We’re delighted to see a show garden has been created for the Greenfingers Charity at this year’s RHS Chelsea Flower Show, made possible by the generosity of a private donor.
Greenfingers is a small national charity dedicated to supporting children with life-limiting illnesses who use hospices around the UK, by creating beautiful gardens for them to relax in and enjoy with their family, friends and carers.
Greenfingers is close to our heart, it is one of our chosen charities, and through our in-store and staff fundraising activities through the years we are proud to have raised over £14k for them.
The Chelsea garden, created by award-winning designer Kate Gould, aims to highlight and promote the therapeutic benefits of the 56 outside spaces that Greenfingers have created across the country.
The Greenfingers Charity Garden
We love how Kate has made the garden fully accessible for wheelchair use and for people of all ages and abilities, and the playful sculptural elements – chosen to be interactive, stimulating and uplifting. The garden’s predominantly green and white colour palette, with touches of yellow, has been carefully selected. Green has a very calming influence when used in gardens, white brings a sense of peace and tranquility and splashes of yellow can lift the spirits and evoke a feeling of optimism.
The Greenfingers garden showcases a number of our favourite trees and plants with green, white and yellow hues, perfect for creating a space to sit, relax and enjoy.
Dicksonia antartica – a show-stopping tree fern native to Australia and Tasmania that will add a dramatic tropical feel to any garden. It can be grown in containers as well as the ground, and is a lot hardier than people perceive it to be. As the fresh new fronds begin to appear, they are reminiscent of small orangutan hands, a wonderful plant!
Dicksonia antartica. GAP Photos 2019
Dicksonia antarctica – unfurling tree fern. GAP Photos 2019
We love Acers at Perrywood, and Kate has used a particularly nice one in the Greenfingers garden – Acer ginnala (Amur Maple) is early to leaf in spring time and produces lovely white fragrant flowers. It is also one of the best trees for autumn colour!
Acer ginnala will give a wonderful autumn colour
Hostas are grown for their decorative leaves and are great for creating swathes of green in a shadier part of the garden.
The green tonal colouration of Hostas
In the Greenfingers garden, Kate uses Choisya for its evergreen foliage and scented white flowers in spring. We like Choisya ‘Aztec Pearl’ – a more compact variety that will often have a second flush of scented white flowers in autumn.
Choisya ‘Aztec Pearl’ with its beautiful scented white flowers
Anemone ‘Wild Swan’ (RHS Plant of the Year 2011), seems to be popular at this year’s show and you can see why, with its long flowering season of pure white blooms it is a perfect choice against a backdrop of green.
Anemone ‘Wild Swan’ – Chelsea New Plant of the Year 2011
Grasses, which are often used in many Chelsea gardens, are easy to grow and bring texture and luminosity between other plants and shrubs. They are also great for extending colour into autumn when other things begin to fade away.
Low maintenance ornamental grasses
The yellow tones in the Greenfingers garden come from softly coloured Irises and buttery Lupins, our favourite being Lupinus ‘Gallery Yellow’.
Lupinus ‘Gallery Yellow’
