RHS Urban

I'm a keen gardener so I was super excited to see the new Urban show the Royal Horticultural Society brought to Manchester in April. I've been a frequent visitor to RHS gardens and shows - Chelsea, Tatton, Bridgewater, Bodnant. With a very different vibe to the other shows the focus at RHS Urban was on house plants, small urban scapes and balcony spaces. Inside the cavernous industrial Manchester setting of Mayfield Depot we were treated to blossoming towers of flowers, tall forest trees, suspended orchids, seedling sprout farms, mossariums, mushrooms grown in hanging macrame in abundance. I even spotted Tine Tempah down by the Gin bar! I hope the show will return in the future and we can look forward to some more big ideas work from the RHS.

RHS URBAN | EMILY HAUCK KARIKA NOVA

clockwise from the top left: inspirational bathroom ideas by blue diamond, slightly ironic sign about low light tolerant plants - as everything was indoors (unique to this show) however inspiring it was actually quite difficult to see the colours and textures of the plants in such low lighting, absolutely loved this project mushroom space by caley brothers complete with mushroom macrame, textural immersion floral installation by hannah clark founder of the bud and pot, art piece part of the mayfield botanical pattern book exhibition, orchid display, moss and life cycle designed by marcin ruta and claire page founders of moss clerks.

RHS Bridgewater

I love a good garden visit (the beautiful Bodnant here) so I was very excited to see the new RHS Bridgewater last week. It's been the talk of the town and almost impossible to get tickets over the summer months. With an Autumn visit it linked in well with what I'd picked up on in the recent Chelsea Flower Show hosted unusually in Autumn this year (an interesting take on that in TOAST magazine!).

Along with the newly planted gardens there is the Plant Centre, Bridgewater Cafe which cooks using produce grown in the Kitchen Garden and a lovely new retail space with a dedicated stationery area. Fab to see some of my favourites in there including the latest garden themed design from Paper Whale, stationery from Caroline Gardner and Christmas from Penny Kennedy. 

I hugely enjoyed visiting the gardens after the buzz of the fully flowered season and seeing a reflective, relaxed space filled with autumnal lush berries and sculptural seed heads - there was certainly plenty of inspiration for the coming Christmas season. I hope to be visiting again soon and see how the garden grows over time.

RHS BRIDGEWATER | EMILY HAUCK KARIKA NOVA

above clockwise from the top left: a view in the weston walled garden, the garden cottage area,  snap of the fab stationery shop, a view out from the shop onto moon bridge water,  welcome sign, bee and butterfly garden, the paradise garden .

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