The Boodles Travel Garden

May 2022

In 1962, 60 years ago, Anthony Wainwright, father to the current chairman of Boodles travelled around the world in just 16 days. The Boodles Travel Garden is a garden that celebrates this incredible endeavour with planting drawn from all corners of the world, creating a global garden, which offers a calm sanctuary to rest and reflect on the ‘grand tour’ of a journey.

‘It was a long-held dream to take part in Chelsea and we are delighted to be returning for the second time this year. We are thrilled to be working with Tom Hoblyn, the inspirational garden designer once again, and we hope the public enjoy our garden, directly inspired by Anthony Wainwright’s journey.’

James Amos, Director at Boodles

Planting with interesting form and habit has been chosen and includes potted Cyathea cooperii, native to India with stunning bark pattern, Cornus controversa from East Asia, with horizontal habit and Acer pensylvanicum from USA with its striped white bark. Below the structural planting is a woodland stumpery-style underplanting with a trail of blue and burnt orange indicating a journey and creating movement in the planting. The mounded beds partially obscure views creating a sense of discovery.

Tom Hoblyn

Tom is a British landscape designer, horticulturist and gardener who set up his practice shortly after graduating from The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. His work is underpinned by his innate understanding and knowledge as a plantsman and horticultural master, and an appreciation and awareness of place in the landscape.

An established figure at both RHS Chelsea and RHS Hampton Court, he has won three gold, five silver gilt and two silver medals, as well as the coveted People’s Choice Award for his Arthritis UK sponsored garden and a nomination for The People’s Choice of The Decade Award in 2020. In 2021 he designed The Boodles Secret Garden, inspired by the well-loved children’s story by Frances Hodgson- Burnett: a contemporary interpretation of the journey into an enchanted, life changing sanctuary of a secret garden. He is a member of the Society of Garden Designers, (MSGD), writing and regularly giving presentations and talks to the public and experts within the industry. He has maintained his links at Kew and works closely with local groups and students.

His current projects include the relandscaping of a large Cotswold estate, rewilding a stretch of riverbank in Suffolk and designing a partially submerged garden in Norfolk on The Broads. He works closely with a number of charities to achieve thoughtful, healing gardens.

In 1962, Boodles Chairman Anthony Wainwright, made a remarkable journey. Thanks to his album of photographs, it is known that he circumnavigated the globe. And he did so in just 16 days. Anthony Wainwright was the father of our current Chairman, Nicholas Wainwright and his brother Michael, our Managing Director. Fellow Directors James Amos and Jody Wainwright are his grandsons. They all have tales to tell of his story, woven as it is into the DNA of Boodles.

What was really remarkable about the journey is that in just 16 days he visited a total of 10 cities at various points around the globe in order to buy gemstones, at a time when air travel was limited, infrequent and expensive. Even nowadays it would be quite a challenge. Anthony’s journey formed the backdrop to the thinking behind this breath-taking high jewellery collection, which was released in 2021.

This year at the Chelsea Flower Show the Boodles ‘Travel Garden’ takes its inspiration from these travels, as well as the collection, and Boodles has extended this much-loved range to include a suite of jewellery designed specifically for 2022’s show.

The suite, which will be unveiled for the first time this week, takes its inspiration from gardens around the world and includes a mix of exotic and vibrant colours. Pink and green tourmalines are nestled amongst cabochon mandarin garnets and diamonds, all set in yellow gold. We hope you enjoy seeing it in its natural habitat...