The Garden House at Buckland Monachorum is widely regarded as one of the country’s finest gardens, and is especially renowned for its exciting and innovative garden design and planting. Therefore, it seems appropriate that the country’s leading contemporary garden designer is to deliver the 2013 Fortescue Garden House Lecture.
Each year the Fortescue Garden Trust, the charity which owns The Garden House, invites an individual recognised as having made a major contribution to horticulture or gardening in Britain, to deliver this prestigious annual lecture. The Trust is honoured and delighted that Cleve West, who has achieved the rare distinction of winning back-to-back ‘Best in Show Awards’ at the RHS Chelsea Show, has accepted this year’s invitation.
Cleve has won seven gold medals, but winning Gold at Chelsea as well as ‘Best in Show’ for his Daily Telegraph Garden in 2011 and then repeating these accolades in 2012 with his stunning Brewin Dolphin Garden, has won him the admiration of all.
The 53-year-old, who spent his 20s as an athlete hoping to compete in the long jump at the Olympics, said that he was thrilled to win at Chelsea in the year the Games came to London. His 2012 garden, celebrating the 250th anniversary of Brewin Dolphin, incorporated stone sentinels topped by flamed shaped finials holding up intricate iron gates that led onto an enormous 300-year-old mill head mounted on a wall. Although Cleve is top of his profession, he claims his favourite gardening is in his London allotment and recently wrote a book on allotments – demonstrating his practical application to gardening as well as his more obvious artistic ability.
The Fortescue Garden House Lecture series is also generously sponsored by the Plymouth Office of Brewin Dolphin, and Cleve’s illustrated talk will focus on his national design work as well as provide an insight into the preparation and completion of his 2012 award-winning Brewin Dolphin Garden. The lecture takes place at the Plymouth Postgraduate Medical Centre, Derriford at 7.00 pm on Friday 22 March. Some tickets are still available – to book, please telephone The Garden House: 01822 854769.
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