An interview at Nymans and The Chelsea Flower Show

Roger talks to the BBC about his inspiration for his 2013 garden at The Chelsea Flower Show, and the influence that Nymans gardens has had on him and his design. Roger’s garden, built for show sponsors M&G named ‘Windows through time’ celebrated The Chelsea Flower Show centenary year and won gold medal.

Alan Titchmarsh “The Chelsea garden catwalk has welcomed many new designers over the years. Back in the 90’s it was Roger Platts, his show gardens won him acclaim, Gold medals and two Best in Show Awards. Now he’s one of Chelsea’s most experienced exhibitors and this year he’s back with a garden called ‘Windows through time’. It’s aim is to reflect how British gardening has evolved over the last century. Well a few weeks ago we went to meet him at Nymans in Sussex – a garden that’s inspired his design for 2013.

Roger Platts “On arriving at Nymans it’s very clear to see why someone would want to build a house and live here, with the fabulous views across the Weald you can see for miles, it’s wonderful. You can also understand also why they created a garden here because it’s on lovely acid soil, on which rhododendrons, camelias  and magnolias thrive and make it so special. I trained as a nurseryman, a as a grower and then in the late eighties I began to design gardens, partly because I was supplying plants to people and they were asking me how to use them and I felt they weren’t actually creating the right spaces to put them in so they weren’t getting the benefit from the plants. And then you start to look more deeply at the structure and the balance and the scale and all these things and suddenly I was really fired up by the design aspect so I am quite a mix really of design and grower.

Recently when I visited Nymans, I suddenly realised that it obviously had quite an influence on my design for the M&G Garden at Chelsea this year. I was amazed to see some of the elements I had included, so it must have filtered through the subconscious and it felt quite exhilarating!

I get very excited about seeing some of these historical elements, I love this sense of time. The patina of age is wonderful. The lovely old York stone paving is just the same as we are going to be using at Chelsea to represent the older part of the garden, the historical aspect.

Being at Nymans now with this late spring is amazing, it’s so sumptuous. Actually, because it’s so late a lot of the flowering is crossing over, indeed and for Chelsea I would be expecting viburnum mariesii, there is always the danger of it going over. Here at Nymans at the moment it’s not just coming out as it often would be, it’s tight in bud full of promise so with everything bursting into life or just about to burst into life all at the same time!

Rhododendrons represent the early years of Chelsea for me, because they were hugely popular during laye Victorian/early Edwardian times when the plant collectors and plant hunters brought them in these wonderful Himalayan varieties such is this one, macabeanum with the lovely indiumentum  under the leaf.

Of course chelsea when it first started was really the great spring show and was very much about rhododendrons, so I’ve got to have some rhododendrons albeit as a supporting role at the back of the garden, just to represent that era.

There are some plants which evoke a certain timeless and the Acer is one of them, so the Japanese maple, which has been used in gardens over the last 100 years at Chelsea – for the rock gardens in the thirties, fifties, I started using them the eighty’s and ninety’s right the way through because they are such a versatile plant and i’m sure we will continue to see them at Chelsea on a regular basis.

The exciting thing about putting on a garden at Chelsea is having lived the design and all the elements for months and months and months, you can at last put it all together. Yes you have got the time pressure but that gives that fruitiuon of excitement I suppose. It’s pretty tough trying to work in such a small space but each little piece that you painstakingly create and you stand back it gives you a fabulous feeling.”

Followed by an Interview on The M&G Garden by Jo Swift.