I’m not sure I’d have enjoyed my favourite garden at Floriade as much if I’d seen it in April, soon after Floriade opened to visitors. In pictures of the Europarcs garden taken before the deciduous trees had leafed out, The Rebel House commands the space. A broad, meandering path wraps around the clean, metal-edged outlines of flower beds. Newly-planted perennials are neat, well-spaced and picture perfect, like an architect’s diagram.
Three months later, the plants have bedded in and are relaxing out. Leaves and flowering stems mingle and mesh together, gently spilling over the path. The ‘Within Nature’ theme of the garden is emerging.
The textural, naturalistic planting isn’t the type we can take in at a glance. Landscape Architects, Stefano Marinaz, emphasise that the longevity and resilience of plant community were foremost in their thoughts.
Structural plants and ground covers set the stage for a seasonal mix of flowering perennials and bulbs. A matrix of six grasses fills the gaps and unifies the planting. Echinacea purpurea ‘Virgin’, Rudbeckia ‘Goldsturm’ and eremuses provided colourful highlights, while the seedheads of larger alliums hinted at what we had missed a few weeks earlier.
It is a restful planting, but with a lot going on. Visitor’s eyes are constantly challenged by shifting layers as the wind waves the grasses and flowering perennials, and as we move around the space. Beautiful sightlines through the garden tempt us to linger and enjoy the contrasts. Spiky perennials vie for our attention with velvety Celosia grown as a tender annual in containers; simple leaf shapes with lacy ferns; green with dark burgundy. Sunlight plays with shade.
The two CO2 neutral living spaces on the site use new technologies such as sustainable materials and smart home automation. With its log piles and bee hotel, Just Nature House represent Europarcs’ current style of sustainable holiday home. The Rebel House is a more futuristic vision.
When exposed by the young planting, its strange angles and wooden support made The Rebel House look suitably rebellious: jaunty and ungainly at the same time. Those chunky wooden legs have a purpose, housing a heat pump and storage batteries for the energy generated by solar panels, making the house self-sufficient.
By late July, Ginkgo biloba and flaking, multi-stemmed Betula nigra (river birch) form a living, shifting screen of flickering leaves that veil our view of The Rebel House and its overlooking windows.
Patterned tiles with a fine dust glaze are funky and geometric, yet help the house drift into the vegetation (the broken lines made me think of Liverpool’s Dazzle boats).
Horizontal stems criss-cross the verticals of the flaking trunks of multi-stemmed trees.
The garden is designed to be circular and includes waste products such as broken peach pits and hazlenut shells used as mulch. It will all be rehomed at one of the EuroParcs sites after the show.
Now your eyes have adjusted, I’ll end with a picture that shows the layers that provide richness and diversity in the garden.
Trachelospermum jasminoides cloaks the steps (and has a heavenly scent while in flower). In the background, a multi-stemmed tree adds movement and height. Cotinus coggygria ‘Royal Purple’, Brunnera macrophylla ‘Jack Frost’ and Rosa glauca grow between ferns and grasses. A log pile acts as an insect hotel and seems to anchor the scene. How lovely!
The EuroParcs garden can be seen to Floriade Expo until 9th October 2022 on plot 126 between the central square and the Hortus Avenue near the conference pavilion.
More Information
For a full plant list (if only all show garden designers made these readily available!) visit the Stefano Marinaz website.
The site also has earlier pictures of the garden when the alliums and irises were in flower.
Susan Rushton 
There are many interesting ideas in this garden. Is it permanent?
The Expo runs for six months and the garden will be relocated to one of the EuroParcs after that.
What a delight! Really like the celosia. So bright and pretty. This garden really caught the tenor of the times.
It makes a welcome change to be able to see a more established garden at a show rather than one made in a few days to last a few days. I don’t underestimate the months of preparation needed to prepare the plants, but that makes it all the better that they can be enjoyed for longer.
That very-handy full plant list is where I found “Eremurus x Isabellinus ‘Cleopatra’.” I assume these are the yellow/brown perennials in the first couple photos. I really like those – they caught my eye immediately.
I assume so too, although other pictures online show them as being more orange.
Interesting. I have just written a post for Saturday about naturalistic planting and how I want to make changes in my own garden. I was a little worried that my shady borders wouldn’t fit the scheme, but see this garden has used shade loving plants and ferns so maybe I can get away with it.
I’m sure you’ll more than get away with it. This garden was part sun, part shade.
Love this post – if I could only live long enough and have enough energy to make my garden look like this.
And EuroParc’s resources would help too!
LOL
I love those burgundy celosia, such a gorgeous colour. You were right about Gresgarth garden, I loved it, but there were just too many people around. I didn’t explore the woodland areas though so I’ll definitely go back another time.
I’m glad. 🙂
Lots of solid ideas here, good share– thanks, Susan!
My pleasure.
So many plants, so many ideas wrapped in a beautiful post Susan 🙂
I loved this garden – it was the one I wanted a second look at when we had a little time left over at the end of the day.
Some of these same plants are in my garden–but not as well-grown or beautifully placed as here. Still, it’s encouraging to see how good they can look!
I thought it was the nicest garden at the show.
This looks wonderful – thoughtful and a bit different too.
They’ve created some lovely plant combinations.
What a magnificent way to start my Saturday! That someone can see the future like this is very comforting. I did click on the link to the photos of early growth (the word “iris” will do it to me every time); the contrast was wonderful! My favorite of your photos I think is the one of the close-up of the Brown-Eyed Susans — layers indeed! Of course I’m also a soft touch for a river birch. “Jaunty and ungainly,” “funky and geometric” — I enjoy the way the spirit of a place seems to come out in your writings about it.
I liked the way the light was falling on the one you mentioned of the Rudbeckias.
Thank you so much Susan, very much appreciated!!!
We designed the overall Masterplan, chose the planting, the peach pits as sustainable material for paths, the lighting scheme (unfortunately the park closes too soon for visitors) and the stools by the tables.
Loved seeing your pictures!!! Thank you so much!!!
Congratulations on creating such a wonderful garden. I really enjoyed spending time in it. It would have been lovely to visit in the evening to experience the lighting.