2010 HAMPTON COURT PALACE FLOWER SHOW SHAKESPEARE COMEDIES GARDEN Anthea Guthrie Heritage Gardens “As You Like It” Site number: D/103 Contact name: Anthea Guthrie Contact number: 01446 710423 Mobile number: 07939 220794 Contact email: [email protected] Website: www.antheaguthrie.co.uk Address: Broad Close Farm, Moulton, Broadclose, Barry, South Glamorgan, CF62 3AB Former lawyer Anthea Guthrie has been a full-time gardener since 2005. She currently teaches gardening skills to teenagers with special educational needs (SEN) in Bridgend where there have recently been a series of teenage suicides. During her career, she has been awarded eight RHS medals and has produced gardens at a number of RHS shows including Chelsea, Hampton Court, Gardeners' World Live and Cardiff. This garden will host a forest shelter and garden for Phoebe the shepherdess, confused in love and in need of some relaxation at the edge of the Forest of Arden, where she lives with her sheep. A wood stump shelter by Phil Game (of purefolly.com) provides her retreat. Her sheep - made by willow weaving expert, Tom Hare - are beside her in a sheepfold. The characters are surrounded by natural form multi-stemmed hazel, English oak, hawthorn and birch, with some oak trees, emulating the planting in the Shakespearean Forest of Arden. Phoebe has also ‘planted’ a number of shade loving plants including nicotiana sylvestris, alchemilla mollis, native ferns, mosses and honeysuckle. There are wild strawberries to eat. There is hardly any colour here as the aim is to illustrate the extreme calm and beauty of dappled shade and woodland planting - studies have shown that regular woodland walks can help to lower blood pressure. Oak will be represented by an oak bark shepherd’s shelter with oak shingles. Orlando’s love letters will be hanging on the branches and Rosalind’s name will be carved on a tree trunk. The play refers to apparitions in the forest and these will be made from natural materials, such as hazel or willow. The garden will only represent a small part of the forest. The boundaries will be low and planted and there will be no walls or fences. Capel Manor College “The Merchant of Venice” Site number: D/100 Contact name: David Francis Contact number: 08456 122 122 Contact email: [email protected] Press contact: Michelle Duxbury
Press tel: 0207 2723755 Press mobile: 07919987548 Press email: [email protected] Website: www.capel.ac.uk Address: Bullsmoor Lane, Enfield, Middlesex EN1 4RQ Inspired by Shakespeare’s comic tale of love and money, the garden setting is a Venetian canal; enclosed by weathered pilings, which scatter through the grasses where boardwalks once stood. Three large wooden vessels float like gondolas amidst dark reflective pools. A swirling sea of grasses filled with lush flowers and foliage of gold, silver and lead, depict the caskets from which Portia's suitors must choose. Elevated high above the garden, drapes of muslin inscribed with Shakespeare’s words to guide the suitors, are propped up by red and white striped punting poles; like washing lines across the Venice canals. Jayne Thomas Garden Design Ltd “A Midsummer Nights Dream” Site number: D/99 Contact name: Jayne Thomas Contact number: 0208 398 0920 Mobile number: 07762 023761 Contact email: [email protected] Website: www.jayne-thomas-garden-design.co.uk Address: 53 Speer Road, Thames Ditton, Surrey, KT7 0PJ A Midsummer Night’s Dream is a play involving three stories which unfold and develop through the intervention of the fairies’ magical powers. Four sets of lovers, a band of actors and a fairy story pass through the forest and become entangled due to the mischief of Puck. All stories have a unified theme of love and marriage - true love overrides the difficulties presented by both the forest and life. The forest itself is represented by woodland plants typical of an English mixed woodland, which were loved by Shakespeare and are referenced in the play. The woodland trees are planted within an Elizabethan style parterre garden which would have been typical in Shakespearean times. The parterre is designed using four closed wing butterflies which represent the four sets of lovers in the play. Planting in the wings is made up from serried ranks of grasses with tracery patterns outlined with flowers. The wings are decorated with herbaceous flowers. Four paths lead to the centre of the garden where there is a love seat under the oak tree. This is where, in the play, Titania wakes up enamoured with love for Bottom, even though his head has been transformed into that of a donkey. The love seat is where the love potions are applied by Puck by mistake to one of the young lovers, and by Oberon to Titania. Lilliput Surgeon Gardening Society “Much Ado About Nothing” Site number: D/101 Contact name: Julie Williams/Claire Veneble Contact number: 0844 477 8666 Contact email: [email protected] – [email protected] Address: Elms Avenue, Parkstone, Poole, BH14 8EE
The Play’s action occurs in an Italian orchard and its themes are reflected in this garden. The central pool represents the “Nothing” in the title. The tensions in the relationship between Beatrice and Benedict are illustrated by spiky planting in hot colours within box parterres. A honeysuckle covered willow arbour provides a secluded retreat where the protagonists can hide, deceive and overhear the various proceedings. The seat within it is a common feature of Elizabethan gardens; these are often referenced in literature for secretive courtings, which is very much the central theme of this play. Don John’s plot to besmirch Hero’s reputation, thwarting her marriage to Claudio is represented by the dark bed at the rear – from this, yellow roses (for jealousy) intertwined with Clematis ‘Vagabond’ ascend to the balcony. Here Margaret (the maid servant) waits, aiding the deception. The Italian cypresses represent the night watch with their illuminating lanterns, exposing the plot. The red and gold nasturtiums and marigolds in the side beds represent the Elizabethan audience. The espaliered fruit trees represent the “thick pleached alley in mine orchard” (I 2. 8-9) of the play. Yvonne Mathews Garden Design “Taming of the Shrew” Site number: D/102 or D/98 Contact name: Yvonne Mathews Contact number: 01983 740464 Mobile number: 07799 888471 Contact email: [email protected] Address: Bush Rew Cottage, Brook, Newport, Isle of Wight, PO30 4ER Yvonne exhibited her first show garden in 2001 at the Chelsea Flower Show, called “All this Beauty is of God” and is the winner of 8 RHS medals. Yvonne is based in the Isle of Wight where she has lived for the last 25 years. Much of this garden takes its inspiration from the feast scene (Act 5, Scene 1) with other key aspects from the play incorporated within it. The boundaries are open on three sides with the backdrop and entrance representing the wings of a stage in a Shakespearean theatre. A water fountain will symbolically represent a key line from within the play: “A woman moved is like a fountain troubled” (Act 5, Scene 1). A table will be set for the riotous assembly to feast and will include the traditional pewterware from this period (Act 5, Scene 1). The plants for this garden have been chosen to illustrate the Latin vibrancy and moods of Katherina and Pertruchio (Act 3, Scene 2). Clashing colours will help to dramatise the overall effect of the scene. Shakespeare also appears in this tableau in the form of his namesake rose. Yvonne Mathews Garden Design “Twelfth Night” Site number: D/98 or D/102 Contact name: Yvonne Mathews Contact number: 01983 740464 Mobile number: 07799 888471 Contact email: [email protected] Address: Bush Rew Cottage, Brook, Newport, Isle of Wight, PO30 4ER
This garden is designed as a totally impractical flower and vegetable garden with paths that lead off into different directions. The garden is surrounded on three sides with a back drop of beans: “To be crowned the King of Misrule, you need to find a bean in the twelfth night cake” (Act 2, Scene 3). There is a small part of the vegetable and flower garden set aside for Sir Toby to take his unsuspecting guests. It has a good sunny position in a sheltered part of a garden that has been cultivated for many years and is a good well drained loam. Twelve wigwams curve around the garden representing the twelve nights of anticipation before the party: “the whirlwig of time” (Act 5, Scene 1). As a trickster’s garden, nothing is as it seems. Shrubs will be used to depict the main characters: two yews for the twins, Olive will be represented by a rose, holly for Orsino and Feste, physocarpus for Maria the Maid, and hydrangea for Antonio the sea captain. Malvonio is represented by a runner bean, and Sir Toby Belch has a seat and a Toby jug for ale. The garden will be predominantly pink to give it a light feel and to hide the elements of trickery; flowers are named after edible things and are mixed in with vegetables that are named after things you would not necessarily eat. Shakespearean allotments Site number: D/34 Contact name: Barry Locke Contact number: 01789 201826 Mobile number: 07760 355 783 Contact email: [email protected] Address: The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, The Shakespeare Centre, Henley Street, Stratford upon Avon, Warwickshire CV37 6QW Visitors can experience all the horticultural delights of the Elizabethan era by visiting the Shakesperean allotments. Designed by Barry Locke, Head Gardener of The Shakespeare’s Birthplace Trust, these allotments will showcase a range of heritage vegetables including skirrets, crimson-flowered broad beans and jersey kale, set amongst a romantic and historic backdrop of black mulberry trees and a Willow Cabin.
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