Chelsea show entry reveals a city in bloom
MANCHESTER is blooming marvellous – and here is the proof.
Chosen for their resilience to the city’s climate, an oasis of honey locust, Japanese zelkova, white mulberry, and hybrid plane has been created.
It will feature at this year’s Royal Horticultural Society Chelsea Flower Show, in May, among 25 entries for show gardens as ‘The Manchester Garden.’
Designed by Exterior Architecture, it ‘offers a new perspective on post-industrial cities, championing green spaces and honouring sustainability.’
It includes trees chosen for their resilience to future climate change, plants to clean and improve urban soil, and a sculpture that ‘showcases a journey from one-time cottonpolis’ to the home of graphene.
According to the RHS, ‘The Manchester Garden has a space to gather together in a paved area created with beautiful local sandstone.’ It will be competing against entries by global companies like Facebook and IKEA.
The garden will feature ten trees to represent the boroughs of Greater Manchester, a water feature telling the story of the region’s waterways, and a paved area in sandstone named after a founding city elder, Sir Joseph Whitworth.
Elements will be relocated back to the region after the show to help with Manchester’s own City of Trees scheme. Sheona Southern, managing director of Marketing Manchester, said: “Greater Manchester is a pioneering city-region that is currently facing one of the most pronounced and exciting periods of change in its very colourful history.
“In partnership we’ve spent the best part of a decade-and-a-half working to create a long-term project that is now being realised nationally and internationally in terms of city attractiveness and success. So what better way to announce this reinvention to the world, than to take the story of Manchester to one of the country’s most wellrespected and prestigious events? “We are striving to be a green city and we also have the biggest garden project in Europe coming up in the next five years in the shape of Salford’s RHS Bridgewater. “It’s time we present something bold and beautiful to the world to tackle head-on some of the tired assumptions and preconceptions about our wonderful post-industrial original modern city.” Sheona Southern, Marketing Manchester