterflies to contrast equality and freedom with pain and containment. For his billowing meadow of grasses he has used hundreds of Hortus Loci grown Stipa tenuissima.
Anoushka Feiler and Makiko Sato have also turned to Hortus Loci to provide plants worthy of gold medals for their show gardens.
Mark Straver & Robin Wallis from Hortus Loci said: “We have had the most amazing start with Chelsea as our launch pad and had planned on doing just a handful of Hampton Court gardens but every day another designer visited and subsequently ordered. It’s marvellous to know that we are getting it right and that the trade are supporting us. Our next big challenge will be when we launch our retail nursery White Water later in the Summer. Then it will be the turn of the discerning British retail public to decide if they like our work! ”
Many of the gardens supplied by Hortus Loci were awarded RHS Gold medals. Anoushka Feiler received a Gold Medal and overall Best in Show for her Bridge Over Troubled Water garden.
Other medals include –
Gold medal and Best in Show for the best summer garden – The Landform Garden by Catherine MacDonald
Gold medal and Best in Show for the best low budget, high impact garden – Our First Home, Our First Garden by Nilufer Danis
Gold medal – Las Mariposas (Hopes of a Nicaraguan girl) by Robert Kennett
The RHS Hampton Court Flower show runs from 3rd – 8th July
