Alumna Jo Thompson (m.1990) is creating a show garden for the world's most celebrated garden show, the RHS Chelsea Flower Show. Previously she has been the recipient of four Gold and five Silver Gilt medals at Chelsea, and this year her garden is in support of The Glasshouse, an innovative not-for-profit social enterprise that offers horticultural training and employment opportunities to women in prison and recently released.

But that's not all she has on her plate. We are very lucky that she is also designing the garden for the newly renovated Mogford Lodge, which will integrate the landscape around both the Lodge and Newnham House, creating a space for students and Fellows to wander, meet, and study.

Jo is one of the country's premiere garden designers, working across the UK and internationally from Italy to New York. Her projects range from wildflower meadows and herbaceous borders planted with roses and perennials, to coastal gardens and rooftop terraces. Other current design projects include the regeneration of the historic walled gardens at Water Lane in Kent, the Winter Garden at RHS Rosemoor and the planting strategy at Highgate Cemetery in London with Gustafson Porter + Bowman.

Jo came to Corpus in 1990 from University College London to study for a PhD in Modern Languages (Italian). Upon arrival at Leckhampton she recalls being surrounded by people whose research was central to who they were. “I was so pleased to be living and studying with such passionate people in beautiful surroundings. Leckhampton felt like Corpus’ country house.”

Reflecting on her time, she recalls “I never tired of exploring the gardens at Leckhampton. And, although I hadn't had any formal landscape training at that point, I think that was a big part of the inspiration for what I did later. 

In addition to her Chelsea medals, Jo won the People’s Choice award at the first RHS Chatsworth Flower Show. She is a member of the RHS Gardens Committee and is Garden Advisor for RHS Rosemoor, as well as being a member of the RHS Show Gardens Selection Panel and an RHS Shows Judge. She speaks nationally and internationally, and tutors at The London College of Garden Design. She is a Fellow of the Society of Garden Designers and the Landscape Institute and a Trustee of Bankside Open Spaces Trust.

The Glasshouse Garden

Funded by Project Giving Back (PGB), the garden is inspired by conversations Jo has had with women supported by The Glasshouse programme and will be centred around a translucent pavilion emerging from the foliage. It celebrates the transformative effect of second chances through horticulture, embodying the sense of purpose, self-belief and hope The Glasshouse programme offers to women as they approach the end of their prison sentences. An immersive space centred around a translucent elliptical pavilion emerging from the foliage, the Garden is full of sensory delights. Jewel-like colours and fragrant flowers sway to the sound of water from a narrow rill which winds its way through the space connecting different areas and ending in a tranquil pool.

The planting is rich and full of texture and includes beautiful river birch trees, ferns, grasses and roses including, Rosa‘Tuscany Superb’ Rosa ‘Charles de Mills’, and Rosa ‘Emma Bridgewater’. The planting colours are inspired by the notion of ‘strong beauty’ in a palette of deep reds and muted pinks. The pavilion has a series of pivoting screens made from recycled acrylic which open like petals and have a tint which compliments the colour palette of the plants. The garden will be relocated to a women’s prison in the South of England.<

About the charities

Established in 2020, The Glasshouse provides award-winning, high quality plant design, installation and maintenance services to corporate clients in London. Plants are also available to buy through The Glasshouse website and shop. Through commercial enterprise and horticulture, The Glasshouse simultaneously builds skill, experience, resilience and self belief to prepare women for a successful future after having been in prison.  The Glasshouse has a 0% reoffending rate, compared with an average re-offending rate among women of 58 percent, according to the Prison Reform Trust. The Glasshouse received a Gold Award at RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2024 for a self-designed and installed exhibit inspired by their work in the glasshouses at HMP East Sutton Park.

Project Giving Back is a unique grant-making charity that provides funding for gardens for good causes at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show. PGB was launched in May 2021 in response to the Covid-19 pandemic and its devastating effects on UK charitable fundraising - effects that have since been exacerbated by the cost of living crisis.

PGB will fund 10 gardens at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show in 2025 and intends to fund a total of 60 gardens inspired by a range of good causes from 2022 to 2026.

PGB aims to boost UK-based good causes by giving them an opportunity to raise awareness of their work at the high-profile RHS Chelsea Flower Show, as well as supporting the relocation of the gardens to permanent homes after the show where they can continue to benefit the charities and their communities.