RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2017

Charlotte’s debut garden at RHS Chelsea won a gold medal for sponsor the Royal Bank of Canada in 2017.

2017 marked a significant year for the Bank; it was the 10th year of their RBC Blue Water Project, a wide-ranging, global commitment to help protect the world’s fresh water resources, as well as being the 150th anniversary of the Confederation of Canada.

The garden, designed to mark these two celebrations, sought to evoke the beauty of the Canadian wilderness taking inspiration from the geographically vast and ecologically vital Boreal forests and freshwater lakes of Canada – the largest intact forest and wetland ecosystem on earth.

Charlotte researched the project by travelling to the wild far reaches of northern Ontario for exploration by canoe, and returned to create a garden inspired by the flora and geology of the landscape. A combination of plants which are endemic to Canada are planted together with European alternatives, the combination of which conveyed a strong sense of the boreal biome. 

Gnarled, characterful Jack pines presided over the garden, through which clear water passed. Hard landscaping was inspired by the granite of the Canadian Shield. A pavilion, constructed from charred larch – larch being an endemic of the biome – and copper to reflect the mineral wealth of the geology, gave shelter to the space.