Chelsea Flower Show seeks more gardens from women
Just a third of the top gardens at the Chelsea Flower Show over the last 10 years have been designed by women, the Royal Horticultural Society said as it called for more female designers to apply to the event.
The RHS is concerned that a "disproportionately small" number of female garden designers apply to create Chelsea show gardens, which occupy the most high-profile plots, on the Main Avenue of the world renowned flower show.
It is calling for more female designers to apply for them at Chelsea in 2016, as only a third of the almost 200 show gardens created on the Main Avenue in the past decade were designed by women.
Designers for the show are selected on the quality of their design, and female designers including Bunny Guinness, Sarah Eberle, Jinny Blom, Charlotte Rowe and Sarah Price have created award-winning gardens for Chelsea in the past.
This year just two of the 15 show gardens are designed by women, one of whom, Kamelia Bin Zaal, is making her Chelsea debut with "the beauty of Islam", which explores and celebrates Islamic culture.
Multi RHS gold medal winning designer Jo Thompson is returning to Chelsea with an all-female workforce to create the M&G garden "urban retreat", which represents a quintessentially British restorative retreat from the hustle and bustle of the city.
RHS director general Sue Biggs said: