Chelsea’s Show-Stopping Gardening Trends

The RHS Chelsea Flower Show is the horticultural highlight of the year in the UK, with more than 150,000 visitors heading to west London to admire the dazzling show gardens. King Charles and Queen Camilla visited the 2023 event, while television royalty was represented by, among others, Mary Berry, Joanna Lumley and Succession star Matthew Macfadyen. Here are the key trends to follow in your own green space.

Landscapes that nurture
The presence of 15 displays funded by Project Giving Back, which supports gardens for good causes, meant that the restorative qualities of outdoor space were emphasised – something we all came to appreciate during the Covid pandemic. Whether they were in a garden building, a glasshouse or hidden among the greenery, entertaining spaces were almost an afterthought, surrounded by the embrace of plants.

In praise of weeds
One man’s weed is another’s wildflower. Dandelions, oxeye daisies, red campions and buttercups found their way into many spaces, notably Cleve West’s creation of a deserted garden for Centrepoint, where a fallen birch tree with nettles growing from its trunk inspired equal amounts of muttering and admiration. The message is to relax: if the uninvited visitors are happy growing alongside your cultivated plants, look attractive and provide fodder for the birds and bees, perhaps it is time to embrace them rather than get rid of them. Forget “no-mow May”, though; there was not a single lawn in sight.

The quest for sustainability
Wooden buildings, reclaimed materials, lathe and plaster, straw-bale walls and rammed-earth structures were much in evidence, as were pathways and pots made from crushed and recycled concrete. Charlotte Harris and Hugo Bugg’s smart, wheelchair-accessible path in their best-in-show design for Horatio’s Garden was created with a special terrazzo-like material made from permeable, cement-free aggregate. Fly ash, a byproduct of coal-fired power plants, was used in the cement in Mark Gregory’s garden for Savills, which featured an outdoor kitchen where visitors, including the Chelsea Pensioners, could eat the produce growing. Overseen by the young British chef Sam Buckley, this “plot to plate” experience was a first for Chelsea.

Water features go subtle
Water, an essential ingredient in most displays, was there to encourage contemplation rather than shout its presence. Gently flowing over the tops of bowls, it provided a place for birds to drink and bathe.

Vertical accents
Few were the lupins and foxgloves pointing heavenwards (perhaps because of the cold spring). Instead trees lifted the eye as well as providing shade – ever more important as our summers get hotter. Slim and silvery birches were popular, as were multi-stemmed specimens planted to give an airy feel to a space, while showstoppers included Sarah Price’s magnificent native Scots pine, pruned to look like a Mediterranean stone pine.

The new palette
Anyone looking for dazzling colour might have been disappointed: lush layers of green predominated, studded with pops of purple, pink and white. Sarah Price’s display for Nurturing Landscapes was breathtaking in its painterly use of rusts and “dirty” shades of pink and yellow – the Benton irises, originally bred by the artist Cedric Morris at his home in Suffolk, will surely cause a flurry of orders.

Pictures from top: King Charles III at RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2023 (RHS/Oliver Dixon); the Savills Garden, designed by Mark Gregory (RHS/Oliver Dixon); the Nurture Landscapes Garden, designed by Sarah Price (RHS/Sarah Cuttle); the Centrepoint Garden, designed by Cleve West, sponsored by Centrepoint and Project Giving Back (RHS/Sarah Cuttle)