Continuing the garden design competition Provender Nurseries are pleased to announce Hazel Coleman as the winner for a redesign of Open Air Theatre Bed in The Regent’s Park.
This competition run by Provender Nurseries in partnership with Capel Manor at two campuses has been ongoing for six years with some excellent designs and designers winning the prizes. Year 2 and 3 students of Garden Design: Plants and Planting Design were invited this year to enter the garden design competition.
Judging took place in November with over 25 students from Capel Manor College, Regents Park Campus, presenting their designs to Liz Hughes of Provender Nurseries and Tim Isted, Head Gardener of the Queen Mary’s Garden, Sophie Guinness, Lecturer in Planting and Garden Design and Melinda Hilliard, Garden Design Tutor at Capel Manor College. Each student talked through their designs with the panel justifying plant choices and highlighting plants or areas of interest.
Now in its sixth year this year’s redesign was particularly challenging as the bed selected also had to incorporate space for 40 cultivars of Delphinium held by the National Delphinium Collection. The bed in question was the largest area so far selected for the design competition at an area of 31m x 21m and is viewed from both sides, one side for the National Delphinium Collection and the other viewed by the Open Air Theatre.
The brief provided to students asked for design submissions to include tiered planting, wildlife friendly plant choices and instructions to screen off the entrance to open air theatre. The judges felt that Hazel’s design reflected the brief and provided a wide, interesting and varied plant choice as well as providing a solid showcase for the National Delphinium Collection.
As the bed is viewed from both sides many students divided the space using hedging of varying heights, however, Hazel’s design particularly stood out as the divide was represented by a central hedge following the shape of the Thames.
Hazel’s design was inspired by Virginia Woolf’s novel Mrs. Dalloway with its abundant imagery of flowers and themes of femininity, passage of time and the modern society. Hazel states in her planting philosophy for the design; ‘The redesign of the bed echoes the structure of Mrs Dalloway which follows a day in the protagonist’s life across London. The east side of the bed hosts delphiniums which is one of the key plants that Mrs Dalloway picks at the start of the novel. This harmonises with other plants with upright and rounded forms. Overall, the planting scheme makes use of a combination of shrubs, ferns and flowers from Edwardian times with contemporary grasses and new cultivars. While this bed is designed to be in full bloom in mid-summer, evergreen and pollinator friendly plants make up a large part of the planting, providing year-round structure and interest that is extended with a wide range of bulbs for spring and winter.’
Hazel has a background in Arts management and following her travels to Japan she decided to study at Capel Manor where she completed Level 3 Plants & Planting design course in 2018 and is planning to complete Level 3 Hard Landscaping next year.
Hazel has been presented with a cheque for £250.00 for her achievement and Provender Nurseries wish her every success for the future.
Hazel’s website can be found at hazelcolemangardens.com
