Chelsea Show Garden, 2000: Homage to Le Nôtre
To mark the tercentenary of the death of André Le Nôtre (1613-1700), the Garden History Society commissioned the designer Tom Stuart-Smith to produce a garden as a homage to this great man of gardening. Tom aimed to illustrate the timeless quality of Le Nôtre's style with a garden that evoked the spirit of Le Nôtre rather than attempting to reproduce the splendours of the many famous French gardens attributed to him.
The photograph of the garden shows the spiral labyrinth in the foreground, canal flanked by flowering borders behind, while at the back there is a mirror suggesting infinite space. Bay trees and hedges punctuate and delineate the garden.
The garden won a Gold Medal in the Show Garden category.
It was sponsored by Laurent-Perrier, Harpers & Queen, and Merrill Lynch and, without their generosity, would not have been possible. Garden construction was by Waterers Landscape plc.
