All-female design team creates RBC Chelsea Garden

One garden I am rooting for at this year’s RHS Chelsea Flower Show (23rd-27th May 2017) is the all-female team creating the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) Garden. The garden draws its inspiration from Canada’s 1.2 billion-acre boreal forest to celebrate two milestones: the 150th anniversary of the Confederation of Canada and the 10th year of the RBC Blue Water project – a wide-ranging, global commitment to help protect the world’s fresh water resources.

RBC are working with designer Charlotte Harris on this year’s design. Charlotte is no stranger to RHS Chelsea having worked on a number of Main Avenue gardens in the past including Luciano Giubbilei’s Best in Show garden in 2014 and most recently Hugo Bugg’s garden for RBC in 2016, however, this is her first Chelsea garden as a lead designer.

RBS have produced a beautiful video with Charlotte explaining the background and inspiration behind the garden. The boreal forest is the largest intact forest and wetland ecosystem on earth, holding the largest unfrozen source of freshwater and storing twice the amount of carbon as tropical forests. You can view it here.

Charlotte (pictured left) spent time in northern Ontario exploring on foot and by canoe during her design of the garden. She navigated the waterways, pine forests, flora and granite of the Boreal giving her precious insight and inspiration for the design.

You can discover more of Charlotte’s work on her website at: https://www.charlotteharris.com/

We wish Charlotte and her team all the best in the run-up to RHS Chelsea.