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Cool Garden

With a cool, calm colour palette and focus on water, the newly opened Cool Garden is the perfect foil for the fiery planting of the neighbouring Hot Garden.

Cool update for a classic garden

Formerly known as the Spiral Garden, this area has been redesigned by multi-award-winning garden designer Jo Thompson and opened as the Cool Garden in July 2019. The garden provides an inspiring example of how a designed landscape can help deal with heavy rainfall and flash flooding – a typical occurrence in Devon and an increasing challenge elsewhere in the UK due to climate change.

The former Spiral Garden, planted in 1992, was designed by Tom Stuart-Smith shortly after Rosemoor was gifted to the RHS.

Reflective design

The Cool Garden is Rosemoor’s first and only garden designed around an ornamental water feature, adding a beautiful, reflective element to the space.

A curved terrace, which allows visitors to look down across the garden, has five water blades that feed rills running through the area into a teardrop-shaped pond.

Shades of cool

Building upon the relaxed style, subtle tones and silvery foliage of the former Spiral Garden, the space features plants with cool-coloured flowers of blue, white and pastel shades that complement and flow with the water element of the garden's design.

There are around 3,000 plants in the garden, many of which have been recycled from its original design, with others added to enhance Rosemoor's overall collection of plants.

Calming contrast

Key plants that have been especially selected, and tried and tested in the region, include the silver birch Betula pendula Fastigiata Joes, selections of Hydrangea paniculata and Philadelphus, and Nepeta racemosa ‘Walker's Low’, as well as a range of grasses that add movement and texture to the space.

The cool, calm planting scheme counters the fiery hues of the nearby Hot Garden, which is ablaze with vibrant colour in summer, and continues the link between the two neighbouring gardens.

Although we have natural streams at Rosemoor, we want to show how a designed landscape can help deal with heavy rainfall. As well as water rills, the lower section of the garden uses a permeable resin-bound gravel to help reduce surface water runoff – a solution that gardeners can use at home.

Jonathan Webster, Curator of RHS Garden Rosemoor

Although we have natural streams at Rosemoor, we want to show how a designed landscape can help deal with heavy rainfall. As well as water rills, the lower section of the garden uses a permeable resin-bound gravel to help reduce surface water runoff – a solution that gardeners can use at home.

Jonathan Webster, Curator of RHS Garden Rosemoor

Plants in the Cool Garden

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