22 May 2012
Brewin Dolphin appointed Cleve West to be the designer for its first show garden at this year’s Chelsea Flower Show, impressed with his excellent CV (including six gold medals at Chelsea and Best in Show last year) and trusted him to deliver a stunning and award winning design that reflected the values of Brewin Dolphin’s heritage. Cleve has been awarded Best in Show for the second consecutive year and yet another gold.
Jamie Matheson, Executive Chairman at Brewin Dolphin says, ‘We’re absolutely delighted with Cleve’s success today – we’re so pleased that all his great work has received the recognition it deserves. The Brewin Dolphin Garden is everything we’d hoped it to be and more, plus it survived both flood and drought thanks to the hard work of the team.’
This year’s design is a real departure from Cleve’s usual style – partly due to the unusual use of topiary, symbolic of the sponsor’s history, stability and creativity and it certainly made an impression on the judges yesterday.
Cleve said, “I’m delighted to be part of this project to help celebrate Brewin Dolphin’s amazing anniversary. 250 years ago, some of the big names in landscaping were ripping out topiary to make way for a more rural idyll. Fortunately it made a comeback in the 19th Century and this garden will show that everyone can try their hand at in gardens of all sizes.”
‘The topiary figures have roughly the same form but each is subtly different, which throws the symmetry,’ says Cleve. ‘Topiary never really features strongly at Chelsea and yet it plays such a big part in our gardening heritage. It’s something that anybody can have a go at in a garden of any size.’
Around each yew sentinel sits a loose tapestry of planting in delicate whites, yellows and lime greens, dotted with jewel-like reds. ‘The plants are threaded together in seemingly random ways to keep the garden looking alive and not too static’, says Cleve.
The garden design can be described ‘formal and timeless, contemporary yet traditional’ – which are appropriate descriptions of Brewin Dolphin, an investment management company that has stood the test of time. The use of a dramatic, over 250 year old well-head and reclaimed limestone creates an impressive grounding for the plants and can be reused again after the show and most of the herbaceous plants have been sourced and grown in the UK.
-ENDS-
For more information, please contact Sasha Dabliz on 0845 213 3027 or sasha.dabliz@brewin.co.uk or the Brewin Dolphin Press office on 0203 201 3026
More photographs available on request.