RHS Chelsea Flower Show
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The Seedlip Garden

A garden overflowing with carefully colour co-ordinated planting, set around an outdoor apothecary, enhanced by unusual copper sculptures and a pair of venerable lemon trees

Artisan Gardens

From the show

  • A quartet of hops climbing up the central structure, together with herbs such as fennel, sage and rosemary, highlighting the use of these plants in the distillation of non-alcoholic drinks and herbal medicine
  • Use of plants with a limited colour palette enhance the extensive use of copper including orange flowered geums, euphorbia and iris, along with the bronzy coloured ferns
  • Sculptures made from copper piping float above the soft planting while the central structure incorporates the alchemy symbol for copper
  • Impressive fruiting lemon trees planted in the garden serve as focal points
  • Beside the garden in a glass case is the book The Art of Distillation written in 1651 which inspired Seedlip and this garden

At the garden

This conceptual garden is inspired by the story of Seedlip, its 17th-century apothecary origins and modern-day pioneering approach to distillation.

Set in symbolic oak housing with copper detailing, ‘old meets new’ laboratory-style benches showcase these respective eras. A central abstract copper sculpture depicts the 350-year-old journey from book to bottle that inspired Seedlip’s founder to develop the world’s first distilled non-alcoholic spirits in his kitchen in the woods. Copper pipework and channels carry water through the garden, in tribute to their importance in the process of distillation.

The garden’s planting palette is influenced by Seedlip’s botanicals and species relevant to both modern and ancient herbal medicine.

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The Royal Horticultural Society is the UK’s leading gardening charity. We aim to enrich everyone’s life through plants, and make the UK a greener and more beautiful place.