A TALENTED garden designer from Castleknock has won a gold medal at a prestigious UK flower show just weeks after scooping five gold medals at Bloom.
Alan Rudden from Castleknock received a Gold Medal for his ‘Santa Rita Living La Vida 120’ garden at the RHS Hampton Court flower show to add to the ones he picked up at Bloom.
Only seven Gold Medals were awarded out of a total of 31 gardens exhibiting at what is the world’s largest annual flower show.
Alan was the only Irish garden designer to exhibit at the show and the only recipient of a Gold Medal in the ‘World Gardens’ category.
Alan is a top garden and landscape designer who has designed numerous award-winning gardens. He recently won a handful of Gold Medals at Bloom, including the coveted ‘Best In Show’ and ‘Best Show Planting’ prizes.
He is also founder of Outside Options Ltd, a company specialising in the creation of high-end quality private gardens.
“I am really thrilled with the medal announcement,” he said at the Hampton Court show.
“It has been a lot of hard work, in intense heat, to get the garden built to the standard that is expected at a show such as this.
“There are some truly stunning gardens on show here and for ours to be classed among the top is a huge honour.”
Alan’s ‘Santa Rita Living La Vida 120’ garden was inspired by the colours and terroir of the countryside that surrounds the Santa Rita vineyards in Central Chile, which Alan visited with his sponsor last year.
The garden is a contemporary space that blends arid and Mediterranean planting with strong architectural forms.
The planting scheme features plants that thrive in Chile but can also withstand the Irish and UK climate, with the exception of a small number of key plants such as various cacti.
Key plants include multi-stemmed Arbutus unedo trees, Pittosporum tobira ‘Nanum’(Japanese mock orange) and Agave americana (American aloe).
Hard elements in the garden are made up of earthy raw materials, with the addition of a steel wall that cuts through the garden, adding a punch of oxide yellow.
The garden has been designed to provide a tranquil, secluded and beautiful space; the perfect place to sit back, relax, enjoy a moment with loved ones, pour a glass of wine and live ‘La Vida 120’.
This year’s RHS Hampton Court Flower Show ran from July2-8.
It’s attended by an average of 140,000 people each year.