Harry Holding Shows Morecambe Garden at Chelsea Flower Show
The Bring Me Sunshine Garden is on show at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show, with morecambe at the centre of the brief. Harry Holding’s design turns Eric Morecambe’s hometown and its bay into a garden that will not stay in London for long: after Chelsea, it moves to Morecambe.
The garden is built around a relocation plan with real scale. It will become part of a 1.5-acre public community garden in Morecambe, a site intended to open in 2027 and serve as the gateway to Eden Project Morecambe, which is set to open in 2028.
Eric Morecambe at 100
Eric Morecambe would have turned 100 this month, and that anniversary gives the Chelsea display its strongest emotional anchor. The garden is inspired by the comedian and the coastline of his hometown, but it is also shaped by the seaside heritage and communities of Morecambe Bay in Lancashire.
Holding said the project was developed with local participation: “Throughout the whole process we've been working with different community groups and about 20 young adults from Morecambe who are looking to develop skills in horticulture, crafts, arts and media.” That makes the installation more than a tribute piece at Chelsea; it is also a training platform tied to a place that will receive the garden after the show closes.
Shell Canopy and Planting
The centrepiece is a solar-powered, shell-shaped canopy, designed as “a space to bring that learning outside where you can connect with nature and all the plants around you,” Holding said. The canopy gives the project a practical use beyond display, since young people will be able to learn horticulture, foraging, crafts and digital skills beneath it.
The planting list is doing more than dressing the edges. Austrian pine trees provide structure and scale, while sea buckthorn and green olive supply sculptural interest. The combination suits a show garden that has to read clearly at Chelsea and then translate into a permanent community space on the coast.
Morecambe After Chelsea
After Chelsea this week, work to install the garden in Morecambe will follow. That sequence matters because the project is not ending with the flower show; it is moving into construction, then into a public opening in 2027, with Eden Project Morecambe due in 2028.
For Morecambe, the garden arrives with a double purpose: it carries a local name onto one of gardening’s biggest stages, then comes home as a permanent civic asset. The move from exhibition piece to 1.5-acre community garden gives the city something tangible to build around, not just admire from a distance.
