Best Show Garden ... The Brewin Dolphin Garden By Cleve West

With over 200 photos (and that was controlling myself) and choosing a few from each category,

I thought I would start off with the Best in Show category at this years Chelsea Flower Show ...

Cleve West took out this honour for the second year running with his design of The Brewer Dolphin garden combing a contemporary feel with a celebration of the heritage of British gardening ... a resurgence of topiary art form in the 19th century.

The garden is intended to be formal and timeless, contemporary yet traditional ... with the use of yew topiary, beech hedging as well as a mix of perennials and annuals to contrast with the clipped forms.

The use of reclaimed limestone created an impressive grounding for the plants and will be reused after the show.

The colour palette included delicate whites, lime greens and yellows, with splashes of reds and purple for contrast.

{all images above belong to Iced VoVos}

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The garden is meant to elegantly capture a sense of strength and size giving visitors a personal experience and interpretation of Cleve's design. For a full plant list click here.

This wasn't my favourite garden, but I have always been a lover of topiary and formality in the garden and this one ticked the timeless box for me, especially with the mixture of traditional and contemporary elements.

If you're into topiary, a great book I picked up at the show is Topiary for Everyone by Burgon & Ball (Sheffield England) available here or here.