University of Bristol’s Award-Winning Chelsea Flower Show Garden Finds Home at the Botanic Garden

The Guangzhou China: Guangzhou Garden, will be formally opened by the University’s Vice-Chancellor and President, Professor Evelyn Welch.  The garden’s designers, Director, Peter Chmiel, and Associate Director, Chin Jong Chen, from Grant Associates will give a short talk about the garden at the unveiling.

The Bristol Chinese Students’ and Scholars’ Association will also join the opening, alongside the University’s Botanic Garden Curator, Nicholas Wray, who will explain about the use of the new planting and how the garden has been adapted to its new Bristol home.

The garden highlights the benefits of responsible city planning, and the sustainable use of natural resources, particularly water, and how planners must work in harmony with nature to better connect people with the natural world. With a focus on climate change, it’s an eco-garden with an aim to make a difference.

Inspired by the holistic landscape stewardship programme of environmental planners in Guangzhou, the garden features a pool of water, trees, shrubs, shelters, green foliage, and moisture loving perennials including plants in the ginger family.

Professor Evelyn Welch said: “I am delighted to unveil the Guangzhou Garden. Today, we celebrate not only its beauty but also its message of collaboration, sustainability, and cultural exchange.  May this garden inspire us all to build a more environmental and interconnected world.  We look forward to welcoming all our students, staff and the wider Bristol community to the garden.”

Peter Chmiel and Chin Chen, co-designers of the Guangzhou Garden and landscape architects from Bath-based practice Grant Associates, added: “We are thrilled that our 2021 RHS Chelsea gold medal and best in show garden has been reimagined and given a new home at the University of Bristol Botanic Garden. It is fantastic that the core concepts and sustainability values of the design have been maintained and reimagined by the use of a planting mix that is purely native to China.

“We are also delighted to see that all of the laminated bamboo structures, lovingly crafted by Xylotek, have been thoughtfully integrated and carefully treated to maximise their lifespan. We hope that the Guangzhou Garden will become a loved and cherished addition to the University of Bristol’s fabulous existing gardens and plant collections.”

Nicholas Wray explained: “We were delighted to accept this prize-winning garden that has been rebuilt here at the University’s Botanic Garden.  The plant mix from the Chelsea Flower Show Garden was not relocated to Bristol as some of the semi-mature trees were over a ton in weight. Instead, the planting has been reimagined to feature plants entirely Chinese in origin.  We hope the garden will be enjoyed and inspire visitors for many years to come.”

Staff at the Botanic Garden have been propagating plants from the garden’s extensive Chinese plant collections and networking with other botanical collections and specialists’ nurseries to create a planting design that reflects the appearance of the luxuriance of the sub-tropical flora of Guangzhou.

This has been a challenging task as Bristol’s climate is temperate. Careful understanding of the garden’s microclimate will enable some plants to be cultivated throughout the year, but with 10 per cent of the garden being lifted in autumn and placed under winter protection this has allowed a diverse collection of Chinese plants to be planted. In time as the garden matures, a sub-tropical garden will appear.

This will include the largest evergreen hardy plant that can be cultivated outside in the UK, Delavay’s Magnolia, Magnolia delavayi. Growing in the forests of southwest China, this species has large, up to 40 cm long, matt, dark green leaves, which are grey green on their underside.

Other trees will form a canopy and provide shade, one Chinese tree grown here is the Handkerchief or Dove tree Davidia involucrata. Native to south and eastern China, it is found growing in mountain forests in Northern Yunnan, Sichuan, Guizhou, West Hubei and West Hunan provinces. It’s scarce in the wild and listed by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (ICUN) as a ‘red data’ species.

Forming an upright scrub is the Chinese Angelica, Aralia elata. This large shrub is widespread across most of China, Korea, Japan and the Russian Far East. It grows in forest margins thriving in shade but will also grow sun. It has long been cultivated both in China and Japan for its architectural foliage and stems which have ornamental value in summer and winter.

The Guangzhou Garden contains a fossil tree the Dawn Redwood, Metasequoia glyptostroboides. This is an unusual conifer as it is deciduous with soft feathery green foliage that turns bronze in autumn.  The tree is planted as a street tree in Bristol and can be seen in the central reservation on the A4018, heading North to Old Crow roundabout in Westbury-on-Trym, and large specimens can be seen as street trees on Lower Ashley Road. This tree is associated with water, but can survive in dry soils too.

In Southern China, within the Guangdong Province, an enormous mega city with a population of 15.3 million people is bonded in ‘sister city’ friendship with Bristol.

The relationship between Bristol and Guangzhou was cemented in 2001 when a sister city agreement was signed, and then further strengthened in 2013 through the signing of a new Bilateral Agreement between the two city governments.  Both agreements were facilitated by the Bristol & West of England China Bureau.

Throughout this time cultural exchanges, gifts, and ceremonies have strengthened the bond, and, in 2021, the city of Guangzhou gifted to the citizens of Bristol their multi award-winning RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2021 Garden.

The University of Bristol has strong relationships with universities in Guangzhou and cities across China. Around 3,400 Chinese students’ currently study at the University each year and make Bristol their home. This new Guangzhou Garden, together with the Botanic Garden’s existing Traditional Chinese Medicinal Herb Garden, will provide a focus for workshops, tours and a sharing of knowledge.