RHS Wentworth Woodhouse 2025

RHS Silver-Gilt Medal winning Long Border.

A semi-formal border imagined in a courtyard or enclosure, where two separate areas of planting mirror one another but with differing palettes and forms. Symmetrically positioned water tanks provide architectural structure while accent plants mingle across, and a clear negative space in the centre provides rest for the eyes.

The aim is to challenge the idea of the focal point and also to explore the concepts of reflection and symmetry. Connections between the two plantings dissolve with distance from the centre, where pointillist detail creates interest and focus around a calm empty space.

 Two decorative, planted steel water tanks ground the design and create the negative focal space between. Limestone gravel covers the ground. Steel, water, limestone and structural plants provide strong architectural form which dissolves into the softer planting towards the periphery

 The semi-shade planting is anchored by Cotinus smoke bushes, setting the tone for a palette of purples and reds. Rodgersia ‘Bronze Peacock’ underpins the scheme with emergent spires of Thalictrum, Liatris and clusters of Clerodendrum.

 Around the water tanks, the blue-greens of Beschorneria yuccoides and Euphorbia rigida mingle with the steel of the tanks, peppered with Tulbaghia and Origanum and underplanted with Bistorta affinis ‘Superba’ and Saxifraga stolonifera. Where one tank is overhung with fiery Crocosmia, the other reflects the flowerheads of purple fennel. The tanks contain a similar yet individual selection of flowering aquatic plants.

 The sunny planting replaces the Cotinus with Perovskia, surrounded by Agastache, Kniphofia and Achillea ‘Walther Funcke’. Low plantings of Stipa ichu and Potentilla ‘Red Ace’ weave through the design. Dianthus cruentus and Bistorta are scattered around the edges of the empty central space.