RHS Wentworth Woodhouse Flower Show
Written by Gareth Wilson
Thirteen years ago, my team and I built our first show garden at the RHS Tatton Flower Show. It was a 6m x 4m back-to-back garden, and at the time, it felt like the biggest garden we’d ever built. The pressure of going into the unknown made it a huge moment for us. We ended up winning a Silver Gilt Medal and Best in Category for our Peak Reflections garden, and we were over the moon.
Three years later, in 2015, we teamed up with Paul Hervey Brookes and main sponsors Perennial, and won our first of three clean sweep Gold Medals, including Best in Show and Best Construction for the Perennial Legacy Garden (see Figures 2 & 3).
Fast forward to 2025, and we’re still building show gardens with Paul Hervey Brookes. This time, RHS Tatton has moved to RHS Wentworth Woodhouse near Rotherham—a move by the RHS to attract new visitors from different parts of the country.
Our sponsor this year was the RNIB, and the result was nothing short of outstanding. We achieved another clean sweep Gold Medal, Best in Show, and Best Construction.
We also had fantastic support from product sponsors:
- Instarmac, who supplied their ProBed bedding mortar, ProPrime, and SlipBond adhesive
- Core Landscape Products, who provided their game-changing Core Datum Edge, a seamless corten steel edge restraint (see Figure 3)
- Breedon Aggregates, who once again supplied both Breedon Gravel and Penrhyn Welsh Slate
The larger paved areas featured slate crusts, a waste product taken from the top of large blocks of slate at the Penrhyn quarry. These have a very undulating, riven surface . On the paths, we used Slimsett slate pavers with gravel joints.
A huge thanks goes to my expert paving team: Mitchell Salthouse, Adam Worrall, Henry Wardly, Joe Irvine, Paul Jones, Rob Woodhouse, and Justin Himpson.
It was a fantastic show—made even better by the glorious weather.
