What’s On Magazine June issue is out now. Along with a list of events for June in your local area and beyond, we feature a review of the 2023 Chelsea Flower Show. Pick up a copy at one of our many local distribution points including major supermarkets.
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Garden for patients recovering from spinal injury wins Best in Show at RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2023

RHS Chelsea Flower Show has awarded Best in Show to Harris Bugg Studio for Horatio’s Garden, a wheelchair accessible garden for patients recovering from spinal injury.

Horatio’s Garden is the first fully accessible garden to win Best in Show with wheelchair access being fundamental to the whole design process and is the second time the design duo has won the coveted award for a garden at the world famous flower show.

On receiving Best in Show, Charlotte Harris and Hugo Bugg said: “It’s unbelievable and still sinking in. It’s a really special garden for us because of the nature of the charity. Horatio’s is a charity about gardens and how they help on journeys of healing and so it feels absolutely right that it should win Best in Show. We are delighted for the charity, and we hope it helps to raise the profile of the incredible work they do and are delighted it will live on to form the heart of Horatio’s Garden Sheffield after the show.”

On selecting this year’s winner, RHS Chair of Show Garden Judges Marie-Louise Agius said: “The standard of the Show Gardens this year was extremely high. What particularly stood out about The Horatio’s Garden was how the design had been driven by the end user, to be experienced by spinal injury patients from a bed or wheelchair. The garden is uplifting, beautiful, and considered and for someone who has had a life altering spinal injury it will provide them with a wonderful sanctuary. The brief and the garden was delivered at an exceptional level.”

The entry by six-time Gold medal winner Cleve West, The Centrepoint Garden, was awarded the prize for Best Construction in the Show Garden category. The garden, which West described as a “very visceral metaphor for young people facing homelessness” and featured a half demolished building at its centre and upended tree roots, was praised for its impressive construction.

In the small garden categories, Best in Shows were awarded to Charlie Hawkes’ The National Brain Appeal’s Rare Space Garden in the Sanctuary Gardens category, and to Rosemary Coldstream for Feels Like Home in the Balcony and Container Gardens. The Talitha Arts Garden, by Joe and Laura Carey, won the top award in the All About Plants category.

Demonstrating the skills and expertise of the growers in the Great Pavilion a total of 51 Gold Medals were awarded with Best Exhibit going to Kells Bay House & Gardens. First time exhibitors The Caley Brothers received the New Design Award for their display of mushrooms – the home grown edibles collection.

Plant of the Year was also awarded to Agapanthus Black Jack’ (‘Dwaghyb02’) amongst a shortlist of 18 plants and the RHS Sustainable Product of the Year went to Lindum wildflower turf.