Every year thousands of people flock to the incredible Chelsea Flower Show where the best of design, planting and products never fail to inspire.
Lichen Garden Antiques been lucky to work with some of the country’s leading landscape designers on countless projects for private homes, but have also had the opportunity to supply some of their Gold medal-winning and Best in Show gardens at Chelsea.
This is just a selection for which we’ve supplied architectural antiques, reclaimed York flagstones, reclaimed building materials and garden antiques.
Main Avenue at Chelsea is renowned worldwide. The level of deign detail is incredible and work starts more than a year out for these Showgardens. As one Show ends, plans are already being worked on for the following year.
Designers have to submit a design brief to the RHS for approval, and their medal-success is evaluated against how well the final, planted creation meets the brief.
Build on the grounds of the Royal Hospital Chelsea takes place over a couple of weeks in early May and the organisation of hundreds of lorries delivering plants and materials is something to behold. The show is open to the public for less than a week and then it’s all over for another year. Thousands of garden enthusiasts attend every year, aiming to get inspiration for their own gardens.
Cleve West The Centrepoint Garden 2023. Gold.
Described as “genius” by landscape designer Joe Swift, Cleve West’s garden for Centrepoint which highlighted the plight of the homeless in the UK portrayed a ruined house which has been over-taken by nature. Lichen supplied all of the reclaimed building materials including bricks, quarry tiles and stone artefacts, as well as the old garden table and chairs.
Cleve West The Daily Telegraph Garden 2011. Gold. Best in Show.
We supplied limestone cobbles and reclaimed Cotswold walling for this wonderful garden sponsored by the Daily Telegraph.
Inspired by Cleve’s visit to the Roman ruins at Ptolemais in Libya, the planting demonstrated how elements of the garden would draft, self-seed and evolve over time.
Cleve West Brewin Dolphin Garden 2012. Gold. Best in Show.
We shouldn’t be biased, but this garden for Brewin Dolphin is one of our favourites and not because we supplied so many reclaimed architectural antiques for it. It was Cleve’s second consecutive Best in Show and utilisied strong topiary shaping alongside looser layers of herbaceous planting.
We sourced the eye-catching antique stone wellhead, all of the reclaimed cobble stones and all of the limestone paving. The delicate French wrought iron gates and 18th century limestone finials with their distinctive flame shaping were all found as the result of many miles of traveling in Europe.
Cleve West The M&G Garden 2014. Gold.
Cleve West won yet another Gold on his sixth visit to Chelsea for M&G with the incredible Paradise garden inspired by the original Persian gardens more than a thousand years ago.
Spaces for contemplation and sanctuary, Cleve’s contemporary take on the classic design featured an amazing Tree of Life wall sculpture he carved on stone we supplied.
Water was always an important feature in Paradise gardens and this one featured a tall, octagonal limestone fountain which Lichen Garden Antiques commissioned specially. We also supplied the building materials for the base including British flint and stone.
Cleve West The M&G Garden 2016. Gold.
Taking inspiration from the childhood gardens of his Exmoor childhood, Cleve’s second garden for M&G garden narrowly missed out on Best in Show to Andy Sturgeon in 2016.
The Spring sunshine dappled through the trees onto the planting below, against which the large-scale boulders we supplied provided the perfect foil. Smaller boulders were hand carved by Cleve West to create impromptu birdbaths. Lichen also supplied all of the sandstone paving.
Tom Stuart Smith Laurent-Perrier 2010. Gold.
This modern, romantic garden had an elegant bronze pavilion by Jamie Fobert at its far end, with a long pool surrounded on all sides with reclaimed York flagstones from Lichen. Tom described the dreamy planting as “vibrant Spring woodland.” The garden was sponsored by Laurent Perrier.
Tom Stuart Smith The Weston Garden 2018
A marquee garden celebrating 60 years of the Garfield Weston Foundation, Tom Stuart Smith’s 9th garden at Chelsea was unusual for allowing public access onto the space via four different entrance ways. He described it as being “a carefully studied balance between enclosure and openness with an intimate retreat at its heart. Full of texture and variety with a strong over-arching structure of evergreens.”
Lichen supplied the limestone cobbles, the steps and the limestone slips.
