Coast magazine in bloom

If you're heading for Eastbourne this summer, don't miss its latest floral attraction: the Coast magazine flowerbed!

The idea of re-creating the magazine's logo in floral form came from the editor, Clare Gogerty, as she explains:

 

‘I love seaside flowerbeds and I am writing about them for a future issue of Coast. The traditional carpet bedding established by the Victorians - brightly coloured ranks of annuals such as begonias and petunias - always makes me smile, and there are often some spectacular three-dimensional forms such as boats and lighthouses. It's also interesting to see how council gardeners have adapted to a reduction in funds and manpower by planting with perennials and drought-resistant plants such as succulents and grasses.'

 

Eastbourne was the intended site because, as Clare explains: ‘Eastbourne is famous for its high standard and variety of planting. I thought it would be great if Coast could have its own flowerbed, and approached Eastbourne Parks and Gardens department. Happily they had an unclaimed bed and we were away'

 

Blooming now until September, the flowerbed, in the renowned Carpet Gardens, was designed by Simon Hurt, from Eastbourne Borough Council's Parks & Gardens department. The design (right) features the magazine logo with seagulls swooping above and a pier in the background.

 

He describes the challenges of reproducing a magazine logo with plants. ‘The trickiest part of this design was to ensure that the font for the word ‘Coast' was recognisable when created in plants.'

 

Three plant species have been used. Echeveria glauca, a small greyish-green succulent from the drier parts of central and North America, has been used for the lettering and outline of the pier. A leafier plant, Alternanthera, from Central and South America, has been used for most of the remaining blocks of colour, in bronze, orange and green. The final plant is Antennaria, a small-leaved greyish plant of the northern hemisphere.

These plants were very apt, says Clare, ‘because colours associated with Coast and the sea are predominantly blue and grey.'

 

The bed measures 6.5 metres by 4 metres, and took about two to three hours to mark out. There are around 2,850 plants in the design, on a background of white gravel, which took two gardeners one day to plant. To keep the design neat throughout the growing season they have to be trimmed every couple of weeks or so.

 

  Photo: Visit BritainThe type of traditional carpet bedding displayed so beautifully at Eastbourne (left) developed during the Victorian period, says Simon Hurt, and may have originated at Cliveden Estate in Buckinghamshire in the 1860s. It's something of a dying art, but he says: ‘In Eastbourne we are lucky to have retained the traditional skills required for this work.'

 

Have you seen the Coast flowerbed? Tell us what you thought of it in the Comments box  below...

 

Got a photo of the Coast flowerbed? Click here to email it to us, and we'll include it in this feature!

Subscribe - SAVE over 50%