TWELVE designs have been selected for Future Gardens, the launch-pad of the Butterfly World project in Chiswell Green. Two Chelsea Flower Show designers are among the dozen who have been chosen to devise the 24-metre by 10-metre plots intended to demonstr

TWELVE designs have been selected for Future Gardens, the launch-pad of the Butterfly World project in Chiswell Green.

Two Chelsea Flower Show designers are among the dozen who have been chosen to devise the 24-metre by 10-metre plots intended to demonstrate how urban gardens can be used to bring butterflies back

They will open next June as part of the first phase of the multi-million-pound Butterfly World development which is expected to bring thousands of visitors to the district.

TV gardener Andy Sturgeon is one of the Chelsea winners who has been selected with his garden Urban Greening and the other is husband and wife team Jane Hudson and Erik De Maeijer who live in Shenley and whose design Nest was inspired by the desire to protect their four children.

Nearly 100 entrants from around the world entered the Future Gardens competition and the selection panel included James Alexander Sinclair, Cleve West and Andrew Fisher Tomlin.

The brief for the designers was to incorporate sustainability, the environment, recycling and nectar-rich plants. All the pioneering gardens are intended to acknowledge the fragility of the environment and inspire visitors to take ideas home with them.

The Future Gardens will be open for four months each year, longer than traditional flower shows and intended to show how gardens mature and evolve through the season.

Panellist James Alexander Sinclair said: "Occasionally it is good to let the imagination soar. That is what Future Gardens is all about: to allow flights of fancy to fly and to give the offbeat room to roam.

Cleve West, another garden designer well known to TV viewers, added: "The quality of the 12 selected gardens, both in terms of presentation and innovation, was outstanding and will fanfare the arrival of Future Gardens in a big way.

"I'm looking forward to seeing these gardens come to life and make Future Gardens the garden event we've all been waiting for."

The 26-acre Butterfly World site is designed in the shape of a giant butterfly with a large biome as its multi-faceted eye. The overall site is being masterminded by celebrated designer Ivan Hicks and creates a series of gardens and meadow areas to increase the site's plant and animal diversity and provide a unique education, scientific research and recreational resource.

Work on the site is well underway with the first milestone almost complete - the creation of Miriam Lane which gives access to the site and is named in tribute to the late Dame Miriam Rothschild.