RHS WENTWORTH WOODHOUSE, UK 2025

The Dune Garden

Blending personal memory with ecological intent, the garden showcases sand-grown planting, minimal water use, and considered intervention in the landscape.

— Royal Horticultural Society (n.d.). “The Dune Garden.” RHS Flower Show Wentworth

The Dune Garden for the RHS Wentworth Woodhouse is conceived as a sanctuary for the wind-tossed, sun-kissed lovers of the coast, who treasure the sand dune area within their garden and desire a space for outdoor rituals and nature contemplation. Inspired by the resilient beauty of Fire Island’s sand dunes, ecological marvels and historic queer refuges, it blurs the boundaries between nature and garden, shaped by gentle human presence through acts of outdoor ritual and contemplation.

Blending memory with ecological purpose, the garden highlights sand-grown planting and gentle garden intervention in the wider coastal landscape: natives and neophytes alongside ornamentals, with designed feature honour the sand dune as both habitat and haven. The garden unfolds in four distinct zones, the dune lee, the dune slack, the foredune and the pine barren each evoking a different dune habitat with horticultural precision and thoughtful pairings. It was awarded Silver Gilt and much acclaim, and was featured on BBC Gardeners’ World, with an interview with the designer on the programme.

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Skullcap and Marsh Helleborine thrive in the damp microhabitat of the dune slack fed by the shower’s runoff.

On the lee side, evening primrose ‘Apricot Delight’, atlas fescue, wayfaring trees, and Cupid’s dart grow, like everything else in this garden, directly in washed, manually sieved Howley Park sand.

The scene Ruggeri creates relates back to Fire Island’s queer  images of power framed by nature, coupled with its iconic crude erotism.

— Chapman, H. (23 June 2025). Young designer spotlights queer refuge in RHS debut garden. Pro Landscaper Magazine.

On the foredune, the cultigen large-flowered evening primrose grows with burnet rose, alongside Moroccan sea holly and sea campion, while a rare Indian paintbrush parasitises the native viper’s bugloss and blue lyme grass.

The pine barren is underplanted with evening primrose ‘Glaber’, blue hair grass, flowering sea heath, scabious, and other well-adapted varieties.

The scene Ruggeri creates relates back to Fire Island’s queer images of power framed by nature, coupled with its iconic crude erotism.

The pine barren, anchored by Scotch pines that root the garden in cultural memory. It transitions into the inner dune, where nectar-rich nodding thistles draw pollinators in profusion.

The pine barren is underplanted with evening primrose ‘Glaber’, blue hair grass, flowering sea heath, scabious, and other well-adapted varieties.