Garden designs at the RHS Hampton Court Flower Show 2010 - a review by Tom Turner

  July 2010: The Hampton Court Flower Show is still showing signs of recession-damage but fewer than in 2009 and  it was thronged with visitors and well worth visiting. It was a particular pleasure to find myself in agreement with the show garden judges as to which was  the Best in Show Garden, the Best Small Garden and the Best Sustainable Garden. The gifts of fruit juice from Copella and Tropicana were also welcome accompaniments to a hot day!

The Best in Show Garden Award was won by James Clark's design for the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) & EVA Airways. We congratulate James on his excellent Thai planting and on his good sense in making a richly planted garden.
Hadlow College won the Best Small Garden Award with a design that was almost big enough, and certainly good enough, to be a challenger for the Best in Show Award.'Mandy Buckland has designed one of the best small gardens seen at the Hampton Court Show for years. It is really well built, by Hadlow College, as well as being fresh, modern, elegant and useful. The garden has a comfortable place to eat, strawberries growing on the walls and a wealth of edible and beautiful plants.
followed their excellent contribution to the 2009 show with a design which won the Best Sustainable Garden Award in 2010. We were not 100% persuaded by its sustainability credentials, but it was much better-looking than the other entries in this category. The sculpture claims to made of 'a recycled artificial stone that is indistinguishable from real stone and 100% environmentally friendly'. As they say, hmmm!
The judges were stingy in only giving a Silver Award to Mike Hodges' design The Living Room, for Hambrooks Garden Design & Landscaping. One has to admid that the all-white design would be full of glare on a bright day but the opalescent panels light up at night to create an elegant outdoor room. 'Moonlight Gardens' were very popular in the Indian Subcontinent.