Prize-Winning Gardens at Chelsea

Tour the winning gardens at London's 2013 Chelsea Flower Show.

By: Felicia Feaster

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Aussie Garden

Aussie Garden

A crowd favorite and Best Show Garden winner, the Trailfinders Australian Garden features a solar powered artist's retreat with an indoor shower and meant to reference an abstraction of the Waratah flower. The garden is by Melbourne designer Phillip Johnson.

Photo by: Image courtesy of Felicia Feaster

Image courtesy of Felicia Feaster

A crowd favorite and Best Show Garden winner, the Trailfinders Australian Garden features a solar powered artist's retreat with an indoor shower and meant to reference an abstraction of the Waratah flower. The garden is by Melbourne designer Phillip Johnson.

There were some big surprises at Chelsea this year, including the award of the Best Show Garden to the Trailfinders Australian Show Garden by Fleming's which suggested Jurassic Park meets Mad Max with its mash-up of tropical lushness and a cautionary sustainable message. Like many gardens at this year's show, conservation was a key feature of the Australian Show Garden.

No surprise that the Best Artisan Garden for smaller gardens at Chelsea went to the utterly magical An Alcove (Tokonoma) Garden, which was like a miniature Japanese woodcut come to life with a jewel box tatami room crowned by a green roof, a small waterfall and a use of moss and grass that covered the space in a blanket of green.

A message about the natural devastation of fire to renew the earth came in the After the Fire garden by James Basson and was meant to show the regeneration that occurs following a fire and nature's incredible resilience.

Top Gardens at Chelsea

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A Magical Escape

The award-winning Alcove Garden by Japanese designer Ishihara Kazauyuki, suggested a cross between a playhouse and a Japanese still life.

Photo By: Image courtesy of Felicia Feaster

An Alcove (Tokonoma) Garden

Chelsea's Best Artisan Prize went to this compact but powerful Japanese garden, which depicted a traditional tatami room and featured a green roof.

Photo By: Image courtesy of Felicia Feaster

Asian Arbor

The charming green roof-arbor and pathway in the storybook-ready An Alcove garden at Chelsea, winner of gold for Best Artisan Garden.

Photo By: Image courtesy of Felicia Feaster

The Brewin Dolphin Garden

This spectacular modernist garden, designed by Robert Myers, took home Chelsea gold and featured British native species.

Photo By: Image courtesy of Felicia Feaster

Aussie Garden

A crowd favorite and Best Show Garden winner, the Trailfinders Australian Garden features a solar powered artist's retreat with an indoor shower and meant to reference an abstraction of the Waratah flower. The garden is by Melbourne designer Phillip Johnson.

Photo By: Image courtesy of Felicia Feaster

Chill Pad

The prize-winning Australian garden featured a wooden platform with oversized pillows for some major chill-axing in the middle of this green paradise.

Photo By: Image courtesy of Felicia Feaster

A Bubbly Garden

Champagne Laurent-Perrier sponsored this garden blending features of a French and English garden. The garden was a gold prize winner at Chelsea.

Photo By: Image courtesy of Felicia Feaster

Copper Pavilion

This gold prize-winning garden sponsored by Champagne Laurent-Perrier and created by Swedish designer Ulf Nordfjell featured this stunning terrace above a water feature.

Photo By: Image courtesy of Felicia Feaster

Water Feature

Crisp modern shapes defined the spectacular gold-medal winning Laurent-Perrier garden at Chelsea.

Photo By: Image courtesy of Felicia Feaster

An Environmental Message

Created by Kate Gould Gardens, The Wasteland mixes plantings with shocking industrial touches like a cast iron bathtub, metal grates and shopping carts and mattress springs transformed into garden screens. Also one of my favorites, this garden took home gold.

Photo By: Image courtesy of Felicia Feaster

Up-Cycling in Action

Metal shopping carts and bed springs provided witty, urban-sourced garden divides in the mix of green and industrial in designer Kate Gould's award-winning The Wasteland garden.

Photo By: Image courtesy of Felicia Feaster

Green Meets Grit

Rhododendron and bamboo soften the hard lines of the metal and concrete-accented landscape of The Wasteland.

Photo By: Image courtesy of Felicia Feaster

Lush Life

A memorable mix of scale, texture and color defines the Arthritis Research UK Garden by designer Chris Beardshaw featuring Iris Supreme Sultan, Lupinus Masterpiece, Lunaria Corfu Blue, Tanacetum parthenium, Escholtzia californica and Anchusa Loddon Royalist.

Photo By: Image courtesy of Felicia Feaster

Art Walk

A garden path leads to a sculpture focal point in the Arthritis Research UK garden designed by Chris Beardshaw, which was characterized by vibrant, colorful plantings mixed with a sense of tranquility. Plantings included Iris Supreme Sultan, Lupinus Masterpiece, Lunaria Corfu Blue, Tanacetum parthenium, Escholtzia californica and Anchusa Loddon Royalist.

Photo By: Image courtesy of Felicia Feaster

After the Fire

This gold winner at the Chelsea Flower Show featured a scorched landscape, with charred trees coexisting with plantings to illustrate the notion of renewal from destruction. The Chelsea judges can be seen in the center of the garden, surveying the garden. Judges are treated with reverence at Chelsea and members of the press are quickly hustled away from gardens when judges are on site.

Photo By: Image courtesy of Felicia Feaster

Orange Edging

Designed by James Basson, the After the Fire garden featured charcoal mulch and a fire-orange border. The kind of bright green plantings that would appear after a fire convey the garden's message of nature's astounding ability to regenerate.

Photo By: Image courtesy of Felicia Feaster

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