Award-Winning Gardens at RHS Malvern Spring Festival

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Posted 2022-05-06 by Andy Coleman ⇒ follow

Thu 05 May 2022 - Sun 08 May 2022

Award-winning gardens are on display at this year's RHS Malvern Spring Festival which runs at the Three Counties Showground until May 8, 2022.

Cotswolds-based designer Emily Crowley-Wroe (pictured below) was awarded Best in Show for her inspiring creation, The Hide Garden. The garden also received a silver-gilt medal for its design which celebrates nature on the doorstep. It represents a private retreat, transporting the owner to a favourite riverside spot. Features include a garden room, a deck area, a pebble pond, willow hurdles and carved benches crafted from recycled wood.

Emily said: "This is my first time at the RHS Malvern Spring Festival and I am absolutely thrilled to have received a silver-gilt medal. To have the bonus of winning Best in Show is delightful! It's been a real labour of love and is inspired by a local nature reserve. The garden incorporates archetypal layers and forms in the planting and provides an emotive connection to place."

James Alexander-Sinclair , RHS Chair of Judges, said: "The judges were thrilled to be back at the Malvern Spring Festival after such a long break and were delighted with the standard of the gardens. The Hide Garden was a deserving Best in Show. The slick modern building, strong geometry, the soothing trickle of water and a soft naturalistic colour palette captivated all the judges."

Joining Emily with silver-gilt medals are Karen Tatlow for The Cancer Research UK Legacy Garden and Jamie Langlands for A Peaceful Escape.

The Cancer Research UK Legacy Garden is an immersive space, designed to celebrate people who leave a gift in their will, which in turn helps to fund life-saving research. The journey through the garden begins with an area of colourful planting. Visitors continue to a pergola which provides a shaded place for sitting and reflecting. Patterns of plants used in cancer treatments create the back screen and roof. The far side of the garden represents cancer research – it is enclosed and shaded and the planting is predominantly white, reflecting the clinical nature of the research.

The Peaceful Escape Garden offers a modern and intimate space to relax, with evergreen and soft serene planting to create a relaxing and contemplative feeling. A water feature provides the link from the naturalistic front of the garden to the contemporary natural seating area.

The Abigail's Footsteps Garden, sponsored by the charity of the same name that provides bereavement support for families following the loss of a baby, was awarded a silver medal. Designed and created by Rick Ford , it is a contemplative space for parents, a calming space, with a series of interconnected spaces that reflect the transitions parents experience.

Finally, the judges awarded two bronze medals, firstly to Rhodri Wilson for his innovative low maintenance Home and Dry Garden, dedicated to working, relaxing and entertaining, and the remaining award was handed to Malvern newcomer Laura Ashton-Phillips for The Longcroft Press Garden, a very personal space dedicated to the designer's family orchard in the Forest of Dean, close to Malvern.

The RHS Malvern Spring Festival runs until Sunday May 8. Highlights include a massive floral marquee, talks and demonstrations by celebrity gardens, a realistic jungle garden, food and drink areas and a new Nurture Zone championed by TV gardener Arit Anderson.