Courtyard Garden set to bloom on time

A small piece of Southern France to be recreated at Chelsea Flower Show by local florist and garden designer

Things are hotting up for Jane Brockbank of Terrain Garden Design and Marcia Hurst of Pot Pourri Flowers as they prepare their courtyard garden for this year’s show. They are driving all over the country to pick up the plants they ordered in the autumn, and keeping their fingers crossed that the flowers will either bloom in time or hold their blooms just long enough.

The theme is based on the gardens Jane and Marcia have seen on their holidays in a small hill town called Cordes sur Ciel in Southern France. The design re-creates the inward looking nature of a small courtyard, with a crumbling stone house covered in climbing roses and vines. The emphasis is on natural materials with lots of fresh green and grey herbs and shrubs, creating a small oasis from the intense Southern heat.

Jane Brockbank says “we would like to make the point that this a Southern French garden and not a Mediterranean garden. The climate in this region is more relevant to our own, although we don’t always have quite the level of sunshine and intense heat we do share the colder winters and higher rainfall. Plants that have been used for centuries there such as trachelospermums, euphorbias and lavenders have been gaining popularity over here in recent years and we would like to show some interesting and inspiring ways to use them”

This year the Chelsea Flower Show takes place between the 20th and the 24th May.

May 2, 2003