Chelsea 2011: Homebase Cornish Memories Garden

Designer Tom Hoblyn won a Silver Gilt for the Homebase Cornish Memories Garden, having been marked down by the judges for not fulfilling his own brief to base the garden on the native plants of Cornwall, instead using many of the species more commonly found in the famous Cornish gardens (such as tree ferns and rhododendrons).

The hard landscaping was granite from the last working quarry in Cornwall, into which were etched three criss-crossing rills, designed to mimic the rivulets found in sand as the sea recedes. The rills ran in to a swimming pool designed to look like a seaside rock pool and planted with oxygenators which look like seaweed.

In the foreground is Rhododendron yakushimanum - Koichiro Wada

 The pots were designed to look like rock pools, and have been enamelled inside.

Hoblyn used a very muted colour scheme, mainly green and white, with hints of pink and blue.

Some of the most prominent plants were Dicksonia Antarctica, the Australian tree fern

Asplenium scolopendrium - Harts tongue fern (chosen because it reminded him of seaweed).

The wooden roof of the garden's pavillion - which housed a triptych of textile screens inspired by rock and seaweed patterns (below)