See Winning Gardens From the 2015 Chelsea Flower Show

The 2015 RHS Chelsea Flower Show opened Tuesday on the grounds of London’s Royal Hospital Chelsea, where more than 160,000 horticultural fans are expected to view the world-class gardens on display through Saturday, May 23.

The Royal Horticultural Society show, held at the Chelsea site for more than a century, is the holy grail for anyone seeking design inspiration. During five glorious days showcasing Britain’s best garden design talent, an abundance of innovation is on display in gardens ranging from wild and naturalistic to thoroughly cutting edge. This is where landscaping’s brightest display their ideas, expressed through plantings, architecture, artwork and decor.

On Tuesday seven designers received the coveted gold medal for their show gardens, with Dan Pearson taking best in show for his garden sponsored by Laurent-Perrier, a champagne house, and Chatsworth House, a historic estate and trust. Here’s a peek at the seven gold-medal-winning Chelsea show gardens.

1. The Laurent-Perrier Chatsworth Garden

The best in show garden by Dan Pearson is a beautiful representation of a small, less-trodden part of the 105-acre Chatsworth garden. In keeping with Pearson’s passion for naturalism and the wilder side of gardening, the exhibit is inspired by Chatsworth’s ornamental trout stream and its rockery designed by Victorian gardener and architect Joseph Paxton.


Pearson’s design for The Laurent-Perrier Chatsworth Garden depicts the discovery of the landscape through walking. A meandering trout stream edged in candelabra primulas, wild grasses and native flowers creates an intimate moment for those strolling through.


Wood plank paths intersect the garden crossing near the lower moon-gazing pool. Pearson said he wanted to encourage people to look at and discover the garden from several angles. ♦︎


2. A Perfumer’s Garden in Grasse by L’Occitane

James Basson designed A Perfumer’s Garden in Grasse by L’Occitane, above and below, highlighting the perfume industry historically based in Provence, France. The structures and walls are built from tufa stone, which occurs naturally there.


This garden depicts the cultivation of flowers and their transformation and composition into perfume. It is an alluring Mediterranean example that features drought-tolerant plants, including olive trees, wild roses and self-sowing herbs. ♦︎





3. The Brewin Dolphin Garden

Darren Hawkes, principal of Wheelbarrow, created The Brewin Dolphin Garden, above and left, using a blue, purple and white palette to express a fresh, serene mood. The garden as a whole has the feeling of being slightly unkempt, with a sense of having a past. Granite and slate, plus an accent of distressed steel used for railings, suggest this is part of a greater landscape.

In The Brewin Dolphin Garden, mature English elms and familiar hedgerow plants evoke a shared memory of the British countryside. Unconventional floating platforms serve as a means of navigating through the space, bringing a sense of exploration, playfulness and wonder to those who enter. ♦︎


4. The Cloudy Bay Garden in Association With Vital Earth

The Cloudy Bay Garden in Association With Vital Earth, above and below, was designed by landscape architects and brothers Harry and David Rich. The garden is a sociable space designed for gatherings and outdoor entertaining.


The Cloudy Bay landscape relies on mostly green and white plantings. The repetition of clipped evergreen forms with misty textures of ephemeral annuals and perennials gives the garden a calm sense of place. ♦︎


5. The Telegraph Garden

Marcus Barnett designed The Telegraph Garden, above and below. Inspired by the De Stijl movement (known for vibrant primary colors and closely related tones), the landscape has strong, rectilinear geometry created by paths, waterways and different-size blocks of color and texture.


The backdrop of the garden is formed by a wall that punctuates the boundary hedges. It acts as an architectural foil for plantings, while trees and hedges provide dappled shade as well as vertical and sculptural forms. ♦︎


6. The Homebase Garden — Urban Retreat

The Homebase Garden — Urban Retreat, above and below, garnered Adam Frost a seventh Chelsea gold medal. Designed as an urban community garden, the landscape celebrates the striking design principles of the early-20th-century Bauhaus movement by incorporating modernist materials such as smooth poured concrete and Cor-Ten steel with simple geometric shapes to create a garden that sits comfortably within an urban setting and in which people and wildlife can flourish.


In the garden a dynamic background combines linear concrete walls with geometric hedging, breaking the space into clearly defined water, lawn and planting divisions. The cedar-clad building provides a viewing area from its roof. ♦︎


7. The Morgan Stanley Healthy Cities Garden

Chris Beardshaw, a TV and radio personality who has won many RHS gold medals in the past, designed The Morgan Stanley Healthy Cities Garden, above and below. To the designer the formal geometry of the hedges, paths and wall symbolizes the physical infrastructure of a community. The interwoven knot garden creates a framework for a vibrant perennial planting.


The garden features an understory of contrasting and flowing perennials punctuated with sparkling vertical spires. The plantings create a cloud of color as a harmonious tapestry. ♦︎

View more 2015 Chelsea Flower Show award winners

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