The Cancer Research UK Garden

By garden designer Robert Myers. The theme of the garden is ‘surviving’, celebrating how Cancer Research UK’s work has been at the heart of the progress that has seen survival rates double in the last 40 years.

This is a private garden for a couple who have previously lived next to the sea and have a love of the coastal landscape. They have created a contemporary garden to remind them of this landscape, as an abstracted representation using water, plants, timber and rock.

Visitors can expect to see coastal wildflowers in a contemporary setting. There will also be stunning and unusual planting combinations that evoke the coastal environment and innovative furniture and structures. The use of water will be a reflective element in the garden and the use of simple engraved artwork will also be within a garden setting. The garden will be an enriching space that creates a sense of wellbeing and hope.

The planting will follow a gradual transition from low, sparse strips of grasses and
foreshore plants planted into gravel adjacent to the pools at the front of the garden. Then through more ornamental coastal shrubs and herbaceous plants in the centre to a more lush collection of higher architectural shrub and herbaceous planting around the shelter to the rear, including some sub-tropical species.

Trees will be gradually introduced towards the centre and rear of the garden. This represents a ‘succession’ of plants building up away from the sea and creating  shelter for the garden. The shelter will be constructed with a ‘green roof’ with low grasses and coastal wildflowers, with trailing plants hanging over the edge to create a green ‘veil’ partially enclosing the terrace space.

The planting at the front of the garden will include drifts of low grasses and a variety of plants with pink/purple, blue, yellow and white flowers. This reflects the colour palette of plants often found in dry coastal environments. Towards the rear, where there is more shade, the planting will be more lush and sub-tropical with more emphasis on green and white.

Plants list     

Trees
Pinus sylvestris
Tamarix gallica
Trachycarpus fortunei

Specimen Shrubs
Agave americana
Cordyline australis
Echium pininana
Musa basjoo

Beach Wildflowers
Ammophila arenaria
Armeria maritima
Crambe maritima
Echium vulgare
Eryngium maritimum
Festuca arenaria
Foeniculum vulgare
Glaucium flavum
Jasione montana
Lathyrus japonicus
Limonium latifolium
Sedum acre
Silene vulgaris subsp. Maritima

Shrubs
Artemisia arborescens
Atriplex halimus
Dicksonia antarctica
Eriobotrya japonica
Griselinia littoralis
Hippophae rhamnoides
Nepeta x faassenii
Phormium tenax
Pittosporum tobira
Prostanthera cuneata
Rosa rugosa
Santolina rosmarinifolia
Spartium junceum

Herbaceous
Agapanthus africanus
Asplenium scolopendrium
Asplenium trichomanes
Centranthus ruber 'Albus'
Centranthus ruber var 'Coccineus'
Convolvulus cneorum
Dryopteris wallichiana
Erigeron glaucus
Euphorbia cyparissias 'Fens Ruby'
Leptinella squalida
Matteuccia struthiopteris
Osteospermum jacundum
Pachysandra terminalis
Polystichum setiferum
Pulsatilla vulgaris
Sesleria nitida
Stipa tenuissima
Tulbaghia violacea Maritima
Verbascum bombyciferum 'Polar Summer'

Climbers
Clematis montana
Hedera helix
Muehlenbeckia complexa
Trachelospermum jasminoides