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A Chelsea Adventure
The Matisse Garden – An application for Chelsea Flower Show 2011 I’m sitting here in the middle of a heap of gardening books, Henri Matisse’s biographies, and a blank sheet of paper. The good news is that I have sponsorship for the next extreme journey in my life: creating a garden at Chelsea Flower Show. This will be my second attempt. In 2008, we had just opened Maryfield garden to the National Gardens Scheme (NGS) for the first time. It was May and we had been accepted into the infamous Yellow Book; some of you may have seen the BBC2 series on qualifying. With that challenge behind us, Jacqueline and I were sitting with our wonderful group of volunteers in the kitchen feeling exhausted and glowing after a long day. We had had over 200 visitors and felt very satisfied. The team was Daphne and Derek Walker on the teas, Brenda and Tony Hickman on the gate and plants, and of course Jacqueline making hot cakes! The next day I cheekily made a phone call to the chief executive of the NGS and asked her if she fancied 'doing' Chelsea the following year. I think it’s fair to say that Julia was very excited and enthusiastic about the idea. Off I went on my journey to design the Elliptical Walled Garden for Chelsea Flower Show 2009. For various reasons, mainly associated with funding, this first attempt was not successful. A show garden costs on average £250,000 and I wasn’t a known designer so I hadn’t got the 'weight' of designers like Tom Stuart-Smith or Andy Sturgeon. However, the experience has proven extremely useful in my career as a garden designer. The learning curve at that time was almost vertical and it was the NGS who helped me. They introduced me to a number of interesting characters in the gardening world. Among them were TV presenter Joe Swift, who is now president of the NGS, and Alan Gray who owns a wonderful garden at East Ruston in Norfolk. He has been involved with the RHS for years and is a garden critic. I met nurseryman David Howard of dahlia fame (beautiful bronze foliage topped with red/orange flowers); and Rosie Atkins who had created a Chelsea garden a few years earlier and was then Curator of the Chelsea Physic garden. So fast-forward two years and I am now applying to create the Matisse Garden at Chelsea 2011. This will be an urban garden, occupying a 7 by 5 metre space. It is in conjunction with the NGS again and we have sponsorship from a multinational software company.
I started 2010 with the objective of becoming a full-time gardener. In fact, it’s a little more than that. Most of my life I’ve designed and made things – mainly furniture, clothes, buildings and gardens, including of course Maryfield. I had decided in the previous September that I wanted to move from the software business in favour of focusing on my more creative side. By December I had cleared the decks and was able to focus on becoming a 'gardener'.
Gardening has been a passion for over 25 years. I think it was the visits to the magnificent Cornish gardens in my childhood that started it. Gardens are about beauty, reminding us of nature, reconnecting us with the earth. Unfortunately, a drop in gardening knowledge and skills, coupled with less and less free time has meant beautiful gardens have become less accessible to many of us. However, we still desire this beauty more than ever!
My first activity in January 2010 was to attend a life drawing course in a studio in the East End of London. I also had to get the garden at Maryfield ready for opening in the spring and prepare for the Marathon des Sables in April. It was from this drawing class that the idea of the Matisse garden was born.
When Henri Matisse appeared on the Paris art scene in the early 1900s, he shocked critics with his controversial use of colour and form. He was involved in the Fauvist (wild beasts) movement and is said to have been a major influence on Cubism. Cubism incidentally lead to Art Deco, and was part of the simplification or reduction of the world we live in which lead to the Arts and Crafts movement. Throughout his life Matisse used colour in exciting new ways, and his use of shape and form is still dramatic. Matisse’s legacy is all around us. Many designers, such as Paul Smith, writers of children's books, etc., have been influenced by the simplicity and the bold colour combinations of Matisse.
My Matisse garden is influenced by his use of form and colour. I have used striking blue delphiniums, with anchusa azurea ’Loddon Royalist’, red and yellow peonies with orange iris, purples and pinks, all under-planted with bronze heucheras and euphorbias. Height is provided by large fig trees and a very old, gnarled olive! The centrepiece is a bronze pool with an infinity edge. This provides a reflective surface in the middle of the garden space. The final touch is an eight-foot-high ultramarine blue wall with an arch spanning the garden.
The application to the RHS is in process. While I await their decision I am working on my other garden design projects. Amongst them are a walled garden, a shady garden, and a bog garden - not to mention an old friend wanting me to design a garden at his ranch in Sydney!
Roger Andews
Roger's own website: Maryfield Gardens