RHS Show Garden 2023

America’s Wild

The American Museum & Gardens is delighted to share the ‘America’s Wild’ Show Garden, which was featured at RHS Hampton Court Palace Garden Festival from 4–9th July 2023. The garden was created by Inspired Earth Design and presented by Trailfinders and Visit The USA.

The ‘America’s Wild’ garden was designed by Jude Yeo, Emily Grayshaw and Imogen Perreau Callf from Inspired Earth Design. The garden was awarded a Gold medal, Best Show Garden and Best Construction.

After the show, plants from ‘America’s Wild’ are being permanently relocated to the American Museum & Gardens and the US Embassy in London. Read our Head Gardener’s story about how the Museum came to be involved with the project.

‘America’s Wild’ explores three iconic natural landscapes synonymous to North America: desert, forest and prairie. The garden encourages a sense of exploration and reconnection with nature, with the purpose of fostering deeper relationships with our natural world. No experience is alike in America’s wild, and the immense yet contrasting scenery of the garden is no exception, inviting guests to feel grounded and find their own stories within these wild spaces. The garden offers an enriching, intimate and interactive experience, taking in the sights and sounds of America’s spectacular landscapes, and allowing the visitor to start a new journey into nature and find their sanctuary.

The American Museum & Gardens is thrilled to share the legacy of the ‘America’s Wild’ show garden with our friends at the US Embassy by permanently rehoming the plants from the show in both of our locations. The concept of the show garden, with its exploration of American landscapes, connection with nature, and its invitation to guests to feel grounded and find their own stories within wild spaces, has a natural affinity with our gardens here at the American Museum & Gardens and our aims as an organisation. Our gardens were redesigned in 2018 by US landscape architects Oehme, van Sweden, to create the aesthetic of American landscape design over the centuries, including a large tapestry of contemporary swathes of American prairie planting across panoramic valley views. Our gardens are enjoyed by thousands of public visitors throughout the year, and are integral to our learning programme for schools and our wellbeing and community groups.

Rehoming the ‘America’s Wild’ plants will revitalise our gardens in a sustainable way, which is in keeping with our sustainability initiatives to take care of the green spaces across our 125-acre estate. The plants we are rehoming from the show garden match the planting scheme designed by Oehme, van Sweden, and they will be used to refresh borders where some plants have struggled in recent times. We are equally thrilled to expand our arboretum with the trees from the show garden collection. Our relationship with Inspired Earth Design and the ‘America’s Wild’ garden adds a wonderful chapter to the story of our unique American gardens.