News: Apollo Mission Inspires Gardening Gurus

Thousands of visitors at one of the nation’s best-known flower shows will be able to enjoy innovative products made by a Knaresborough firm – although not in their usual environment.

Apollo Creative designs and manufactures equipment for use by organisations which work with youngsters with special educational needs – and bubble tubes are often used for mental and visual stimulation.

However, from July 3, some of the company’s products will be an integral part of one of the garden designs on show at the Royal Horticultural Society’s Hampton Court Palace Flower Show.

A Corner of the World

The display - A Corner of the World - has been designed with the needs of an autistic child in mind and incorporates ten Apollo bubble tubes.

“Our garden design is primarily aimed for use by autistic children, providing them with an escape from the outside world or a quiet corner where they can take the time out they need,” said gold-medal-winning co-designer of the garden, Nick Buss.

“The key elements include a hollow oak tree, bubble tubes and other sensory equipment, while plants in the garden have been chosen for their subtle colours and scents.”

He added: “With stimulation at the forefront of our design aims, we really wanted to find some bubble tubes for outdoor use but they were proving so difficult to source – until we spoke to another designer who’d been helped by Apollo Creative.

“Apollo’s bubble tubes helped us achieve the garden we wanted to make. We really couldn’t have done it without them.”

Apollo Creative designs and manufactures a range of bubble tubes for use in a wide variety of environments, from traditional areas such as sensory rooms through to point-of-sale (POS) applications and exhibitions, providing a unique focal point.

All the company’s tubes are based on high-brightness, low-maintenance LEDs. Pumps are designed to operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week so they can be used for displays as well as in sensory environments.

Tubes are built to order at the company’s Knaresborough base so custom sizes and specifications are available on request.

Lindsay's garden at Malvern

And it’s not the first time Apollo has found its products used for garden design. In 2011, graduate landscape designer Lindsay Warwick used bubble tubes to represent test tubes in her design Chemistry – All That Matters to celebrate the UNESCO Year of Chemistry, which won bronze at the Malvern Spring Gardening Show.

Managing director, Mark Hildred said: “We're always looking for new ways to develop our products and couldn't resist the fantastic design put forward by Nick for the garden at RHS Hampton Court.

“Following on from the Bronze Award garden by Lindsay Warwick at last years RHS Malvern, this year we're hoping for a gold!”

“The sensory garden can stimulate so many different senses and we hope it will have a life after the show as inspiration for a new generation of outdoor spaces.”