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How Subaru UK & Ireland is Helping Horatio’s Garden Transform Spinal Recovery

How Subaru UK & Ireland is Helping Horatio’s Garden Transform Spinal Recovery

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How Subaru UK & Ireland is Helping Horatio’s Garden Transform Spinal Recovery: Subaru UK & Ireland has partnered with Horatio’s Garden, the charity which creates and expertly staffs extraordinary gardens at NHS spinal injury rehabilitation centres across the UK.

Through the partnership, Subaru UK & Ireland has donated its award-winning ‘Subaru Cocoon’ show garden, which captivated judges and visitors alike at the most recent RHS Hampton Court Palace Garden Festival, for installation at a spinal injury rehabilitation centre at Horatio’s Garden South West at Salisbury District Hospital. The formal announcement coincided with the International Day of Forests, which is celebrated annually to raise awareness about the importance of all types of forests and trees.

Subaru Donates ‘Subaru Cocoon’ Garden to charity

Subaru Donates ‘Subaru Cocoon’ Garden to charity

The garden, originally conceived to draw attention to the crisis faced by the UK’s rapidly shrinking temperate rainforest, has been sensitively adapted and repurposed to provide pleasure and a place of calm and comfort to people with spinal injuries, their families and hospital staff.

Lorraine Bishton, Managing Director at Subaru UK & Ireland, said: “From the outset, the Subaru Cocoon Garden was designed to be more than a one-off show garden; it was meant to spark debate and draw attention to an element of the natural world in need of careful preservation: our rapidly shrinking temperate rainforests. We also wanted it to live on after the show, and now, through our partnership with Horatio’s Garden, it will.

“Horatio’s Garden does extraordinary work providing spaces of genuine sanctuary and healing for people facing life-changing spinal injuries – and the loved ones who support them. Partnering with them and ensuring the garden – and its vital conservation message – would continue to thrive under their custodianship.”

Horatio’s Garden creates and expertly staffs beautiful, vibrant gardens outside the clinical starkness of NHS spinal injury centres. The gardens offer space for reflection and adjustment, privacy and solace, and moments of joy and companionship for everyone who needs them. Evidence consistently shows that access to these gardens improves mental and physical well-being, reduces pain, and supports long-term recovery for people navigating life-changing spinal injuries.

Katie Tait, CEO of Horatio’s Garden said: “A spinal injury can be a devastating blow, with many people facing months of rehabilitation and an increased risk of anxiety and depression. That’s why we are absolutely delighted that this award winning garden is being brought to life within Horatio’s Garden South West and thoughtfully adapted for people using wheelchairs or hospital beds. We are deeply grateful to Subaru for its extraordinary support and for recognising how a calming, immersive space just moments from the hospital ward can make such a transformative difference.”

Background on The Subaru Cocoon Garden

The Subaru Cocoon Garden was conceived to highlight one of the UK’s most pressing, overlooked environmental crises: the near-extinction of Britain’s temperate rainforests. Once spanning 20% of the UK and Ireland, these rich, biodiverse ecosystems have dwindled to less than 1% of their former size. The temperate rainforest is among the most threatened habitats in the UK.
Created by Subaru UK & Ireland in collaboration with the Mike McMahon Studio, the Cocoon Garden evokes the quiet majesty of the rainforest, drawing visitors into a calming environment of texture, shadow and native planting.

Before being installed in its new home, the Subaru Cocoon has been thoughtfully modified to ensure it is fully accessible and welcoming to all those who will benefit from it. Adaptations have been made with the specific needs of Horatio’s Garden patients in mind, including those using wheelchairs or requiring bed access, ensuring that the garden’s restorative qualities can be enjoyed by everyone who visits.

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‘The Subaru Cocoon’ Garden to be unveiled

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‘The Subaru Cocoon’ Garden to be unveiled: Subaru UK & Ireland is set to unveil ‘The Subaru Cocoon’ garden at the prestigious RHS Hampton Court Palace Garden Festival 2025, which runs from 1st- 6th July.

The installation, created by award-winning designers Mike McMahon and Jewlsy Mathews of Mike McMahon Studio, with the Subaru Cocoon Garden reflecting a sculptural, sensory refuge, inspired by the UK and Ireland’s vanishing temperate rainforests.

'The Subaru Cocoon' Garden to be unveiled

‘The Subaru Cocoon’ Garden to be unveiled

Once covering 20% of Britain, these lush, biodiverse ecosystems have now dwindled to less than 1%, making them one of the UK’s most threatened habitats. The Subaru Cocoon draws attention to this quiet crisis, reimagining the traditional walled garden as a sanctuary of both protection and ecological memory.

The display will sit in a prominent position within the historic grounds of Hampton Court Palace. The six-day festival is expected to welcome over 140,000 horticultural enthusiasts to the Palace gardens in west London for a celebration of garden designs, floral displays, and a wide range of other family-friendly activities.

Lorraine Bishton, Managing Director at Subaru UK & Ireland said: “The Subaru Cocoon’ garden at the RHS Hampton Court Palace Garden Festival supports our commitments to safety and sustainability, whilst showcasing this beautiful, but threatened native habitat.

We know our customers also have a strong connection to nature and are engaged with initiatives that raise awareness of environmental responsibility.

We are delighted that following the show, the garden will provide a legacy supporting the inspirational charity Horatio’s Garden.”

The Cocoon garden reflects Subaru’s commitment to sustainability, care, and considered movement – values shared across both brand and garden installation. Just as Subaru supports responsible exploration through electric innovation, with the zero-tailpipe emission, all-wheel-drive Subaru Solterra, the garden offers a place of refuge that treads lightly on the land. Both prioritise harmony with the natural world. At their core, they both share a quiet belief in elegant, considered design to live better, prioritising awareness and beauty while simultaneously minimising unwanted impact.

The Subaru Cocoon Garden features a striking curved Jali wall – a perforated architectural screen that honours co-designer Jewlsy Mathews’ South Indian heritage – made from 4,500 innovative Kenoteq K-Briqs. These revolutionary building materials are manufactured from over 95% recycled construction waste and emit 95% less carbon than traditional fired bricks. The Jali wall doubles as a super-sized ‘insect hotel’, its porous structure supporting microhabitats across the site. By using sustainable bricks, the garden project has diverted 9.45 tonnes of construction waste from landfill and saved 1,972 kg of CO₂ emissions – equivalent to the amount of CO2 80 mature trees would absorb over a full year. This innovative approach to biodiversity follows Mike McMahon Studio’s RHS Chelsea Gold Medal-winning garden in 2024.

In lieu of a traditional walled garden door, a reflective water threshold —a symbolic cleansing—leads into a cool, immersive landscape of texture and shadow. Cantilevered fallen tree trunks hover dramatically above the wall, planted with native epiphytes in a bold interpretation of the forest’s “chop-and-drop” cycle, where decaying wood returns nutrients to the soil. The planting scheme features exclusively native species from the UK and Ireland, including thirteen species of fern, Silver Birch, and Scots Pine, structured in forest-like layers to celebrate the rich biodiversity of Britain’s temperate rainforests.

Mike McMahon of Mike McMahon Studio said: “The UK and Ireland’s temperate rainforest is a landscape that’s both ecologically rich and tragically overlooked – something we wanted to highlight with the Subaru Cocoon Garden. This type of installation has never been created at Hampton Court Palace before; it felt like the right moment to highlight the fragile epiphytes and micro-ecosystems that thrive in these endangered environments.”

“The garden is enveloped by a circular brick jali wall that frames the plants, plays with light and shadow, and invites you to look through and around, like you’re glimpsing through trees. Sustainability isn’t an add-on, it’s embedded in every decision we’ve made, from using zero concrete to ensuring all elements are reusable or relocatable once the show ends.”

As part of Subaru’s commitment to sustainability, the garden will be given a second life after the festival with plans to repurpose it to Horatio’s Garden charity, ensuring the installation continues to inspire and provide a place to nurture the wellbeing of people beyond the event.

For more information on the Subaru range, including the all-electric Solterra, visit www.subaru.co.uk

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