Chelsea Flower Show’s gold medal ‘graveyard’

Quarry enthusiast wins with brutal, overgrown stoneworks

ITS OWN designer admits it is ugly and some observers compared it to a graveyard.

But the austere garden won a gold medal at this year’s Chelsea Flower Show.

The design, voted Best Show Garden, features overgrown plants around limestone blocks and was based on a disused stoneworks in Malta.

Its creator James Basson said he is “fanatical” about quarries, adding that “it is not supposed to be pretty. It is stark and monumentally brutal”.

Basson, whose previous designs included a garden called After The Fire featuring plants growing among ash, said he did not expect to win, adding: “We always challenge, and you can get bronze for challenging people. But the Royal Horticultural Society ( RHS) has been very open-minded and is celebrating things that are not always perfect.”

One visitor said it looked like a “memorial garden”, while David Scully, 55, a former gold-medal winner, said: “I like the drama, but perhaps it’s just a bit out of proportion.”

Others were more impressed. RHS member Sharon Wall, 48, from Chobham, Surrey, said: “It is stunning. You come every year and everything is a certain way and this has gone way out on a limb. It’s good to see something different.”

Basson, who lives in France with his family, sourced plants from Malta, Spain and Italy including a pistachio nut tree, euphorbia, salsify and red valerian.

The garden was created on behalf of investment firm M&G, the show’s sponsor. This is the first year that its design has won Best Show Garden. – Daily Mail

Memorial-looking display scoops Chelsea Flower Show prize.