$\"""\"$ <\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div> \u00a9 CC BY-SA 4.0<\/i> <\/span>\n<\/div>\nOne of the most original garden designers of his generation, Hancock\u2019s theatrical design sensibility was well-suited to the Chelsea milieu. He won three consecutive gold medals in the 1930s. Hancock had already found fame with a spectacular neo-Baroque roof garden for the Rockefeller Center in New York; back in England, his style was somewhat more traditional, with \u2018country gardens\u2019 for Chelsea featuring his signature moon-gate.\n
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1937-1945: Sylvia Crowe<\/strong><\/p>\n
One of the greats of 20th-century landscape design, Crowe was one among several designers who effectively made her name at the Chelsea show. Having trained at the women\u2019s horticultural college at Swanley, Crowe\u2019s first job was with the London nursery Cutbush & Co, which also offered a garden-design service (as did many nurseries at the time). Crowe designed several notable Chelsea gardens; one featured her favourite bluebells<\/a> in woodland, while more controversial was a modernist summerhouse constructed from concrete.<\/p>\n
1947 \u2013 1962: Francis Hanger<\/strong><\/p>\n
The curator of the Royal Horticultural Society\u2019s garden at Wisley<\/a> created several notable show gardens at Chelsea during the 1950s, many of them featuring rhododendrons and azaleas (he had formerly worked at Exbury Gardens). His 1951 garden celebrating the Festival of Britain was a re-creation of a Himalayan gorge which required 23 lorryloads of plants brought up from Wisley \u2014 which was somewhat depleted as a result. He followed this up in 1955 with a giant bog garden. These RHS-sponsored gardens were perhaps the last gasp of \u2018Edwardian\u2019 horticultural grandeur at the show.<\/p>\n
1956-1970: Graham Stuart Thomas<\/strong><\/p>\n
The great planstman, old-rose<\/a> specialist and adviser to the National Trust designed garden exhibits for the Chelsea marquee in his capacity as co-director of Sunningdale Nurseries. His highly influential exhibits consisted mainly of the choicest trees, shrubs and the \u2018old roses\u2019 with which he was strongly identified. Today the emphasis among designers is much more on perennial plants.<\/p>\n
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1958: Russell Page<\/strong><\/p>\n
The great French nursery firm of Vilmorin-Andrieux had to be persuaded to make an ornamental vegetable garden<\/a> or potager the theme for its garden at the 1958 show, and Page was commissioned as the designer. The result, a formal design of raised beds with bright flowers and extravagantly trained espalier fruit trees, was a sensation. Vita Sackville-West<\/a> hailed it as, \u2018one of the prettiest, gayest, and most amusing things ever to be presented at Chelsea\u2019. This was Page\u2019s only Chelsea effort, but if you are only going to do it once \u2026<\/p>\n
1962: John Brookes<\/strong><\/p>\n
The pioneer of small-garden<\/a> modernism made a startling and controversial debut with a garden featuring a geometric grid design, concrete pavers and a modernist pergola. It had been commissioned by the Landscape Institute, and later Brookes worked with the Concrete Association as a sponsor. He continued to exhibit at Chelsea intermittently through the 1970s and \u201880s, but his relationship with the conservative RHS was sometimes strained. The white fibreglass chairs designed by Verner Panton for Brookes\u2019s 1972 \u2018suburban\u2019 show garden were removed by the RHS because they were, \u2018too avant-garde to be seen by Her Majesty\u2019, as he recalled. He sneaked the chairs back in, and some in the royal party even tried them out.<\/p>\n
1976 \u2013 1987: Beth Chatto<\/strong><\/p>\n
$\"""\"$ <\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>\nThe great plantswoman developed a cult following with plant displays in the marquee which were not \u2018show gardens\u2019 but beautiful compositions featuring choice plants from her Essex nursery, \u2018Beth Chatto<\/a>\u2018s Unusual Plants\u2019. The naturalistic style was at odds with Chelsea\u2019s nursery traditions, but a generation of gardeners (notably Dan Pearson<\/a>) was enchanted. Chatto\u2019s displays, across 11 consecutive years, became one of the main events at the show and are still talked about by keen gardeners, not least for the emphasis on foliage and form as much as flower.\n
1976 \u2013 present day: David Stevens<\/strong>\nDesigner of understated and elegant formal gardens with a modern feel, Stevens was in 1976 the first garden designer to be mentioned by the RHS by name in its programme. Stevens has made more than a dozen Chelsea show gardens and won the best-in-show award on three occasions. He is known for his books and teaching, which combine practical clarity with design savvy.<\/p>\n
1990 \u2013 present day: Arabella Lennox-Boyd<\/strong><\/p>\n
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Head to our Chelsea Flower Show hub page for all the latest coverage of the Show\u00a0<\/em><\/a><\/h3>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n <\/p><\/div> <\/div>