THE Kingdom of Lesotho was, by far, the biggest winner at this year’s Chelsea Flower Show. Lesotho’s Hope in Vulnerability garden was created to promote the Sentabale charity, founded by Prince Harry and Prince Seeiso of Lesotho in 2006.
The charity provides health care and education to victims of HIV/Aids in Lesotho, which has the second highest HIV/Aids prevalence in the world, after Swaziland.
The Lesotho garden was inspired by the Sentabale charity’s Mamohato Children’s Centre, currently under construction, which will provide cabins for 96 children affected by HIV/Aids to take part in residential camps.
Matt Keightley, the garden’s designer, travelled to Lesotho to gain inspiration, and took impressions of some of the children’s footprints while he was there, which were then sandblasted into the paving stones in the garden. “Lesotho, known as the forgotten kingdom, has been brought to life through the Hope in Vulnerability garden with a design that evokes the native landscape and celebrates the work of Sentabale,” he says.
Twenty percent of the garden was filled with plants indigenous to Lesotho, and an indigenous Lesotho poppy ( Papaver aculeatum) was propagated and placed on display at Chelsea for the first time. “This is our way of trying to bring a little bit of Lesotho to Chelsea,” Prince Harry said of the exhibit.
The location of Lesotho and its status as an independent country was lost in translation as references to Prince Harry’s South African charity slipped into many international media reports. However, despite dodgy details that emerged in the media frenzy, the Basotho Women’s Choir that performed in the garden on Press Day was a triumph for the kingdom.
Prince Harry was clearly interested in family approval as he popped into the Chelsea Flower Show to do a recce of his garden four hours before his father and grandmother arrived.
Followed by an unprecedented pack of international media, the Royal family arrived in one of the largest gatherings seen at Chelsea for decades. Watched by an international audience of millions, they all visited Prince Harry’s Lesotho garden.
The entourage included the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall, the Duke of York, the Earl and Countess of Wessex, the Princess Royal, the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester, the Duke of Kent, Prince and Princess Michael of Kent, Princess Alexandra and Zara Phillips. There was no sign of Prince Harry’s brother, Prince William and the Duchess of Cambridge, who, understandably, were probably busy with the arrival of their new baby.
“The Royal family members were interested in knowing how many of the plants are native to Lesotho, and the Queen really liked the colour and vibrancy of the space,” said Keightley.
Philip Green, chairman of Sentabale, added: “Prince Harry was beyond nervous at what his grandmother’s reaction would be, but she was delighted. The Queen was hugely complimentary about the planting, and very knowledgeable about the charity and what it is trying to achieve.
“Actually, I would say that Harry was even more nervous about his father’s reaction. The Prince of Wales is obviously a very keen and talented gardener himself. Prince Harry was genuinely thrilled – and not a little relieved – at his reaction.”
The value of the international media exposure bestowed on Lesotho, southern African flora and ecotourism in the region, during this Olympics of gardening, was priceless.
Whilst the Sentabale garden, like the Kirstenbosch-South Africa exhibit, was awarded a Silver-Gilt Medal, the media publicity for southern Africa far outweighed the significance of judging.
At the end of the week the BBC announced that the Lesotho Sentebale garden had won the People’s Choice Show Garden Award. The award is calculated from the millions of through-clicks that UK television viewers make on their TV handsets while watching the daily two-hour BBC2 coverage of the show during the five days of its run.
Gardening trends:
What show trends would interest South African gardeners? These are the top three themes found at the Chelsea Flower Show this year:
1 Naturalistic planting – Naturalistic or “shabby chic” wildflower gardening is seen as fashionably sustainable. More than half the gardens at this year’s show included elements of wildflower gardens, many of which were water-wise or rustic Mediterranean-style cottage gardens under the shade of a wild olive.
A wildflower garden even won the coveted Best on Show Trophy. Designed by Dan Pearson, the garden recreated a corner of the grand 105-acre gardens at Champagne House, Chatsworth. More than 300 tons of rock was lifted into the site as the backdrop to a trout stream meandering through a wildflower meadow.
2 Water in every garden – water was included in virtually every garden. Earthy swimming pools, formal ponds, naturalistic streams and highly stylised water feature art in chrome and steel were all on show.
3 International influences – as the Olympics of gardening, Chelsea attracts gardens from across the world. Aside from Lesotho, teams from Australia, Canada, Thailand, Tobago and Japan took part.
A tropical garden from Singapore, a perfume garden from France and an Islamic garden from the United Arab Emirates dominated the large gardens.