Beth Chatto: The Drought Resistant Garden

The festival is paying homage to legendary plantswoman Beth Chatto who passed away last year. Beth has been named as the RHS Hampton Court Palace Garden Festival 2019 Horticultural Hero.

Beth Chatto OBE was one of the most influential horticulturists of the past 50 years. During the ’70s and ’80s she won 10 Gold medals at RHS Chelsea Flower Show for her displays, which were both aesthetically pleasing and introduced the idea of sustainable planting: ‘right plant, right place’.

For the Hampton Court Palace Garden Festival, David Ward, Garden Director of the Beth Chatto Gardens, who worked closely with Beth for more than 35 years, and his team have recreated her world-famous, drought-tolerant garden, which features a range of plants adapted to cope with prolonged dry spells. It has never been irrigated since its inception in 1991/2 and survived almost two months with no water last summer, proving beyond doubt its drought-resistant qualities.

The planting focuses on demonstrating how the right plants for drought conditions can work beautifully together providing a rich tapestry of flower and foliage colour, texture and shape.