The National Trust and Blue Diamond Garden Centres are delighted to be working with multi-award-winning garden design practice Ann-Marie Powell Gardens and award winning sound artist Justin Wiggan to create a prestigious show garden for the RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2024.
The Octavia Hill Garden by Blue Diamond with the National Trust will celebrate pioneering social reformer Octavia Hill (1838-1912), a founder of the National Trust, who believed that ‘the healthy gift of air and the joy of plants and flowers’ were vital in everyone’s life.
Designed by Ann-Marie Powell with the Blue Diamond team, the garden has a relaxed feel and natural planting style. It is laid out as a series of ‘outdoor sitting rooms’ – a core idea from Octavia Hill – where each individual garden compartment has its own atmosphere. Visitors are invited to feel they are part of nature, a fundamental need as important today as in Octavia Hill’s lifetime.
Dividing the space in this way echoes the ‘winding ways’ that Octavia often referred to, offering the opportunity to wander, both physically and emotionally.
Ann-Marie Powell said: “Research proves that access to public green space improves so many outcomes: educational; physical, mental and social; resilience and recovery. Providing green space isn’t a niche idea; it was, and still is, crucial to our health and happiness.”
The garden includes an installation by sound artist Justin Wiggan which records the electrical impulses of the plants, the earth beneath our feet, and the colours within blooms, wind and water. This will enhance connections with the garden and provide alternative experiences for visitors who are visually impaired or blind. Thanks to geocaching, visitors will even be able to share and ‘replant’ the garden’s sounds, creating their own ‘sound gardens’ around the world.
Download your own sonic seed kit here to access the sounds Justin has taken from some of the key plants and flowers. We encourage all, young and old to use these sonic seeds to make inspirational soundscapes. Please share your work with us on Instagram use the hashtag : #sonicseedcfs24 and tag the team @gardeninternal / @ann_mariepowell / @bluediamond.homeandgarden / @nationaltrust
List of plants / Flowers :
- BAPTISIA AUSTRALIS
- BUDDLEJA DAVIDII ” FLOWER POWER”
- CLEMATIS
- CORYLUS AVELLANA
- DIGITALIS
- GIANT SCABIOUS
- HAWTHORN
- IRIS HOLDEN CLOUGH
- LUNARIA ANNUA ” CHEDGLOW”
- MAACKIA AMURENSIS
- SALVIA LA MANCHA
- THALICTRUM KIUSIANUM
- ZANTHOXYLUM PEPPER SIMULANS
Download the Sonic Seed Kit (zip)
The four sound pieces here are the new works commissioned by The National Trust, Blue Diamond Garden Centres and Ann Marie Powell Gardens for the 2024 Chelsea Flower Show entry to celebrate Octavia Hill , founder of The National Trust. The first two pieces called “Whispers of Better Things Come To Us“ Parts one and two have been created in part by the biosonification of key plants, flowers and trees chosen for the show garden. The third piece is a nightingale repeating key statements from Octavia from a meeting of the National Health Society, May 9, 1877. This reading laid out some of the key values that is the foundation of The National Trust. A nightingale was Octavia’s favourite bird. The final piece are the same statements read by members of The National Trust, Blue Diamond Garden Centres, AMP gardens and Hortus Loci plant centre.
Section One
Section Two
Octavia Birds
Statements
After the show, the garden will be rebuilt at Blue Diamond-owned Bridgemere Show Gardens (an RHS Partner Garden) near Nantwich in Cheshire, where it can be visited year-round.
Landscape build for The Octavia Hill Garden by Blue Diamond with the National Trust is by The Landscaping Consultants, with plants supplied by Hortus Loci.
