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Garden name

Laurent-Perrier Garden - Nature & Human Intervention

Designer

Luciano Giubbilei

Awards

Gold

Video tour of garden

Description of garden

In this garden Luciano Giubbilei plays with the notion of how nature and human design coexist in a garden. At the front of the garden floriferous and romantic borders run along either side of a long pool. Planted with pink, maroon and brown flowers the borders are softened by the hazy flower heads of Deschampsia cespitosa.

At the rear of the garden is a more reflective, quiet area with a pavilion by Kengo Kuma and sculpture by Peter Randall-Page. Both artists use natural elements in their work; Kuma uses finely worked bamboo which moves in the wind and casts shadows around the garden. Randall-Page works with the natural form of large stones, imposing a human order on their surfaces to create tactile pieces which also work with the play of light throughout the day.

Tying the garden together are large bare-stemmed Parrotia perscica. An example of how the human hand can tame natural beauty, these 40-year-old Parrotia have been raised in a nursery and over time the crowns have been lifted leaving the naturally elegant twisted stems exposed.

"If I have to have a wish for the garden I would like people to, connect to nature, not just through the plants and the trees but through beauty, the beauty of the sculpture and the fragility of the pavilion"

Photo

Pool leading to bamboo pavilion by Kengo Kuma

Inspiration / influences

A love of art and nature has inspired this garden, although there is a wildness to it which Luciano hasn't employed before. He's working in a 'bio-diverse' way with the sculptures and plants and avoiding too much intervention by letting the artists and plants almost free-reign. He says: "I feel I'm sort of out of control".

List of plants in the garden

Parrotia persica - Persian ironwood

Pinus mugo - dwarf mountain pine

Digitalis x mertonensis - Strawberry foxglove

Deschampsia cespitosa - Tufted hair grass

Carpinus betulus - Hornbeam

Iris 'Dutch Chocolate'

Also

Luciano designed the Chelsea Gold medal-winning Laurent-Perrier garden in 2009.

Links

List of 2011 show gardens - Chelsea Flower Show

Chelsea Flower Show photographs

TV schedule - Chelsea Flower Show

List of 2011 show gardens - Chelsea Flower Show

Archive: Meet the 2010 garden designers