Plant envy at Hampton Court

Plant envy is not something I am very proud of. But I did suffer from it at Hampton Court yesterday. Usually it's something you've never ever seen before. But sometimes it's a plant that you've seen before but never rated. Like Agrostemma ‘Ocean Pearl’. Its an annual that Derry Watkins introduced me to a couple of years ago. I grew some in my garden and wasn't convinced. But in the Copella garden it brought an airyness and grace to the planting and I was properly smitten. Expect to see it in our seed range (and my garden) next year..

At Chelsea the tension on the Monday morning is palpable as growers and designers pray that they have done enough to get a gold medal and everyone is looking over their shoulder for the BBC camera crews. Hampton is a far more relaxed affair and you can spend luxurious minutes gleaning precious growing tips or nuggets of plant history. The Rose growers were very generous with their time. Fryers were exhibiting a Rose called ‘Belle Epoque’ which caught my eye not just because of it’s unusual colouring but because I had fallen in love with a tulip with the same name on my visit to the bulb growers in Holland earlier in the year. I had assumed that the rose had been given it’s name because it was so redolent of that period of peace and prosperity before the first world war that produced the preRaphaelites and Art Nouveau. Wrong. Quite wrong. It was named after a restaurant in Nutsford!

I’m not normally a fan of small compact roses, but Style Roses had a tiny rambler that would be brilliant for a small garden or tumbling out of a pot (not normally recommended for a rose - but they swear that theirs had thrived in a pot). Called ‘Fair Eva’ it forms a very well behaved mound, has a lovely healthy leaf, red thorns and the most delicate pink flowers. Sadly, however, it has no scent.

The show gardens at Hampton are always worth a look as they provide a canvas for designers who are just starting out. This year we provided 12 of these gardens with plants so it was interesting to see how they had been used. But perhaps even more interesting are the conceptual gardens. Exhibiting again this year is the most talented artist in gardening that nobody has ever heard of: Tony Smith.

Tony Smith has been exhibiting at Hampton Court since 2005 and every year produces work that does what proper art should: either a) makes you think twice or more deeply, b) challenges your comfy notions on life, or c) blows you away, man.

No one who saw his Black Box exhibit at Hampton Court will ever look at lettuce in the same way again.
This year his garden entitled ‘Diamonds and Rust’ was conceived only 3 months ago, so it is remarkable for that reason alone. Perhaps not his finest work, it still has a strong simple idea and plenty of wit and wimsy. Unlike Chelsea, where the way that gardens are assessed makes it almost impossible for Tony Smith to get a gold medal. ( shamefully, his ‘Urban plantaholic’s garden’ last year only got a silver gilt ), the conceptual gardens at Hampton Court at least provide artists like Tony with a canvas.

However, I do feel that he deserves a bigger stage and a different (more appreciative) audience. The Tate Modern would do. Just imagine how good Black Box would be in the Turbine Hall. May mine be the first name on the petitition.