It’s a real pleasure to be back in Huis Ten Bosch, 4 months after the Gardening World Cup, on a clear crisp day to see how our gardens are getting on. The original idea was to take the gardens down straight after the event, as happens in all other shows. But the display proved to be so popular that the decision was made to leave them for a few more weeks which, in the event, has turned into four months.

I was in some trepidation as to what my garden would look like, as all the white flowers which we had sourced so carefully will have gone over and I had no idea what, if anything, had been done to replace them. In the event there was no need to be worried at all. All the flowers had been replaced and although the replacements weren’t white, as the original design had dictated, they looked splendid. Remarkably, the white marble paths were shining just as brightly as they had done on the opening day.

The other gardens, too, have been well looked after. I was very impressed with Nico’s and Ben’s which looked just as good as on the day of judging. But, regrettably, they can’t stay there for ever and all the gardens will be removed and replaced by grass by the end of this month, in preparation for the Tulip Festival, which is a major annual event at Huis Ten Bosch.

“Horticulturally the garden is perfect. The planting couldn’t be better”
Kate Hillier, Chair of the Judges

“Jonathan’s English garden with it’s white colour scheme has created something of a sensation here. It is without a doubt the people’s favourite”
Phil Jacobson- Gardening World Cup Organiser

“It’s like being in heaven”
Japanese visitor

It’s all pomp and circumstance today. The awards were given out in the Huis Ten Bosch palace in a televised ceremony, followed by a gala dinner complete with Opera. Much more stylish than Chelsea. In spite of the accolades it was a disappointment to be awarded only a bronze medal. Kate Hillier, the lead judge, told me that although the planting was perfect, she didn’t like the proportions of the garden and I was marked down because the finished garden differed from the sketch. But we were supposed to be marked on the basis of our final written brief, with which my garden accorded exactly and of which the sketch was not a part and so I, together with other designers who were arbitrarily marked down, felt a little put out. Until, that is, I saw the reaction of the general public.

I could do with a bit of the Slow Life because the last three days have been some of the busiest of my life. The gardens must be finished in time for Judging- at 10am on Friday the 8th.
There have been several days of high drama in the rush to get the garden completed. First, we had the saga of the missing stained glass windows, which were shipped from England two weeks ago but disappeared in transit. We finally traced them to a Cathay pacific flight to Fukuoka via Hong Kong, but it was only at midnight on the Tuesday night that we managed to get them out of customs. They were fitted to the loggia wall on Wednesday and the men worked through the night to get the wall plastered once they were in. The first of the plants didn’t arrive until the Wednesday morning and I spent the rest of the day devising the planting plan and putting the plants in position in the beds. By 4pm it was obvious that we would need about 25% more plants and a desperate search began to find more stock. I had planned for climbing Mandevillas to go along the hedges with white Hibiscus in front. When the Hibiscus arrived they were no good and I sent them back. At 6pm I was told that the Mandevillas would not be arriving after all as the flowers were still in bud. This meant that I had to completely re-do the planting along the hedges. Early this morning we we started planting. More plants arrived, but still not enough but I was lucky enough to be able to borrow three surplus trays of white flowering plants from the American garden next door and finish the job. Phew.
The photo shows our construction team- you can almost feel the exhaustion.