RHS Chelsea Flower Show: Raines Repurposed

Our collaboration

Thomas Clarke’s balcony garden design aims to raise awareness of childhood cancer. Inspired by Raines Retreat, a retreat we are building for families affected by childhood cancer, the balcony garden is designed to offer a moment of reflection and allow a brief break for those facing the unimaginable.

About the designer – Thomas with the BBC People’s Choice Award at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show (photo right)

Thomas Clarke is the designer of both the Children with Cancer UK Raines Retreat garden and the balcony garden at RHS Chelsea Flower Show. Tom is one of the youngest garden designers at the show, he trained at The Inchbald School of Design specialising in Garden Design and went on to form his own garden design and landscaping company, Fred Studio.  In 2022, Tom received a Silver medal at RHS Tatton Park for his Young Designer garden Paradise Found.

Tom is currently working for us on Raines Retreat where he is designing and building the garden and recreational spaces for a rural retreat for children and their families affected by childhood cancer.

What is Raines Retreat?

When a family receives the devastating news that their child is diagnosed with childhood cancer everyone in that child’s life is forever changed.

Therefore, we are developing a beautiful holiday retreat for families who desperately need the break and the chance to make precious, happy memories.

Not only is our retreat a calming place to reflect, but it is fully self-sustainable, embracing local businesses and craftsmanship as well as support.

Key Plants in the Raines Repurposed Garden

The colour scheme will be largely shades of green with flashes of white and palest pinks through to burgundy. The planting creates a space to unwind, gentle aroma from thyme and jasmine, soft rustling from grasses. Overall colour palate of greens and pale pinky purples gives a calming atmosphere for everyone who comes to visit.

Here is some information about the plants that have featured in Tom’s Balcony garden:

• Taxus baccato – a medium-sized bushy evergreen with narrow, leathery, very dark green leaves arranged in two rows on the shoots, and insignificant flowers followed on female plants by fleshy red fruits
• Pinus mugo – is a large, spreading bushy shrub or small tree with short, dark green needles and dark brown, ovoid cones.
• Oenothera lindheimeri – a bushy perennial with slender erect stems bearing small lance-shapes leaves and staryy white or pink-tinged flowers in loose racements in summer and autumn
• Thymus vulgaris – a bushy, dwarf, evergreen shrub up to 30cm tall and 40cm wide, with small, linear to ovate, aromatic, dark grey-green leaves, and terminal spikes of small, whorled, white or pink flowers in early summer. Thyme is a popular culinary herb, with various cultivars available. The flowers are favoured by bees and other pollinators
• Brizia media – a tufted semi-evergreen grass with purplish tinted, blue-green leaves. Throughout summer, locket-shaped, green-purple flowers, which fade to buff, hang from wiry branches. Their flowers are excellent for drying

Tom’s tips to designing a balcony garden

• Don’t be afraid of adding larger planters or planting to create scale
• Give the space a clear and cohesive scheme
• Use soft edges or curves to create space and fluidity in the design

Special Logo for Chelsea Flower Show

Oenothera lindheimeri ‘whirling butterflies’ is a key flower used. Its natural beauty and the playfulness of butterflies is a perfect match for a space aimed at children and young adults. It also inspired mum of cancer survivor and illustrator Emma van Klaveren to create a bespoke logo for the event.

Emma’s daughter, Florie was diagnosed with with Wilms’ tumour Stage 4 when she was two years old in March 2020. It is important throughout this project that families are at the forefront of our minds.