Bridgerton is coming to Chelsea this month, as Netflix makes its debut at the flower show, with a garden themed around its popular TV show. First time Chelsea designer Holly Johnston has created a garden based on the personal journey of the show’s main character, Penelope Featherington. The Bridgerton Garden is part of the Sanctuary Gardens area at the show.
Why is there a garden with a Bridgerton theme?
The new season of Bridgerton begins on May 16, a week before the RHS Chelsea Flower Show, which runs from 21-25 May. The garden has been designed to reflect the story of Penelope Featherington, who in public is a wallflower-like character, but behind the scenes the author of an infamous gossip column. The new series sees her developing in confidence, and the garden will show both her secretive side and her colourful character.
What will The Bridgerton Garden look like?
The garden has three distinct areas – at the entrance are two silver birches and an ornate moon gate. “It is Chinese by origin,” garden designer Holly Johnston told us, “but it was adopted by British gardens in the 19th century. You step through that and it’s meant to be almost a portal moment, a stepping into another world.”
On the other side of the moongate is a sunken seating area, surrounded by a ring of dwarf field elms, Ulmus minor var. suberosa, to create a sense of seclusion. In the centre of this area is a three-tiered stone fountain. In the third area, at the back of the garden, is a hand carved wall fountain surrounded by planting.
This area, according to the designer Holly Johnston, is where people should feel a change, demonstrated through the planting.
“When you’re walking through the garden, through all three areas, on the right hand side it’s full of shade planting. Think whimsical and enchanting, creeping moss, climbing ivy, lots of ferns, lots of grasses, ground cover…And that is meant to represent a tapestry of secrets, which is reflective of the character in the show and the secrets she holds.
“And coming back on the left hand side, there’s a full bloom moment. There’s a lot more colour – this border is alive with a sophisticated palette of pinks and lilacs and blues. And that is a stepping into the light moment.”
Holly’s vision for the garden was to make it feel like a reflection of Penelope’s character and story, rather than build a period garden you might see in the Bridgerton series.
“It is more about the complexity of character and all those moments that you want to hide a little bit,” Holly says, “and those moments that you want to bring into the light. It’s meant to be a reflection of coming to terms with that and reconciling that you can be both and you can be proud to be both and you can still move forward with confidence and your head held high.”
To show this balance between the shadows and the light, Holly has embraced shade planting, with some of her star plants including pachysandra, ferns such as dryopteris and blechnum and ground cover such as ivy, which will also climb up tree trunks. The lighter side of the garden is planted with roses and iris.
