A CELEBRATION of the revamp of Worcester’s historic Royal Porcelain Works will be showcased at the RHA Malvern Spring Festival next month.
RHS Chelsea Flower Show gold medal winning garden designer Olivia Kirk is creating The Collectors Garden for the show from May 10 to 13.
Olivia, who runs a design practice in Herefordshire, has three RHS Chelsea medals including gold and has designed many private and public space gardens around the UK. Her latest design will take visitors on a journey through time, using a series of planted ‘exhibition spaces’.
The innovative garden design provides an inspiring mix of history and modernity, by linking the Victorian heritage of the site with its exciting new re-developed 21st Century role as a centre for the performing arts and modern craftsmanship.
Three of the five stone plinths will display glass bell jars, containing historic Royal Worcester pieces, which are painted with horticultural designs. The planting surrounding the plinths includes some of the plants and foliage featured on the Royal Worcester pieces.
All the plants from The Collectors Garden are being relocated after RHS Malvern, to a central courtyard garden at the RPW, which is also being designed by Olivia.
The garden will link a new artisan cafe/deli ‘The Nest, Worcester’, with the existing Museum of Royal Worcester and the adjacent RPW with its newly renovated Henry Sandon Hall, which will be an arts centre run by Worcester Live.
Olivia said, “I am extremely excited about creating a Show Garden at RHS Malvern Spring Festival this year, as this is my local show and it has always been close to my heart, with its majestic backdrop of the Malvern Hills.
“What I have really enjoyed is creating a design which, like the redevelopment of the Royal Porcelain Works, marries the best of its Victorian heritage with the design innovations of contemporary living.”
