The Sue Ryder Grief Kind Garden will aim to start conversations around grief at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2024.
A national movement of kindness
Almost half the public aren’t sure what to say when someone tells them a close relative or friend has died. Millions of people every year grieve without the help they need, and 86% of bereaved people have felt alone in their grief.
To tackle this we’re creating a national movement of kindness around grief, helping to equip people with the knowledge and tools they need to support themselves, or loved ones who are grieving.
The garden has been designed by RHS award winner Katherine Holland, and is generously sponsored by Project Giving Back, the unique grant-giving charity that funds gardens for good causes at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show.
My own experiences of grief and other people’s misunderstanding of it has made me want grief to be talked about more openly, to help support those who are grieving and those who are close to them.
Katherine Holland, designer of the Sue Ryder Grief Kind Garden
Grief is an inevitable part of life. It never ends or goes away. But together, we can inspire everyone to grow and become more Grief Kind.
About the garden
The garden will provide a safe and peaceful sanctuary in which to sit and be enveloped in the beauty of nature, whilst encouraging visitors to share their experiences of grief or to take a moment for quiet reflection.
A place of solace
“At the RHS Hampton Court Show, we found so many people connected with the space and shared their stories of grief with us, highlighting a real need to discuss it,” says Katherine Holland, the award-winning garden designer behind our Sue Ryder Grief Kind Garden.
”So, for the RHS Chelsea Flower Show, I really wanted to build upon the conversations we started about grief using the medium of plants. I hope the Sue Ryder Grief Kind Garden will encourage people to have these very important conversations around grief, whilst surrounded by nature and see it as a place of solace to help to learn to live with grief.”
A lasting legacy
After the show, the garden will be relocated in its entirety to Sue Ryder St John’s Hospice in Bedford.
Its new location will provide a long-lasting legacy, as a dedicated space for grieving and reflection. It will be able to accommodate varying mobility needs and will offer a place of solace for hospice staff, patients, their families and the local community.
Katherine has drawn from her own experience of grief to create a garden that she hopes will offer comfort to others.
At the heart of the garden, there will be a welcoming seating area with three chairs set around a coffee table, highlighting the importance of starting conversations around grief with others.
During the show, there will be a display of personal objects symbolising loved ones who have died.
To ensure year-round interest, the garden contains a carefully selected range of sensory shrubs and plants including:
- Nepeta
- Mahonia eurybracteata ‘Sweet Winter’
There are also several unusual specimen trees, including:
- Heptacodium miconioides AGM, which has deep green foliage and pretty clusters of scented flowers in late summer.
- A multi-stemmed form of Tilia henryana, with textural leaves and fragrant flowers.
The design has been influenced by its forever home at Sue Ryder St John’s Hospice, Bedford. Bedfordshire’s historic lace production has influenced the organic forms used in the laser-cut sandstone paving and in the selection of plants and trees, such as:
- Molopospermum peloponnesiacum (striped hemlock), with its delicate lace-like leaves.
- Frangula alnus (syn. Rhamnus frangula) ‘Asplenifolia’ with its fine filigree foliage.
This article is republished with kind permission from the Sue Ryder website.
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