The Plant Heritage Missing Collector Garden
You may have spotted an intriguing looking chair on the design image of the Plant Heritage Missing Collector Garden (see above). It’s not just any chair; it’s a bronze cast of the Full Grown Gatti Chair.
Gavin Munro founded the first Full Grown Orchard in 2006 and now runs the project with his partner Alice Munro. Over 20 years, they’ve worked together to experiment and develop new techniques in creating chairs out of living trees, training willows to grow into functional pieces of furniture and stunning pieces of art. Their harvested chairs can be found at art institutions around the world, and their first Chelsea experience was as a part of Chelsea in Bloom in partnership with Louis Vuitton in 2022 which won a gold medal.
The chair that will be featured on the garden is a bronze cast of an original Full Grown chair; it was their first “sittable” prototype entitled The Gatti Chair. They named it after Laura Gatti, the agronomist for the Bosco Verticale in Milan. The chair is being generously loaned to the garden by the Sarah Myerscough Gallery.
The original Gatti Chair was grown from willow, Salix viminalis, and is now owned by a private collector in the USA. The original willow whip was planted in 2009, then coppiced in 2011. The water shoots from this coppicing were then used to shape the chair, which began in 2012. The chair was harvested in 2018 and displayed with all the leaves attached, before returning to the Full Grown studio for drying and finishing.
We spoke to Alice and Gavin to find out more about the chair, and their process.
How much manipulation do you have to do to achieve the chair?
The aim is to be like a subtle storm and to do as little manipulation as possible to allow opportunity for healthy growth. We are seeking to learn whether we can collaborate with each tree that we work with. While they can’t offer consent they can certainly take it away. We are 20 years into a project that could take 50 or even 100 years to become an established technique.
There are three basic interventions -
a) Holding a branch at a specific angle.
b) Creating an angle and holding that steady too.
c) Grafting together branches and keeping each branch alive after the graft
We’re on the cusp of launching our Full Grown Academy, which will share the knowledge we have gleaned so far, and hopefully with the help of curious citizen scientists, we can also expand on the knowledge we already have.
How many are you growing at any one time? Is there a desire to create other furniture in this way?
There are a few dozen growing pieces in the orchard. We’ve grown some lampshades, and are experimenting with stools, benches, tables and the odd chandelier. So, yes there’s absolutely a desire to create all manner of other useful objects this way. The aim for the project is that one day every community that wants can have its own furniture orchard and each chair lasts for centuries.
What does it mean to you to have a chair on a Chelsea garden?
We’ve been visiting RHS Chelsea for a number of years and it’s been a long-held ambition to be in one of the gardens here, and we got very close with our entry with Louis Vuitton for Chelsea in Bloom back in 2022, when we were absolutely delighted to win an RHS Gold Medal.
Who would you most like to see sitting on the chair?
It’s a long list! It would be a huge honour if the King were to sit in it, and we know Gavin’s mum would be delighted if Monty Don sat in it. David Attenborough, Judi Dench, the lists go on and on ... so many gardening heroes!
What do you think it will add to the Plant Heritage Missing Collector Garden and why is that important to you?
I love the idea of the ‘missing collector’, and people seeing the chair and being intrigued by its shape and story of manufacture, hopefully might help the idea of being the collector stick in their minds for a fraction longer. There’s such a lot to see at Chelsea and it’s hard to remember all of it! The idea of hosting a collection is what we want to take seed in people’s minds. If we can help with that message, that would be amazing.
What do you want people to think when they see the chair?
WOW would be great.
The bronze chair is so very beautiful, and feels just right for the garden, but I’d love for people to want to find out more about our grown work and maybe even give growing furniture a go themselves!
The chair will return to the Sarah Myerscough Gallery after RHS Chelsea Flower Show. For all queries, please contact freya@sarahmyerscough.com
The Plant Heritage Missing Collector Garden is designed by the Planting Design Collective. The garden is funded by Project Giving Back with additional funding from the Shanly Foundation. The garden is being built by Crowton Rowarth with support from Gareth Wilson Garden & Landscaping Consultancy.