Special show garden arrives at Bluebell Wood Children’s Hospice

A unique and deeply meaningful garden created for the recent RHS Wentworth Woodhouse Flower Show opened at Bluebell Wood Children’s Hospice on 1st October 2025.

Opened by  Mayor of Rotherham, Rukhsana Ismail, the garden first made its debut at the Rotherham show where it presented the ‘Together Garden’, a beautifully designed show garden, created by Phil Hirst and Joanne Charlton.

Visitors to the show experienced its immersive, serene planting and thoughtful layout, all designed to inspire reflection, connection and comfort. Curving timber benches provide spaces to pause and sit together and a bespoke canopy offers shelter. Two sculptural forms evoke hands held together.

And since the show came to an end Greenfingers, the landscape contractors and the design team have been working tirelessly to carefully move the plants and elements of the garden for it to become a permanent fixture at Bluebell Wood Children’s Hospice in Sheffield. 

Its new home is outside one of the hospice’s end-of-life bedrooms providing a peaceful space for families to make memories and find moments of solace.

Heidi Hawkins, Chief Executive of Bluebell Wood Children’s Hospice, said: “Having a beautiful, tranquil and welcoming outdoor space for our families to spend time together and reflect when they’re going through incredibly difficult circumstances is so important. The impact that the garden will have cannot be underestimated.

“We are enormously grateful to everyone involved in making this happen. It’s wonderful to see the designs come to life at Wentworth Woodhouse, and we’re so pleased to now see the garden coming together here at Bluebell Wood, where it will benefit babies, children, young adults and their families during end-of-life care.”

Together Garden opening at Bluebell Wood in October 2025

Linda Petrons, Director of Fundraising & Communications at Greenfingers Charity, said: “We are incredibly proud to have played a part in the creation and relocation of the Together Garden, an extraordinary space of comfort and solace in the moments that matter most.

“From its moving debut at RHS Wentworth Woodhouse to its new forever home at Bluebell Wood Children’s Hospice, the Together Garden embodies everything Greenfingers stands for: compassion, creativity, and connection through nature.

“Seeing the garden start to take root in a place where it will provide peace and precious memories during end-of-life care is deeply humbling. We are truly grateful to designer Phil Hirst, co-creator Joanne Charlton, Jus Landscapes and everyone whose hands and hearts helped bring this vision to life.”

At the heart of the Together Garden is a unique design brief: to create a space not for children, but specifically for bereaved parents and loved ones. For designer Phil Hirst, the emotional depth of the project brought new creative challenges.

Phil said: “It was a real privilege to be asked by Greenfingers to design a garden for Bluebell Wood. Many of the charity’s gardens are centred around children, but this time the focus was different – to offer parents and families a space to process grief and find comfort at an unimaginably difficult time.

“Working alongside Joanne Charlton brought fresh perspectives, and despite the sensitive nature of the project, the process has been incredibly rewarding. Showing the garden at RHS Wentworth Woodhouse gave us a rare opportunity to share that story with the public and we are very proud to see it begin to take root and blossom in its forever home.”

That forever home, at Bluebell Wood Children’s Hospice, is one already known for its much-loved outdoor spaces, something that is further enriched by the addition of the Together Garden.

Together Garden at RHS Show Wentworth Woodhouse - Featured on BBC Gardeners World