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Chilstone’s Showgardens in the Sunshine

It is a peculiarity of the British Summer that it only really starts on Mid Summer’s Day, so why not come down to celebrate with our great Mid Summer’s Garden Party!
Held in aid of the amazing charity Hospice In The Weald, visitors can come along to see our wonderful showgardens – 35 acres filled with trees, lakes and beautifully crafted stonework, bronze and stone statuary and English Summer Houses.
A Strawberry Cream Tea is included in the price and tickets at £6 pp (in support of Hospice in the Weald) are still available from Hayley Brown at Hospice In The Weald, 01892 820502.

Hever Castle Kent

Thursday June 13th is Hever Reader Day. English Garden magazine in association with Chilstone are staging a special reader day with a guest speaker (Andrea Wulf)  and luncheon in the castle. Hever, the one time home of Anne Boleyn is a fabulous jewel in the crown of Kent. A romantic moated castle brimming with history and superb gardens.

Why not join us for a day out and don’t forget that Chilstone are a stone’s throw from the castle. Find out more from English Garden Magazine.

TO BOOK YOUR PLACE: The event is priced at £59 per person. To reserve your place, send a cheque to: Hever Castle Event, The English Garden, Archant House, Oriel Road, Cheltenham, Gloucestershire GL50 1BB made out to Archant Community Media Ltd with your name, address and telephone number attached so we can send on further details, or call 01242 216002 to pay by credit card, Monday to Friday, between 9am and 5pm.

The new sculpture by Ev Maynell at our showgardens

Allegra is a fine new sculpture from distinguished sculptor Ev Maynell. Her slender form would grace any garden or classical space. She has been created in bronze resin in a limited edition of 30. Or in pure bronze in a limited edition of 12.

She stands 140 cm tall (pedestal not included)

Allegra Bronze resin £2,950 + VATAllegra Pure Bronze £12,500 + VAT

Ev was born in 1950 and educated at Oxford University.

His family had close links with sculptor Eric Gill in the 1920’s and it was this relationship which inspired and encouraged Ev to embark on a career as a sculptor.

He did this initially (in the 1970’s) by working on commissions for private clients in liaison with landscape architects in Kent. The success of these early commissions soon led to exposure to a wider audience. He created pieces over several years for award-winning gardens at the Chelsea Flower Show after which followed some prestigious public and corporate commissions.

A classic 1920s Rolls led the parade

Sunday June 3rd was a glorious summers day and drew a visit of the Rolls Royce Enthusiasts Club to our blossoming showgardens near Tunbridge Wells in Kent. It is quite an experience to see a gleaming cavalcade of Rolls Royce limousines gliding down our drive and the club pulled up and took a tour around our workshops, where they witnessed our craftsmen hand making some classical urns.

Old and new classics gathered at our showgardens

The Club members also stayed to have a picnic and stolled around the grounds. Our showgardens are a great base for touring around the beautiful Kent and Sussex countryside which must be one of the finest and greenest country in the World, with vast acres of downland, manicured fields and stunning scenery. After their visit to Chilstone the gleaming Rolls Royces swept off for a tour of our beautiful landscape.

A proper picnic by the Chilstone lodge

You do not have to own a Rolls Royce to visit Chilstone’s Showgardens at Langton Green near Tunbridge Wells!  Everyone is welcome and there is plenty of parking. Summer is a great time to visit as Jason our gardener has excelled himself with planting and the gardens are looking lovely, there are plenty of working fountains and our fine lake to see.

Heading off to tour the Weald

We are open during normal working hours seven days a week – check this website for details.

Jack poses by his garden

The 100th Chelsea Flower Show is now well under way and there have been many excellent gardens. We have really enjoyed working with Jack Dunckley on his superb garden and with our friends at Guruve and Bramblecrest both of whom won well deserved Merit Awards.

Joe Swift interviewing Jack for BBC Breakfast

We may have missed the media fireworks of Diarmuid Gavin this year but the weather has been generally kind and it has been a great week. The BBC has as usual covered the event with their trademark commitment and enthusiasm and it is true that this global flower show would not be the same without them. Here is Joe Swift (above)  interviewing Jack for Breakfast television.

A very dramatic looking picture of Adam Frost (far left) and Jack!

Jack also popped over to visit Adam Frost at his Homebase sponsored garden.

Those Australians were at it again with their fighting spirit and ran off with the Best in Show award to go with their Gold Medal. Here is a picture of Jack with Trailfinder’s designer Philip Thompson.

That winning look! Two medal winners and Philip Thompson with Best In Show!

Jack Dunckley (right) with Chilstone’s Steve Clark

We hope to see you down at the 100th Chelsea Flower Show. We have been working with young garden designer Jack Dunckley on his fantastic garden which has won a Silver Gilt in the Fresh Garden category!

The young gardener, 20, who has already appeared on BBC’s Gardeners World and on ITV’s Alan Titchmarsh Show has created a prize winning garden called Juxtaposition which features an innovative equatorial garden based on the concept of contrasting effects.

The garden was arid on one side and lush and verdant on the other

The garden explores the relationship between contrasting textures that can be found in the equatorial region. One one side (lengthways) it displays the strong architectural form of plants from arid habitats and on the other, large leafed specimens that represent more humid and dense rainforests.An innovative clear acrylic waveform separates the two regions of the garden, highlighting the different effects of each zone, one lush and verdant, the other jagged and austere.

Chilstone provided specialised stonework around this garden and a quantity of what might be termed high-end sand, but what is a special blend of crushed stone provided by our craftsmen. It caused quite a stir among the keener gardeners!

Said Jack, “Achieving a Silver Gilt medal at my first Chelsea Flower Show especially in its centenary year has been fantastic. Thanks to the “backroom team” like Chilstone who helped me with such quality materials to “wow” the thousands of visitors who came to see my garden”

The brilliant and glamourous 100th Chelsea Flower Show is nearly upon us! In less than 2 weeks the cream of the planet’s gardening fraternity will descend on a few acres of Chelsea and wonderful gardens will be created to endure for only a few days.
It is really one of the high points of the summer and you should beg borrow or do whatever it takes to get a ticket. If you have entered our great ticket competition well done and we hope you win!

As usual we are there, last time we won a silver medal (which we may have mentioned once or twice) and this time we are helping a young gardener with a lot of talent and high hopes of his own. Jack Dunckley’s garden ‘Juxtaposition‘ is on FR8 (see map above) See more about this garden.

We are also working with our friends Guruve on Stand SR/46 on Southern road. Guruve have a fine display of contemporary garden sculpture at the show.

Another large display at Chelsea will be provided by Bramblecrest, the garden furniture experts, who will have a special display of Chilstone ornaments with a very special offer for visitors to the stand (WA/5 on map above)

Here is a map to show where to find us at the show, hope to see you there!

Just one of our exciting new garden art sculptures

This weekend be sure to drive down and visit our sunny showgardens in an area of outstanding natural beauty! You cannot beat the Kent and Sussex countryside and there is so much to see! Penshurst Place, an unspoiled palace is a mile or so down the road, as are Scotney Castle and Hever Castle – chilhood home of Anne Boleyn are both within a short drive.
We have a lot to see in our showgardens at Langton Green, and we will have a great stand at the Penshurst Craft fare which is on over the whole bank holiday weekend – it looks like sun so come and see us.

We are having an open exhibition of new work by British sculptors which introduce a new dimension to garden art.

The award winning Chilstone garden featuring a first ever carpet and everlasting ice sculpture!

The Chelsea Flower Show opens its doors again this month for the 100th time on May 21st-May 25th. Chilstone will once again be attending and this time we are working with three exhibitors. We have often worked behind the scenes at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show, working on gardens that have won awards including Gold, Silver Gilt, Silver and Bronze medals,  including in recent years, sponsoring Bronze and Silver medal winning gardens ourselves!
In 2011, we sponsored a fabulous garden which featured, for the first time ever at Chelsea, an all-weather outdoor carpet in blue which was a great favourite with the crowds. We also provided statuary to the RHS for their own Rose Garden exhibit at the Hampton Court Flower Show.

This year we are working with three exhibitors, an equatorial garden with young designer Jack Dunckley called Juxtaposition (Stand FR8), an African sculpture exhibit by Guruve (SR/46) and a garden furniture exhibit by Bramblecrest (WA/5). See you there!

If you have not got a ticket, why not enter our ticket competition in Index magazine or on this website? You could win a pair of tickets for this great event!

Alan Titchmarsh and a delegation from Christian Dior enjoy another award winning Chilstone garden

Bjorn the ‘bear’ enchants children at the 2012 Sevenoaks festival

Hard to believe, I know, but it is April and now is the time to start planning your summer. The Sevenoaks Festival takes place again this year and it is one of the best events of it’s kind in the UK. Running from June 22nd- July 7th the festival features a truly impressive variety of events over the 2 weeks. There is so much to do, for friends, family and children – music, dancing, theatre, comedy – there is so much going on it is impossible to list it all so check it all out on www.sevenoaksfestival.org.uk
We love it and we are sponsoring the “Guess the logo” competition and you can also get a change to win a fabulous Chilstone urn in the Festival Grand Prize Draw!