Gold medal Chelsea garden relocating to hospital

A gold medal-winning garden from this year's Chelsea Flower Show is set to be relocated to a hospital site in Cambridge.

Hertfordshire's Tom Stuart-Smith scooped the top accolade for his woodland-themed National Garden Scheme garden.

His creation will eventually take pride of place at Maggie's, a cancer support unit operating at the Addenbrooke's Hospital site in Cambridge.

Mr Stuart-Smith said his vision was that his garden would offer hope, and help people "to feel that [the] garden is opening out - and has got a future".

His garden features a hazel coppice and drought-tolerant plants centred around a hut made from oak and beech felled from Mr Stuart-Smith’s own plot in Serge Hill, at Abbots Langley, Hertfordshire.

The National Garden Scheme is a charity which has been running for almost 100 years and sees about 3,500 private gardens open to the public each year.

As part of the scheme, Mr Stuart-Smith and his family have been opening up their family’s garden for 30 years and have raised more than £80,000 for charity through admission fees.

Speaking about opening his garden to the public, Mr Stuart-Smith said: "For us, it's very special to be able to share our garden in that way, [it's there] for the pleasure of sharing."

He said he was delighted his garden would be going to the Maggie's site in Cambridge, and said he hoped being surrounded by well-known flowers and plants would bring a sense of familiarity and perhaps remind people of their childhoods.

At the centre of his design is the garden shed, which he said would become a hut for volunteers at the centre.

"I think to have a place in the garden where something else is happening - something creative and alive is really valuable in that context where you feel your own life is closing down, potentially, to feel that a garden is opening out and has got a future."

One of those to visit his new Chelsea creation on Monday was Queen Camilla, who is the president of Maggie’s.

The charity's chief executive, Dame Laura Lee, said: "Aren't we so lucky... that we're going to get this wonderful garden.

"What you experience here is just a small taste of what the Maggie's garden is going to offer, which is hope, contemplation, refuge - a feeling of calmness.

"If you imagine you're arriving at Maggie's, at Addenbrooke's, and you've just had your cancer diagnosis and you're feeling a whole sense of anxiety and worry... can you imagine what that approach to the centre is going to be like, when you're walking through this garden here... a place where I can feel safe, where I can talk."

"Gardens offer hope - they offer a place that you want to be in," she added.

The Cambridge site is also set to welcome another garden which had a big impact at this Year's Chelsea Flower Show.

A Bridgerton-themed creation, based on the popular Netflix series, will also be moved to a courtyard setting at Addenbrooke's Hospital.

This year's Chelsea Flower Show is being held until 25 May.

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