Chelsea Flower Show 2022

Our first Main Avenue Show Garden at RHS Chelsea, The Morris & Co. Garden was inspired by visionary Arts & Crafts designer William Morris.

Re-imagining back into a garden setting two of his most famous patterns, a series of inter-connected pathways were designed to reflect his first wallpaper design ‘Trellis’; while at the centre of the garden, an intricate hand-crafted metal pavilion referenced his celebrated ‘Willow Boughs’ design.

Recognising that simplicity and craft lay at the heart of Morris’s beliefs, the garden also featured traditional arts and crafts alongside modern-day craftmanship.   The central pavilion featured posts and screens laser-cut with the Willow Boughs pattern, and a sequence of water channels were inlayed with the same metalwork.  Elsewhere, hand-made clay tiles and riven buff Yorkstone paving demonstrated more traditional arts and crafts methods.

Planting was also drawn from Morris’s designs, reflecting his love of colour and pattern in a palette of earthy reds and apricot tones accented with whites, blues and restful greens; while plants featured in his designs were used including willow and hawthorn.  Many of the plants were chosen with wildlife in mind with trees and shrubs offering food and habitat for birds, which were a recurring motif in Morris’s designs including in Trellis.

After the show, elements of the garden were relocated to three community gardens in Islington’s Packington Estate regeneration project, in collaboration with the Arc Centre Gardening Collective.  The newly redeveloped estate was chosen as it is located around the corner from the site where Morris’s prints were first produced by Jeffrey and Co. over 160 years ago.

The garden was awarded a gold medal.