Chelsea Flower Show 2019 – The Wedgwood Garden

Category: Award-Winning Gardens

In its 260th year, the Wedgwood Garden references Etruria, the Staffordshire village that Josiah Wedgwood built for his workers. The garden, designed by Jo Thompson, reflects the entrepreneurial and innovative spirit of the Wedgwood founder and combines classical motifs and designs in a contemporary form.

Water unifies the garden and moves throughout the space with purpose, connecting key elements and echoing the canals and watercourses of the past that were fundamental to the functionality of Wedgwood’s production and industry. Guiding the visitor through the garden is ever-changing framed views, offering different perspectives on the landscape that has been created.

Materials with subtly contrasting surfaces and textures are repeated to further unify the different elements of the garden and delicate decorative metalwork and purposefully placed sculpture highlight key junctions and motifs.

The planting is both dynamic and soft with mass plantings of Ferula communis and Valeriana pyrenaica, as well as textural and structural with specimen trees, Taxodium distichum and Metasequoia glyptostroboides.

Soft shade-tolerant naturalistic planting surrounds the arched architectural structure central to the garden, with mature trees of pine, conifer, and cedar lining the boundary.  A secluded seating area overlooks water that runs through the garden, with natural stone platforms providing access over the clam stream of water.

Pond & Garden constructed by Aquamaintenance Limited and Bespoke Outdoor Spaces, achieved a silver-gilt medal at Chelsea Flower Show 2019

Photography by Wendy Aiken