Chris Beardshaw designs The Morgan Stanley Garden for Great Ormond Street Hospital.
"One of the most significant and poignant gardens of my career" is how plantsman and designer Chris Beardshaw has described The Morgan Stanley Garden for Great Ormond Street Hospital, which will feature at RHS Chelsea Flower Show, 2016.
The enclosed, courtyard style garden has been resourcefully designed by Chris to work both as a show garden and as a permanent garden scheme. The new garden for Great Ormond Street Hospital will provide a much needed, private and reflective space for parents and families of the children undergoing care and will appear at RHS Chelsea Flower Show prior to being completed at the hospital in summer 2016.The Show Garden will be replanted at the heart of the hospital in a location almost completelyenclosed by buildings. This restricts the amount of direct sunlight into the garden, providing added challenges for the plant life.
The enclosed nature of the hospital site has shaped and informed the planting and schematics for the garden. Chris will predominately work with woodland species to create a rich, green and verdant contrast to the buildings surrounding it. Sprinkled amongst this will be pockets of sparkling colourful planting, which will burst through the tree canopy or the perennial understory, highlighting the effervescence and optimism of childhood.
Chris Beardshaw said, "These lushly planted areas will feature some species of plants which only open when hit by direct sunlight which, in the final relocated garden at Great Ormond Street Hospital, will be for brief periods of time. Consequently these plants will provide a fleeting and emotional response for those who happen to be there to witness them. The garden also contains a reflective water feature, running the length of the garden which will showcase a number of specially commissioned artworks. We want this garden to play an important role in supporting the families of the children at the hospital and I feel very strongly that this garden has to work for them. That makes it, to my mind, one of the most important projects of my career."
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