Shot! The 2023 RHS Hampton Court Palace Garden Festival
There was much missing from this year’s festival, but there was no shortage of water features and rock formations as show garden designers looked to recreate the natural landscape.
When it comes to a big event like Hampton Court — billed by the RHS as the biggest flower show in the world — one thing’s for sure, every visitor is going to experience it differently. There’s always lots to see, but everyone will see it in their own unique way, influenced primarily by what interests them and the serendipity of how their day unfolds.
Peoples’ opinions will of course differ wildly. First time visitors can only compare it to something else, whilst long-term regulars will always judge that year’s show with their past experience. Having been each year since 2011, I’m in the latter category and one thing I can say is that this is a show that never stays the same. There’s always something new, there’s always something unexpected.
Press Day always falls on a Monday and as well as the media, the RHS hosts ‘slebs’ and school kids who get the chance to be first to see the show. Being spread out across 31 acres, it’s hard to get a feel of just how busy it is, but my impression was this was the quietest Press Day I can recall.
The ferry across the Thames was not in operation this year, meaning those arriving by train had no alternative but make the long walk to the show’s riverside entrance. The journey there was strangely quiet and before reaching the expected ramp way, I and a few others were diverted by security to a gate and told to follow a path to get to the show. That took us across the golf course and eventually to a trades entrance. It was all a bit disconcerting.
Unlike Chelsea, where all the show gardens are located along Main Avenue, at Hampton they’re spread amongst the exhibitors. It wasn’t always this way, but it does mean it’s all-too-easy to miss some of them. Each year there seems to be noticeably fewer show gardens as the event continues to change from being what was once predominantly a flower show to now becoming a far more commercially focused garden festival.
Before it opened, the show garden getting most attention on social media was America’s Wild, so that’s where I headed first.
My initial impression was how disappointing it was in person, compared with the photos I’d seen online. To my eyes it was more like an exhibit, than a garden. Indeed it looked quite artificial. The concept was to juxtapose three examples of wild American landscapes — desert, forest and prairie — one up against the other.
Personally, I think its creator, Inspired Earth Design, would have been far better to use the entire plot to explore a single landscape. Instead, they ended up with three small, visually confused spaces.
The least impressive of the trio — and the first one you enter — was desert. A few cacti set in gravel against a rendered backdrop that was supposed to evoke sandstone, just didn’t work for me. Neither did the inclusion of an LED screen showing images of deserts which made things even more artificial. It looked like a low-budget theatre set.
The middle landscape — forest — was more successful. With its large boulders, 3m-high waterfall and verdant planting, it at least felt a little more naturalistic. Personally, I’d question whether its waterfall was worthy of being described as a ‘stunning’ or ‘spectacular’, especially as the similarly-sized rectangular rocks and the flat wall backdrop felt visually off.
Recreating waterfalls within show gardens has of course been done countless times before, so unless it truly is jaw-dropping, it’s unlikely to make much of an impact.
The final prairie landscape once again featured an incongruous stained timber boundary wall that also housed another screen.
I may have been underwhelmed, but the judges clearly saw something I didn’t as, at the same time I was viewing the garden, they were awarding it a gold medal and then going even further, by naming it best in show. Those associated with America’s Wild celebrated wildly, whilst I was left non-plussed as to why it had received any plaudits at all. To me, nothing about it was impressive.
And, I have to say, that was the feeling I had for pretty much all the other show gardens I visited. This year most of them featured water and boulders. Water was everywhere, whether it was a pond, a waterfall or a water feature.
Sited next to America’s Wild were two smaller gardens that also recreated a US landscape. Both were designed by Sadie May Stowell who, if I’m not mistaken, had created uncannily similar gardens for the same sponsors at Hampton in previous years. I found her formal Charleston garden to be uninspired and boring and felt her more naturalistic Oregon garden tried to do too much in too smaller a space.
The adage less is more is something show garden designers really should adhere to, especially when working with small plots. Cramming too many different ideas in one space usually ends up with it looking like someone’s desperately trying to fulfil a sponsor’s brief, rather than design a beautiful garden.
Fortunately, one thing that wasn’t prevalent anywhere at Hampton Court were weeds. Controversially, at this year’s Chelsea, they were all over the show gardens, something actively encouraged by the RHS. Call me old-fashioned, but I don’t think anyone comes to a prestigious horticultural event to see an abundance of the very thing they spend so much time trying to eradicate from their own garden!
Back to Hampton and the next garden I visited. Paul Hervey-Brookes also aimed to recreate a naturalistic scene for his Cancer Research Legacy garden. I thought it was fair to middling at best and was surprised to learn later in the week that it had won People’s Choice. I’ve said it before, but it’s worth repeating: many of these gardens aren’t really gardens at all, but best described as installations.
Of course there’s no denying it takes a lot of skill to make such a landscape look natural. The trend towards these naturalistic recreations can be traced back to 2015 and Dan Pearson’s monumental Laurent-Perrier Chatsworth Garden that won Best in Show at Chelsea. That garden really transformed how many designers approached show gardens and as a result, in the year’s that followed we’ve witnessed a plethora of similar looking recreations.
Perhaps the most successful naturalistic landscape at Hampton Court was Max Parker-Smith’s Hurtigruten garden, which was all about bringing a slice of Norway to the festival. Here again, water played a big part. Based on the time I spent photographing it, this had to be my favourite of all this year’s show gardens. I thought the landscaping, especially the choice and placement of boulders looked very natural and some of the planting was quite attractive.
That being said, when you look at most of my compositions, you’d certainly think that what you were seeing was created by nature, rather than being man made.
On the downside, I felt the dark timber boardwalks were visually uninteresting and didn’t convey the aesthetic I’d associate with Norwegian wood. Perhaps that wasn’t so surprising when I learnt the wood used to construct them was reclaimed from the cladding of an East London tower block!
Whenever I’m at Hampton Court I always aim to check out new work from three artists: John O’Connor, Matt Maddocks and Carrie Anne Funnell. But this year all three decided not to attend.
Fortunately, another talented sculptor was making her debut. Lucianne Lassalle’s bronze nudes caught my eye, especially her version of The Three Graces, which I really liked.
What Bristol-based Luciannne did not know was that just a short distance away, at the top of Hampton Court’s Long Water, is a copy of the original Three Graces statue which is on display in the Louvre.
The next garden I looked at was Tom Massey’s Resilient Garden for the RHS. Now I’ve always liked Tom’s show gardens. Until this year. I wasn’t enamoured by his Royal Entomological Society garden at Chelsea, and felt the same with this one, which was all about highlighting one of the RHS’s buzzwords, sustainability. I find whenever a show garden is all about projecting its sponsor’s message, its narrative almost always overshadows its appearance.
One garden I didn’t expect to like, but warmed to once I saw it in person, was designed by Carol Klein, this year’s RHS ‘Horticultural Hero.’ It was another walk-through garden, something that we’ve seen a lot of recently. Although nothing special in terms of its design, Carol’s planting was arguably the best of any show garden at Hampton. There were some very nice colour and plant combinations.
In terms of planting trends, one of the most popular colourways this year was the combination of yellows, whites and purples, with grasses in all shades of green also being prevalent on many show gardens. But, if you had to pick one colour that dominated this year’s Hampton it was grey, as so many designers chose to fill their gardens with large rocks.
Speaking of rocks, I noticed a couple of interesting things on Paul Hervey-Brookes’ Legacy Garden.
One had golden handprints engraved on its surface. I thought they looked good, but question who, if any, would get their meaning. Apparently, they were supposed to illustrate “the multi-generational impact of cancer.”
Another contained a quote, although had it too been in gold it would have been easier to read.
Another example of designers trying to convey a narrative with their garden was on Lucy Taylor’s Traditional Townhouse Garden where one of James Parker’s big apple sculptures was supposedly included to evoke the idea of Eden, when in truth it could just as easily make you think of New York City.
Overall, I have to say this was a lacklustre event. If you were judging solely by the quality of the show gardens, none really stood out as being that special and none came close to Matthew Childs’ vibrant Over The Wall garden, which rightly won Best Show Garden in 2022.
Looking ahead, it strikes me that the RHS are caught between a rock and a hard place with Hampton. What was once a ‘junior’ version of Chelsea, nurturing garden designers with aspirations of one day creating a show garden at the world’s most prestigious horticultural event, has morphed into a festival with a somewhat confused identity, where the emphasis is increasingly more on selling than showing. But without the wow factor of truly impressive show gardens, and with no headline sponsor, can it continue to attract the crowds and remain a financially viable event? Only time will tell.
Fortunately, there was one garden that really impressed me this year. Indeed, my favourite garden was by a designer making her Hampton Court debut, working not just with a tiny plot, but without the support of a sponsor. You can find my thoughts on Jodie Shah’s Touching the Senses Garden here on Medium as I’ve written about it separately.
Behind the shot: With one exception, all these images were taken with the iPhone 14 Pro. Shooting show gardens at Hampton is always tricky because there are so many ‘obstacles’ in the background, whether it be white marquees, festival signage or trade pavilions. It’s why I focus on tight compositions, rather than capturing the garden in its entirety. Photographed at Hampton Court Palace on 3 July 2023.
About the author: Based in Sussex-by-the-Sea, on England’s south coast, Gary is a creative writer and image-maker. He specialises in creating out of the ordinary portraits of musicians and people with interesting faces, as well as photographing some of the world’s finest flowers and gardens, not forgetting an array of automotive exotica.
On the writing side, he has used his research skills to author deep dives into some noteworthy songs beginning with Bryan Ferry’s ‘These Foolish Things’ ‘Ghost Town’ by The Specials, ‘Real Wild Child’ by Ivan and ‘All The Young Dudes’ by Mott the Hoople.
He has also written a biography of Robert Palmer and the stories behind Whitesnake’s blatant Led Zep rip-off, ‘Still Of The Night’, Harry Styles’ anthem to positivity, ‘Treat People With Kindness’ and the little known Queen track ‘Cool Cat.’
Most recently, Gary has penned the fascinating story behind George Orwell’s dystopian novel ‘Nineteen Eighty-Four.’ as well as ‘Believe It Or Not’ a look into the rise of fake news.
All these can be found here on Medium, along with his reviews of gigs and events and chats with musicians including the likes of Royal Blood, Joe Satriani and Wolf Alice.
