Editor’s letter
Following two postponements, first in May 2020 and again in May 2021, it’s exciting to have the RHS Chelsea Flower Show ahead of us this month. This will be the first time in its 108-year history that the show hasn’t been held in May. What a fantastic opportunity to showcase another season’s planting, to discover new nurseries that specialise in late-flowering plants, and consider how our attitudes to our gardens have developed as a result of the rigours of the past 18 months.
We highlight some of the most exciting gardens to feature at this year’s show, talking to the designers about their show gardens and the late-summer planting palette now open to them – tawny grasses, jewel-like dahlias, bright heleniums and blazing rudbeckias. There are bound to be new favourites too.
In addition to new categories that include balcony gardens and container schemes, the RHS is highlighting current global concerns around climate change. We hear from designer Marie-Louise Agius about the RHS COP26 Garden and how we can respond as an industry and as individuals.
Elsewhere in the issue, we visit a garden in Somerset, first featured in the magazine some 20 years ago. It’s unusual for us to return to a garden, but creator Patricia Stainton has recently reconsidered her own approach to become more inclusive of the wider landscape. In Devon, we visit the tiny Totnes pocket park championed by Richard Reynolds (better known as the Guerilla Gardener) to highlight the need, even in rural settings, for a shared space for the community to gather and enjoy.
I hope you enjoy the issue,