This week sees the return of one of the most important dates in the gardening social calendar: the RHS Chelsea Flower Show.
We asked the BBC Gardeners’ World Magazine team to choose their Chelsea highlights from the show this year, here’s what they picked.
More Chelsea inspiration:
- Memories from the Chelsea Flower Show
- Three Chelsea-inspired pot ideas
- What does the Bridgerton garden at Chelsea look like?
mgr Changing Tides Garden
Designed by Lucy Mitchell
The small gardens always grab my attention at Chelsea and this year I really love the mrg Changing Tides Garden designed by Lucy Mitchell. It’s a great example of planting for specific growing conditions, in this case challenging coastal weather, and I particularly like how Lucy has incorporated small trees growing in containers into the design – it just goes to show you can grow trees whatever space you have. The rest of the planting is great too, demonstrating there’s a plant for every location, however tricky. The use of reclaimed and recycled materials is also fab and adds to the authenticity of the space. Bravo!
Chosen by Kevin Smith
MOROTO no IE Santuary Garden
Designed by Kazuyuki Ishihara
This garden is the ultimate calm and restful retreat. Numerous shades of green clothe the space in unlimited textures but it’s the drifts of Siberian irises that really make it special for me as they punctuate the layers of planting with their powerful vertical growth.
Chosen by Emma Crawforth
Terrence Higgins Trust Bridge to 2030 Garden
Designed by Matthew Childs
The show garden that stole my heart was Matthew Childs’ garden for the Terrence Higgins Trust. The planting is exquisitely beautiful, effortlessly combining Chelsea stalwarts like irises, verbascum, poppies and grasses with succulents and more unusual conifers. It uses tough resilient plants, such as Dianthus cruentus that can cope with drought, moving through to plant that thrive in the dappled shade cast by the trees he has planted. And yet the garden feels coherent and not like a series of parts. There are so many gorgeous planting combinations to take from this garden.
Chosen by Catherine Mansley
Stroke Association’s Garden for Recovery
Designed by Miria Harris
The most memorable gardens at Chelsea always touch me emotionally, often by conveying the message that connecting with nature is so important for our everyday wellbeing but also recovering from life changing occurrences such as ill health or grief. The Stroke Association Garden by landscape designer Miria Harris, a stroke survivor herself, is one such space, combining an uplifting and bravely colourful planting scheme with a meditative natural clay pond, soothing seating area, and an upper canopy of windswept pine trees to convey resilience, restoration, relaxation and hope.
Chosen by Sonya Patel Ellis
Planet Good Earth
Designed by Betongpark & Urban Organic
I’m always attracted to gardens that incorporate edibles amongst the ornamental and the Planet Good Earth garden has so much on offer for culinary and medicinal use. There’s also lots of colour for interest and for pollinators, too. Plus it’s a garden for communities and enjoying outdoor spaces together – including skate-boarding!
Chosen by Claire Vennis
The RHS No Adults Allowed Garden
Designed by Harry Holding
I adore this welcoming RHS Garden by designer Harry Holding – the treehouse, the water, the hidden corners. All perfect for adventures outdoors and packed with inspirational touches. Pollinators will swarm to this wonderful planting scheme so kids can get to know a whole world of hidden life, and I love how the use of water and handle-with-care plants such as thalictrum and digitalis helps young visitors to understand small dangers and negotiate the world.
Chosen by Oliver Parsons
Floral Dens
These Floral Dens in Ranelagh gardens caught my eye as a very pretty but practical feature for gardens large or small. Made from woven willow they have different plants grown up and over and through them so they not only provide essential shade but also blend in brilliantly with their surroundings. The concept can be adapted with bigger or smaller shelters for play or relaxation.
The Octavia Hill Garden
Designed by Ann-Marie Powell with the Blue Diamond Team
I loved the colourful planting in this border, mirroring the materials used for the benches and water feature. This spot felt like a little hidden oasis of calm where one could lose oneself.
Chosen by Sarah Edwards
Best Chelsea Flower Show Gardens in recent years
Take a look back at some of the best Chelsea Show Gardens of recent years. Manoj Malde picks some of his favourites and explains why they felt so special.
