Female garden designers answer Chelsea ‘call to arms’
A RECORD number of women have smashed through horticulture’s “grass ceiling” to design gardens at next year’s Chelsea Flower Show.
Of the 26 set-piece gardens selected by the Royal Horticultural Society to compete for gold medals, 12 will be designed by women. This is believed to be a record ratio since the event moved to the Royal Hospital Chelsea in 1913. However, men still dominate the Show Garden category, with seven out of 10 commissions for Main Avenue plots.
The event has historically struggled to attract female designers even though about 70 per cent of the Society of Garden Designers’ 1,000-plus members are women. In 2015, the RHS revealed that only a third of almost 200 show garden designers over the previous decade were female, and issued a “call to arms” to women to buck the trend.
Past female winners have suggested that fewer women apply because they simply do not think it is worth the stress. Sarah Eberle, the last female outright winner of the Best in Show award, in 2007, told The Daily Telegraph: “Chelsea takes over your life. Even in the most contemporary households women tend to be the primary carer of children. To show at Chelsea you are away from home a lot, you have to prioritise it over other things.”
Charlotte Rowe, who won a gold medal in 2014, has likened Chelsea to “a private club of horticultural Olympians”, saying designers needed “true grit” to sustain endless knock-backs. Next year, female designers will include Jo Thompson and Sarah Price.