The Duchess of Cambridge will present her ‘Back to Nature’ garden next week at the Chelsea Flower Show, which she has been designing with a team of landscape architects.
With only one week to go, let’s take a look at what we know so far.
The Garden
Kensington Palace announced Kate’s plans to create a garden for the Royal Horticultural Society’s Chelsea Flower Show in January.
“Based on a woodland, the garden seeks to recapture for adults the sense of wonder and magic that they enjoyed as children, in addition to kindling excitement and a passion for nature in future generations,” The Royal Family website reads.
Kate’s garden will use “wild planting and natural materials” to “recreate a woodland wilderness where children and adults alike can feel closer to the great outdoors.”
One of Kate’s biggest passions is outdoor activity, and Kensington Palace has stressed how her garden will evoke positive memories in adults for the time spent outdoors in their childhood. Kate, according to the Palace, believes very strongly in the “positive impact that nature and the environment can have on childhood development.”
Kate’s garden features many unique design elements in a bid to inspire outdoor pursuits. According to the Royal Family website, “The garden’s centrepiece will be a high platform tree house, clad with stag horn oak that is inspired by a bird or animal nest. It will provide a wonderful place to retreat and look out through the trees.”
The garden will also feature “a swing set, a rustic den, and a campfire to encourage creative play and discovery for all generations.”
Other natural elements featured in the garden will include “tree stumps, stepping tones and a hollow log” to “test and improve children’s balance, strength and coordination.”
The Team
Kate has partnered with Andrée Davies and Adam White, landscape architects, to create her vision.
Speaking to Landscape Institute, White revealed that the pair was “delighted to be designing” a woodland garden with Kate.
“We all spoke about our childhood memories, being outdoor and exploring nature. She was very open and has been hugely collaborative.”
Davies opened up about Kate’s help in the design process, saying that “The Duchess is very hands-on – sketching, model making, sharing images, coming up with all kinds of ideas that we might want to capture. She would often bring a folder of cuttings with her to meetings.”
Davies and White are no strangers to the RHS. They won the RHS Gold Medal, the RHS Best in Show, and the RHS People’s Choice Award in one year at the Hampton Court Palace Flower Show in 2017.
Kate will also partner with Davies and White on two future gardens, which will maintain elements of the Chelsea Flower Show garden, at the Hampton Court Palace Flower Show in July, and the RHS Garden Wisley Show in Surrey this fall.
The RHS Chelsea Flower Show
The Chelsea Flower Show takes place from 21-25 May. It has operated since 1913 and boasts a strong royal connection, dating back to King George V and Queen Mary.
The Queen is the RHS’s current Patron and was confirmed on Tuesday to be attending this year’s show.
The Prince of Wales has helped design several award-winning gardens for the RHS Flower Shows, and Kate is following in his footsteps on her first garden this year.
“We could not be more thrilled, or feel more honoured, that the Duchess of Cambridge has co-designed our RHS Garden at Chelsea Flower show this year,” per a press release on the RHS website.
“For over 200 years the RHS has been championing the power of gardening and growing plants for the environment, for health and wellbeing and to help people of all ages, from all backgrounds, to learn and grow.
“So, to have the Duchess advocating this with us, and to be continuing our partnership with NHS England, will, we’re sure, further highlight the powerful benefit that access to gardens, nature and growing plants can have for all our health and happiness.”