‘Welcome to Yorkshire’s Rhubarb Crumble and Custard Garden’ has been crowned the best garden at this year’s RHS Chelsea Flower Show by the public, winning the prestigious People’s Choice award for their favourite garden.
Leeds – The public voted in their thousands to make Welcome to Yorkshire’s Rhubarb Crumble and Custard Garden their winner, beating off competition from other courtyard garden contenders. The award follows the Royal Horticultural Society’s silver medal for the garden earlier in the week.
Gary Verity, chief executive of Welcome to Yorkshire says: “The public have voted with their hearts and chosen Yorkshire’s garden as their favourite. We have had thousands of people all week telling us that the garden has captured their imagination, we are just glad that it has been formally recognised with this award. Yorkshire’s Rhubarb Crumble and Custard Garden really is the cream of the crop!”
Kate Dundas from Gillespies, the designers of the garden, said: “We are thrilled to have picked up the People’s Choice award; it really has been an amazing week at Chelsea. The garden seems to have touched the hearts of so many people. It really is such an honour to have won a silver medal, but to have won the public’s favourite garden in the whole of Chelsea is just unbelievable.”
The garden is a quirky take on the classic dish of ‘rhubarb crumble and custard’ inspired by Yorkshire’s very own ‘Rhubarb Triangle’. The garden is made even more celebratory as earlier this year Yorkshire Forced Rhubarb was awarded Protected Designation of Origin Status by the European Commission’s Protected Food Name Scheme, the same as Parma ham and Champagne.
The garden uses traditional and natural materials and celebrates Yorkshire’s produce, craftsmanship and its famous landscapes. A mouthwatering bowl of rhubarb sits centre stage with a traditional dry stone wall representing the crumble topping and yellow sedum plants depicting a good serving of custard flowing through the garden. The York stone patio features a handcrafted oak chair, shaped like a spoon, which has been created by Yorkshire Dales craftsman, Peter Cummings.
The double award-winning ‘Welcome to Yorkshire’s Rhubarb Crumble and Custard Garden’, which has also received a royal visit from The Queen, will make a triumphant return to Yorkshire at the Great Yorkshire Show (13-15 July) before taking up permanent residence at RHS Harlow Carr, Harrogate.
Some we planted earlier… Yorkshire Gardens Campaign
RHS Chelsea Flower Show was also the launch-pad for a brand new Welcome to Yorkshire initiative, the Yorkshire Gardens campaign. The campaign highlights many of the beautiful gardens throughout Yorkshire which people can visit – from secret gardens to Capability Brown landscapes, from dramatic mazes to wildflower meadows.
All of the stunning gardens in Yorkshire offer not only a magnificent selection of plants but a wide range of events to make a visit to the region as enjoyable as possible.
More information can be found on www.yorkshire.com/gardens and people can order a free Yorkshire Gardens guide.
