Foreign & Colonial Investments' Garden

Influenced by childhood memories of trips to Abbey Gardens, Tresco and other Cornish gardens the inspiration for this garden will follow a similar style incorporating exotic, half-hardy plants and cleverly colonised walls and paths. The story behind the garden comes from the 18th century 'Candide' by Voltaire. The garden is designed in a Mediterranean-style to represent the ill-fated travels of Candide across the globe in search of his lost love. Candide concludes with the line 'we must cultivate our garden' and the garden is heavily influenced by this with grid-like patterns suggestive of the fields of the Turkish smallholding depicted in the final scene. To symbolise the oceans travelled, Thomas Hoblyn has two pools of water incorporated on each side of the garden which are linked by a scalloped water feature mimicking the river rapids that shipwrecked Candide’s canoe en route to El Dorado.

Pockets of moss and lushly planted ferns are embedded in the surrounding wall are symbolic of the steep cliffs of El Dorado.  Central and glistening within the walls is the highlight of the garden : a series of bronze sculptures portraying Cunégonde - the woman that consumes his life.  These voluptuous and incredibly detailed sculptures are bronze life-casts, each one depicting Cunégonde in her transformation from a young girl to a social-climbing courtesan and a bitter, older woman. 

The garden planting scheme is predominantly Mediterranean and incorporates succulents amongst other drought-tolerant plants.  Plants have been chosen for their limb-like habit to tie in with the bronze sculptures and their natural sensual mounded forms look to mimic the human figure. The majestic Quercus cerris and the limb-like Iron Tree with its metallic-looking bark provide a comfortable and defined area of terracing within the garden. The planting although appearing mature and structured will inherit a random quality that might otherwise appear over time.The overall effect is of a garden sculpted by  wind over time in striking aged bronze, verdigris and burnt ochre, all well balanced with subtle tones of greens and blues and accented with vivid and fiery oranges. 

Although the garden makes clear reference to the novel, the design could easily be re-created as a small Mediterranean garden capable of thriving in the warmer parts of our native Britain. It aims to demonstrate to the Chelsea visitor the kind of exotic plants can now be grown with a little effort in pockets of the UK.