Kentish Gazette Canterbury & District
Silver success for Fiona at Chelsea
A designer from Canterbury has scooped a top award at RHS Chelsea Flower Show after entering for the first time.
Fiona Cadwallader had never created a show garden before this year’s event, but her poetryinspired creation landed her with a silver medal.
The Fordwich resident, who is a garden and interior designer, says she had a strong design idea, based on Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s poem This Lime Tree Bower my Prison.
“For centuries, gardens have inspired great poems, from Homer’s Garden of Alcinous to Milton’s Paradise Lost, and the sentiments expressed in Coleridge’s poem echo my belief that one can find natural wonders everywhere if only one has an appreciation for nature,” she said.
“I’m absolutely delighted with my silver medal and what’s more it goes beautifully with all my metal work in the garden.”
Her design consisted of four rooftop pruned limes making up the formal structure and included flowers in deep purples and shrubs in pale yellow.
She designed three contemporary sculptural pieces for the garden; an ornamental stainless steel gate, a stainless steel water feature and a steel chaise longue.
“I am really pleased with how the garden came together and the sculptures look really beautiful,” she added.