Chelsea Flower Show: 2004
Planting termed 'near perfect' by the judges helped the garden Hortus Conclusus, designed by Christopher Bradley-Hole for the Shaikh Al-Nahayan, win Best in Show this year.


Hortus ConclususBest Show Garden award for Chelsea 2004 has been awarded to Hortus Conclusus designed by Christopher Bradley-Hole.
Christopher Bradley-Hole'sHortus Conclusus has snapped up the Best Show Garden award at this year's Chelsea. The modern, European garden is an enclosed space, cooled by a wall of water and shaded by a grove of six umbrella-pruned plane trees: an ideal place to retire to when coping in a hot, arid barren climate. According to Christopher, who is the married to COUNTRY LIFE's gardens editor Kathryn, 'the garden is a modernist reinterpretation of an early islamic garden'.Judges were unanimously impressed with Hortus Conclusus, describing the planting in particular as near perfect. The hard and soft landscaping is well balanced, fulfilling the brief perfectly. They added that overall 'the unity of the garden was excellent'.
Sign up for the Country Life Newsletter
Exquisite houses, the beauty of Nature, and how to get the most from your life, straight to your inbox.
-
How to disconnect from reality and feel like a new person in under 72 hours
Our round-up of the best British retreats that work wellness wonders in under 72 hours.
By Jennifer George Published
-
Evenley Wood Garden: 'I didn't know a daffodil from a daisy! But being middle-aged, ignorant and obstinate, I persisted'
When Nicola Taylor took on her plantsman father’s flower-filled woodland, she knew more about horses than trees, but, as Tiffany Daneff discovers, that hasn’t stopped her from making a great success of the garden. Photographs by Clive Nichols.
By Tiffany Daneff Published