Landscape & Urban Design Issue 25 2017 | Page 22

The garden resembles a woodland glade. Playful planting and the use of materials will stimulate the senses of sight, smell, touch, taste and sound, while allowing the children to experience reasonable risk as they play. The garden will be relocated to the Caudwell Children’s Centre in Shropshire. Floral highlights More plants and flowers are sold per square metre at the RHS Hampton Court Palace Flower Show than anywhere else in the UK. This year, the Floral Marquee will house 98 specialist nurseries and National Plant Collection holders from across the UK. Six new nurseries will be at the show this year including Ottershaw Cacti (Surrey), selling their rare and unusual collection of cacti and succulents, Palms Exotics (Hampshire), for those wanting to turn their garden into a holiday oasis, and Strictly Daylilies (Cambridgeshire), the ideal 22 Landscape & Urban Design plant for first-time gardeners as they need little or no care. Wildlife features Wildlife is a key theme at this year’s show to raise awareness of the UK’s declining wildlife population* and encouraging visitors to ‘Green Grey Britain’ with a rich diversity of plants that are vital for the future of the UK’s bees, butterflies and other pollinators. The tropical Butterfly Dome returns this year filled with thousands of exotic butterflies, surrounded by a wildflower meadow, accompanied by nectar- rich plants for our native butterflies, and caterpillar food plants such as nettles, grasses and heather. The Floral Design Studio will be full of wildlife- inspired floral displays, and schools from the South East of England are taking ‘a