RHS Resources

Around the RHS this September.....

1. Get your mystery apples and pears identified.
RHS Fruit Specialist Jim Arbury will be at RHS Gardens on selected dates this autumn to identify your apple and pear cultivators. 12th - 16th October, Wisley Festival of Flavours (10am - 5pm) and 20th - 23rd October, Harlow Carr Late Fruit and Vegetable Competition (10am - 4pm). Please bring three typical ripe fruit complete with stalks, a small branch undamaged, mature leaves also helps. The postal service has also resumed, and you can read how to send samples at https://www.rhs.org.uk/membership/rhs-gardening-advice/fruit-identification

2. Enjoy photo competition displays.
The winning entries from this year's RHS Photographic Competition will be on display at all five RHS Gardens. Be inspired by amateur and professional photography, from atmospheric garden landscapes to fascinatingly detailed macro shots. The competition will not run for 2022-2023, apart from the Portfolio category, which includes the chance to be exhibited and judged at the 2023 RHS Botanical Art & Photography Show. See https://www.rhs.org.uk/promotions/rhs-photo-competition

3. View 200 years of garden visiting.
This year marks 200 years since the opening of the first RHS Garden in Chiswick. To celebrate, RHS Libraries has put together an online exhibition exploring how the experience of visiting RHS Gardens has changed over time. Discover the journey from one modest sized garden attracting 2000 people per year in 1822 to five major gardens attracting more than 2 million people in 2022. Available to view at https://www.rhs.org.uk/digital-collections

Design Trends from the Shows

1. Naturalistic Planting
Ever since Dan Pearson's atmospheric evocation of Chatsworth's rock garden with trout stream in 2015, show gardens have become increasingly 'wild' in style - reflecting the surge of interest in biodiversity and environmentalism. Native trees and nectar-rich wildflowers were included in many of the gardens' plant lists this year, while designs were relaxed and informal to capture the essence of the British countryside.

2. Laser-cut Corten Steel
Rusted sheet steel is often used in show gardens to create a tactile, artisanal look for raised beds, path edging, planters and water features. This year we saw many steel installations with laser-cut details. If you're planning to use rusted sheet steel as a panel or pergola at home, don't forget it makes an excellent backdrop for purple flowers such as salvias, alliums and circiums, plus orange geums and heleniums.

3. Swirls and curves as symbols of sanctuary
Curved walls features in many show gardens, creating a backdrop or part enclosure for planting and seating. Following the challenges of the pandemic, when many discovered the joys of having your own private outdoor space, such 'organic' shapes and structures suggest sanctuary, privacy and safety.

4. Bee friendly plants
Best plants for bees this year - achilleas, foxgloves, verbascum, alliums and knautia macedonia.

5. Multi-stem trees
Even the smaller show gardens were using small trees and large shrubs with a raised canopy, creating height, privacy and changing seasonal interest. Favourites included native hawthorn, cornus kousa var, chinensis, river birches, parrotia persica, mediar, crab apples and amelanchiers.

6. A pop of orange
An uber-confident colour, orange can be hard to control in a planting scheme and likes to be noticed. We saw pops of it all over the show gardens this year - usually as an accent, but also often in more generous quantities.

7. Sustainability
This year many of the gardens included features, made from recycled materials. But especially impressive is the new trend to relocate entire show gardens to a venue after the show - recycling on a massive scale. This was true of 25 of Chelsea's 39 show gardens. Also this year the RHS worked with the Greener Festival initiative to ensure no waste went to landfill, a borehole and dip tanks kept water use to a minimum; biofuel generators were used on site; all unused food was distributed to local charities; site passes were recyclable; plastic bags and floral foam were banned; and around 6000 plants were rehomed to local communities.

8. Bruised colours
As an antidote to all the 'safe' monochromatic and pastel show garden planting schemes, some designers went for something altogether more dark and brooding, gothic almost. They used plants such as purple Penstemon 'Raven' AGM, Astrantia major 'Claret' and dark-leaves Cercis canadensis 'Forest Pansy' AGM.

9. Posts and deconstructed pergolas
A line of pillar-posts is creative way to demarcate zones in a small garden, adding a little privacy without boxiness or claustrophobia, and offering glimpses of the garden beyond. They're not especially practical in the real world, where garden boundaries often need to be more solid, but certainly they look wonderful surrounded by swooshy grasses and coastal plants, where weathered posts suggest sea groynes. Similarly popular this year were runs of parallel goalpost-type structures shading a path or seating area, evoking a deconstructed pergola.

10. Water troughs for rustic chic
The industrial style aesthetic is clearly still in vogue, judging by the show gardens. Troughs and salvaged zinc basins were used mainly as water containers, but also this year as planters.

11. The conifer is king
Small handsome bushy conifers were in show gardens everywhere this year. They're ideal in a small garden where you want a bit of glamour. Use in alpine and gravel gardens and meadows, in sun and well-drained soil. Their evergreen foliage and distinctive habits create good focal points.

12. Built-in habitats
In line with the increased naturalism of this year's show gardens, we also saw wildlife habitat and features, including bird boxes, hoggy highways and bug hotels. If your garden doesn't have them, you're missing out.