RHS Wentworth Woodhouse 2025
Accepted design submission for Long Borders Category 2025.
A semi-formal border imagined in a courtyard or enclosure, where two separate areas of planting mirror one another but with differing palettes and forms. Symmetrically positioned water tanks provide architectural structure while accent plants mingle across, and a clear negative space in the centre provides rest for the eyes.
The aim is to challenge the idea of the focal point and also to explore the concepts of reflection and symmetry. Connections between the two plantings dissolve with distance from the centre, where pointillist detail creates interest and focus around a calm empty space.
Two decorative, planted steel water tanks ground the design and create the negative focal space between. Limestone gravel covers the ground. Steel, water, limestone and structural plants provide strong architectural form which dissolves into the softer planting towards the periphery
The semi-shade planting is anchored by Cotinus smoke bushes, setting the tone for a palette of purples and reds. Astrantia ‘Claret’ underpins the scheme with emergent bursts of Sanguisorba, Kniphofia, Allium sphaerocephalon and bronze fennel. Centranthus ruber ‘Alba’ provides fresh hits of white throughout, while Athyrium ‘Silver falls’ and Geranium ‘Johnson’s Blue’ provide ground cover and a change of tone.
Around the water tanks, the blue-greens of Beschorneria yuccoides and Euphorbia rigida mingle with the steel of the tanks, peppered with Iris, Allium and Origanum and underplanted with Bistorta affinis ‘Superba’ and Saxifraga stolonifera. Where one tank is overhung with Sanguisorba, the other reflects the steely heads of Eryngium giganteum. The tanks contain a similar yet individual selection of flowering aquatic plants.
The sunny planting replaces the Cotinus with Perovskia, surrounded by coppery Helenium, Geum and Achillea ‘Walther Funcke’. Low planting replaces the ferns and geraniums with Stipa ichu and Euphorbia rigida. Dianthus cruentus and Alliums are repeated throughout and Kniphofia is echoed across the two sides.
