RHS Hampton Court Palace - 'Best in Show'

Congratulations to Zoflora & Caudwell Children's Wild Garden.

'BEST IN SHOW' WINNER DESIGNED BY ADAM WHITE & ANDREE DAVIES OF DAVIES WHITE LTD

An expansive rather naturally styled garden with a restful feel, set in a woodland setting with a shallow, rock-edged stream running though it, and created for children with disabilities in mind

This garden highlights the beneficial qualities of a therapeutic garden for children with various disabilities, in particular Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD).

“At Davies White Ltd we are passionate about reconnecting children with nature and believe the design process is as important as the end product. Working with the children from Caudwell Children has been hugely rewarding, and we are now looking forward to seeing them enjoy the garden and allowing their imaginations to run wild!”

As you can see fro the video below the garden is a playful experience with beautiful edible planting, wild grassy mounds, tree-top nests, a huge spinning boulder, hidden Zoflora woodland scent pots, a secret mushroom cave, a giant hollow oak log and opportunities to play and explore with. There are a number of secluded spaces within the garden offer somewhere safe to relax – a key feature in designing spaces for children with ASD.

Following the show, the garden will be reimagined at the Caudwell International Children’s Centre at Keele University, which provides multi-disciplinary support for children with developmental disorders. Find out more about this great organisation

Trudi Beswick: Chief Executive of Caudwell Children chats to us about the sensory experience of the Best IN Show Winning Garden.

Deputy Show Manager Gemma Lake talks to us about the Zoflora & Caudwell Children's Wild Garden. 

THE GARDEN DESIGNERS

RHS Gold Medal and BBC People’s Choice award-winning designers Adam White and Andrée Davies, of Davies White Landscape Architects, boast a wealth of experience in creating playful landscapes and gardens for children, and they have been tasked with creating a beautiful and engaging sensory garden for the service users at the centre. A large proportion of these children have some form of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). The garden uses a woodland setting as the theme and aims to show how an accessible and inclusive wild garden can reconnect children of all abilities with nature.

Davies White Ltd is an award-winning chartered landscape architects practice based in Kingston-upon-Thames, Surrey. Since 2007, the team has specialised in designing and creating playful landscapes and gardens for children. Notable award winning schemes include the Commonwealth Games Legacy Park in Glasgow, Dinton Pastures Country Park and the Lyric Theatre Roof Garden in London.

Director Adam White is a chartered landscape architect and in 2012 he was made a Fellow of the Royal Chartered Landscape Institute for his work promoting children’s health and well-being. Andrée Davies is also a landscape architect and director of Davies White Ltd. She is a graduate of the English Gardening School at the Chelsea Physic Garden.

ABOUT ZOFLORA

Fragrance has played a key part in the garden as Zoflora is renowned for its range of beautifully fragrant concentrated disinfectants, and so an assortment of unique smelling pots will be installed in the garden. These will allow garden visitors to experience the vibrant and beautiful elements of Zoflora’s expertly crafted fragrances.

Zoflora will also be launching its new garden-inspired fragrance at the show – ‘Lavender Escape’. An evolution of household favourite Lavender, the new fragrance contains real essential oils and combines the relaxing scent of English lavender coupled with freshly picked jasmine, wild rose and a touch of basil on a clean musky powdery base. It will be available in-stores in the 120ml pack from July 2017.

ABOUT TRUDI BESWICK 

As a Director in the Caudwell Group, in 1999 Trudi Beswick was assigned the task of turning John Caudwell's philanthropic vision into a reality. As Chief Executive Trudi has masterminded the charity’s continued growth from a small local charity helping a handful of children each year, to one of the fastest growing and respected charity’s in the UK.

In 2017 Trudi will lead Caudwell Children into an exciting new era as it prepares to open the doors to the Caudwell International Children’s Centre. The UK’s first independent purpose-built centre dedicated to multi-disciplinary therapy programmes, family support and research of neurodevelopmental conditions, including autism.

Did you know...

A huge bolder mounted on a pole that can be spun at the touch of a hand is designed to be fun and give autistic children an important sense of power

Edible plants have been widely used, including apple and pear trees and underplantings of showy day lilies (Hemerocallis) with their edible flower petals, all designed to engage children with the garden

A key specimen plant is the large weeping beech, a characteurful choice set towards the centre of the garden

Notes about Caudwell Children:

To date Caudwell Children has provided services worth over £39million to over 25,000 children with over 600 different medical conditions. The charity is committed to changing the lives of children by providing practical and emotional support.

Caudwell Children was registered in March 2000 and is widely recognised as one of the country’s fastest growing children’s charities. Since its inception the charity has doubled every pound raised, achieved through supplier partnerships, which means every pound donated works even harder.

The charity was founded by philanthropist, John Caudwell, whose vision was to create a sustainable children’s charity that offered benefactors’ transparency and peace of mind that 100% of their donation was being used to directly change children’s lives.

By donating the cost of the charity’s annual management and administration overheads, John has guaranteed an efficient way for individuals and businesses to change the lives of thousands of sick and disabled children living in the UK.

As a Director in the Caudwell Group, in 1999 Trudi Beswick was assigned the task of turning John’s philanthropic vision into a reality. As Chief Executive Trudi has masterminded the charity’s continued growth from a small local charity helping a handful of children each year, to one of the fastest growing and respected charity’s in the UK.

In 2017 Trudi will lead Caudwell Children into an exciting new era as it prepares to open the doors to the Caudwell International Children’s Centre. The UK’s first independent purpose-built centre dedicated to multi-disciplinary therapy programmes, family support and research of neurodevelopmental conditions, including autism.

Sources

WHO

National Alliance for Caregiving and AARP. (2015). Caregiving in the U.S. 

[AARP Public Policy Institute. (2015). Valuing the Invaluable: 2015 Update.