Alice's Garden Travel Buzz

The Himalayan blue poppy repeated a soft hue to benefit the show garden created by The Royal Bank of Canada. A green roof upholstered the top of a cottage building repurposed from a shipping container, while the ground plane featured clean-lined pools to capture rainwater collected from the living roof. After traveling down to the pools for storage, the water would then be released into the garden.

Taking inspiration from the Arts & Crafts movement, the design incorporated dry-stone wall elements planted up with arrays of succulents.

The RBC Garden’s naturalistic plantings were influenced by the philosophy of the Victorian garden sage, William Robinson.  Designers: Nigel Dunnett & The Landscape Agency

A contrasting concept defined the sleek, contemporary style of ‘A Monaco Garden’ designed by Sarah Eberle for the Principality of Monaco. Not surprisingly, each show garden in its own way emphasized the importance of water in a garden plan.

Blue water represented Monaco’s harbor; water collected from building rooftops feeds the pool; drought-tolerant plants were selected for the green roof; the garden’s vertical living walls echo the greening of Monaco’s urban apartment blocks.

As pools and fountains offer to refresh the spirit on a sunny summer’s day, the reflective quality of water plays an equally prominent role, emerging as an essential point of focus in the layout of the Laurent-Perrier Garden designed by Luciano Giubbilei.

My experience of the Laurent-Perrier gardens at Chelsea brings to mind a sophistication together with a romantic touch. In 2011 this held true. According to the show guide, the soft pink tones of the lyrical plantings were meant to evoke Laurent-Perrier Cuvée Rosé Champagne. As a lover of fine bubbly, and most especially Rosé Champagne, I can’t imagine a lovelier notion.