RHS Chelsea Flower Show

A reimagined rose garden

Colm Joseph's award-winning garden at RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2019, The Perennial Lifeline Garden, featured a classical rose garden reimagined through modern planting design as a more naturalistic, sustainable and lower maintenance 'rose meadow'.

Within the rose meadow, freestanding metal screens, stone and topiary columns, and a pair of modern fountains combined to create a contemporary colonnade. Multi-stem trees added their sculptural form, framing views through the space.

Within the rose meadow, freestanding metal screens, stone and topiary columns, and a pair of modern fountains combined to create a contemporary colonnade. Multi-stem trees added their sculptural form, framing views through the space.

Bespoke limestone columns and contemporary laser-cut steel screens combined with topiary columns to form an abstracted colonnade. A modern steel fountain traversed the colonnade to allow visitors to walk underneath the cascading water. The fountain flowed into a rill that circulated through the rose meadow planting, while cantilevered limestone seats provided quiet spots for visitors to relax.

A modern reimagining of two classical garden design ideas, a colonnade and a rose garden, this design used the principles and materials of classical design that define Sir Roy Strong's The Laskett Gardens. The garden was created as a celebration of the 180th anniversary of horticultural charity, Perennial, and Sir Roy's bequeathment of The Laskett Gardens to Perennial.