Show Gardens

A mix of native ferns and grasses poke their heads above the grykes

RHS Hampton Court Palace Flower Show

The Clints and Grykes Garden

This garden is a conceptual abstraction of a natural limestone pavement where the shapes of grykes (fissures) and clints (slabs) are formed from linear blocks through which sinuous shapes are cut.

The flat, pale grey surface of the pavement hides its planting until you stand directly over it, a metaphor for how often the most beautiful things in life are what we fit between the cracks.

The rare habitats of British limestone pavements were heavily quarried for garden rockeries until more recent protective measures banned this practice. These gardens rarely mimicked the natural beauty of the stone in its original setting where the clints and grykes formed a ‘naturally ordered’ look that this show garden reflects with abstract lines and curves. The fissures are filled with lush planting that mimic the specialised plant species found in these unique environments.

The garden won a Silver Gilt medal from the RHS.

Real clints and grykes on Malham Cove
Looking down into the lush grykes between the harsh solid forms of the clints
Dense planting tucked into the grykes between the 'limestone pavement'
Mix of ferns and grasses that thrive in unique environment of a natural limestone pavement
A native Acer campestre (Field Maple) stands over the clints and grykes
Close up of Blechnum spicant poking out of the limestone gravel
The Clints and Grykes Garden in front of the gardens of Hampton Court Palace
View from inside a gryke with Blechnum spicant ferns and Festuca rubra grasses
Concept visual for the garden
Plants peek above the 'limestone' blocks