The Bring Me Sunshine Garden, inspired by Eric Morecambe and the coastline of his home town, is on show this week at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show. The display arrives as Morecambe marks what would have been the comedian’s 100th birthday this month, before the garden is taken down and moved to the Lancashire seaside town for a permanent future there.
After Chelsea, the garden will be relocated to Morecambe and become the gateway to Eden Project Morecambe, the planned new attraction overlooking Morecambe Bay. It will sit within a 1.5-acre public community garden and is due to open to visitors in 2027, ahead of the full launch of Eden Project Morecambe in 2028.
The garden is being described as a global garden, but it is rooted in a very local story. A solar-powered, shell-shaped canopy stands at the centre of the design, with the idea that young people will learn horticulture, foraging, crafts and digital skills beneath it. The sustainable planting includes Austrian pine trees, sea buckthorn and green olive, chosen to fit the garden’s coastal feel.
Harry Holding, who has worked on the project, said it was developed with different community groups and about 20 young adults from Morecambe who are looking to build skills in horticulture, crafts, arts and media. He said the canopy is meant to be “a space to bring that learning outside where you can connect with nature and all the plants around you.”
That makes the garden more than a showpiece for the Chelsea crowd. It is being used as a test run for a larger place-making project in Morecambe, where the garden is expected to become a community hub after the flower show. The move will also tie the display directly to Eden Project Morecambe, which is being developed as a sister site to the original Eden Project near St Austell in Cornwall.
The timing gives the project extra weight. Eric Morecambe’s centenary has brought his name back into public view, and the Chelsea display turns that nostalgia into something that will outlast the show itself. Once the garden is installed in Morecambe after Chelsea, the next milestone will be the official public opening planned for 2027, with the full Eden Project Morecambe site set to follow in 2028.
