{"id":9099,"date":"2026-10-21T17:54:45","date_gmt":"2026-10-21T16:54:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/grayshottgardeners.net\/?p=9099"},"modified":"2026-10-21T17:54:45","modified_gmt":"2026-10-21T16:54:45","slug":"reimagining-royal-roots","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/grayshottgardeners.net\/?p=9099","title":{"rendered":"Reimagining Royal Roots:\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A sustainable redesign for Hampton Court\u2019s Great Fountain Garden<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ann-Marie Powell<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On 14 October, Grayshott Gardeners welcomed award-winning garden designer, author, journalist and presenter Ann-Marie Powell, who gave an engaging, enthusiastic and informative talk on the sustainable redesign of Hampton Court\u2019s Great Fountain Garden.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since establishing her Petersfield design practice in 1998, she has built an impressive portfolio of gardens that blend contemporary design with a naturalistic style and are renowned for their adventurous use of colour.  She has designed the Wisley Wildlife & World Food Gardens and the RHS Chelsea 2024 People\u2019s Choice garden for The National Trust.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ann-Marie\u2019s design philosophy for the Great Fountain Garden is bold, vibrant, brave and biodiverse, whilst supporting environmental health.  The planting will replace traditional annual bedding (which is expensive and time consuming) with more sustainable planting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The planting plan combines robust perennials for year-round structure and shrubs that will provide wildlife habitat and reduce maintenance.  Bulb displays will add seasonal highlights.  This project is everything Ann-Marie believes gardens should achieve which is creating spaces for people to enjoy and good for wildlife.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The estate encompasses 60 acres of formal gardens and 750 acres of royal parkland and Ann-Marie guided the audience through more than five centuries of history of the gardens at Hampton Court. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

William III and Mary II drew inspiration from Versailles, creating paths lined with yew trees around the central fountain. A keen gardener, Mary introduced glasshouses and assembled what was then the world\u2019s largest plant collection, comprising more than 2,000 specimens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Queen Anne later reshaped the gardens, ordering the removal of extensive box planting, which she strongly disliked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During the Georgian era, the gardens were neglected, and the yews originally planted as hedges were allowed to grow unchecked. More than 300 years old, they now form the garden\u2019s distinctive mushroom-shaped trees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Queen Victoria came to the throne, she opened the gardens to the public so that everyone could enjoy their beauty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ann-Marie has collaborated with the Palace\u2019s gardeners, curators, historians and designers, drawing on historic plans and researching plants acquired by Mary II. The goal is to make the garden nature-positive and carbon-neutral by 2030.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The new planting scheme will improve soil health, reduce water use and support biodiversity, creating a more sustainable and resilient garden.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Across 1.5 acres of beds, the bold scheme will feature 369 plant varieties arranged in five colour families. It will include drought-tolerant species, 60 echinacea plants and 300,000 bulbs. The evening concluded with questions from the audience<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

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A sustainable redesign for Hampton Court\u2019s Great Fountain Garden Ann-Marie Powell On 14 October, Grayshott Gardeners welcomed award-winning garden designer, author, journalist and presenter Ann-Marie Powell, who gave an engaging, enthusiastic and informative talk on the sustainable redesign of Hampton Court\u2019s Great Fountain Garden. Since establishing her Petersfield design practice in 1998, she has built … Continue reading Reimagining Royal Roots:\u00a0<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2372,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"two_page_speed":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9099","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-grayshott-gardeners-activities"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/grayshottgardeners.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9099","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/grayshottgardeners.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/grayshottgardeners.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grayshottgardeners.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2372"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grayshottgardeners.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9099"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/grayshottgardeners.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9099\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9101,"href":"https:\/\/grayshottgardeners.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9099\/revisions\/9101"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/grayshottgardeners.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9099"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grayshottgardeners.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9099"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grayshottgardeners.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9099"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}