Weekend Argus (Saturday Edition)

Young designers sow seeds of change at Chelsea Flower Show

- CHRIS GREEN

“YOU should definitely go and check out Hugo Bugg and the Rich brothers” – sounds like a recommenda­tion for a couple of obscure bands at a music festival.

But this advice is not being dispensed by two teenagers in a muddy field – they are part of a host of young up-and-coming exhibitors being chatted about by guests wandering among the perfectly clipped foliage, burbling artificial streams and corporate displays of the Chelsea Flower Show.

At the preview of the Royal Horticultu­ral Society’s (RHS) 101st annual jamboree, which ends today, all the talk was of the young designers displacing the older generation­s. It’s something organisers have positively encouraged: half of the 16 Show Gardens are the work of first-time designers; some in their 20s.

The Rich brothers are Welsh siblings Harry, 26, and David, 23. They won gold at Chelsea last year in the Artisan Gardens section, but this time had a Show Garden in an envious position in the centre of the complex. Their Night Sky Garden is a two-level creation, complete with brass telescope staring skywards.

“It’s nice to see new people as some with more experience,” says Harry of the new generation of garden designers competing this year. He hopes they can set an example for other young people. “It’s just like art that inspires millions of people, so why can’t something that’s like 3D art inspire just as many?”

His brother David adds that getting “young faces on TV” could “draw in a younger generation”.

Also there to admire the brothers’ work is the Irish garden designer and broadcaste­r Diarmuid Gavin.

Although pleased to see a new generation coming through, he says many of them are at risk of playing it safe for the judges.

“I think it’s great that there’s new blood,” he says. “It’s encouragin­g that the Royal Horticultu­ral Society is placing its faith in a younger generation – and why wouldn’t it, when the work is as accomplish­ed as this? But I think there should also be a few more radical ideas from the young folk.”

One contestant who could hardly be accused of being conservati­ve is Sophie Walker, 28, the youngest woman in history to design a garden at Chelsea. Her Cave Pavilion in the Fresh Gardens section looked like a rainforest inside a giant Perspex box, with a viewing window at one end allowing curious visitors to peer inside.

She says she was inspired to study horticultu­re while travelling in Bolivia and seeing the rainforest close up. Her entry had entirely new species and a new genus – another first for a Chelsea garden – which were discovered by expert plant hunters Sue and Bleddyn WynnJones.

“It’s quite difficult being a young woman in a world like horticultu­re, where it’s male-dominated, but I’ve been pushing the boundaries as hard as I can,” Walker says. “I love being controvers­ial – I think garden design does need a shake-up; it seems to me that it’s pretty dead in ideas.”

Many designers are guilty of “making obvious things that people might want in their gardens at home”, she says, rather than experiment­ing with new concepts, concluding: “I think all have to be a bit more adventurou­s.”

Another Chelsea first-timer was 26-year-old Hugo Bugg, who was voted Royal Horticultu­ral Society Young Designer of the Year in 2010. His Waterscape Garden made use of industrial-looking steel walkways and streams flowing at different speeds beneath sedge and wood rush.

“There’s definitely more young people at Chelsea this year, which is fantastic,” he says. “Hopefully, when you start seeing more young people at the shows doing things it will attract more.”

Despite the string of young designers, the Royal Horticultu­ral Society took a risk this year by leaving out many familiar designers and creators of ever-popular cottage gardens to showcase the work of the next generation. – The Independen­t

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