Key trends from the 2024 RHS Chelsea Flower Show

What a winter the growers and exhibitors at the 2024 RHS Chelsea Flower Show have had: solid rain, then an early spring, followed by more downpours. But they have triumphed, with many focusing simply on gardens that are, above all, welcoming, contemplative places in which to spend time. Who wouldn’t want to wander through Ula Maria’s Forest Bathing Garden, a dappled birch grove judged best in show; or Tom Stuart-Smith’s shady hazel coppice for the National Garden Scheme, illuminated by white foxgloves?

Chilling out with the birds and the bees (there were plenty) is no bad thing, even in the No Adults Allowed garden – designed by children, with an underwater den, meadow and pond for bugs. So, what were the other trends? 

Sustainability
It’s ironic that a show created out of thin air for a few days in May should focus on sustainability, but where Chelsea leads, millions of us eventually follow. Both the oak and beech in the National Garden Scheme cabin, designed by Stuart-Smith’s son Ben and made by Fenton Scott-Fielder, came from trees felled at Stuart-Smith’s home; the shed will eventually go to the garden at the Maggie’s centre in Cambridge. Elsewhere, use of cement-based concrete was limited; paths were made largely of recycled brick or limestone; and plants were chosen for their resilience. In Ann-Marie Powell’s Octavia Hill Garden for the National Trust, for example, there were native hawthorns, the Chinese hackberry Celtis sinensis and crape myrtle, Lagerstroemia ‘Natchez’.

New methods and materials
Designers have come up with some innovative thinking: Giulio Giorgi used 3D-printed terracotta in his garden in support of World Child Cancer, which won the show’s new award for environmental innovation. Other examples included Miria Harris’s walls from hempcrete, hand-finished with clay render, for the Stroke Association, and Thomas Clarke’s balcony canopy and bench, which were carved from a felled ash, with terrazzo floor tiles made from the chippings. In the Great Pavilion, the Caley Brothers showed us the many media in which edible and medicinal mushrooms can grow – including old books. 

Trees au naturel
Trees finding their own way, rather than clipped and conquered, are still very much the thing. Beautiful specimens featured, including medlar, multi-stemmed hazel, the hawthorn Crataegus x lavelleei ‘Carrierei’ and, most notably, birch, which is suitable for small spaces – it provides a slender profile with dappled shade. Shapely Scots pines also made appearances throughout the show.

Saving water
Water conservation is not just about drought-tolerant species, but also about saving the stuff. Tom Massey’s pavilion, which funnelled rainwater into underground tanks, was the most dramatic example: it could be scaled down to a domestic level. There were also rain chains (more attractive than a downpipe), stone troughs, tanks and integrated butts.

In these times of increasingly dramatic downpours, mitigating the effects is important, using porous surfaces, pools and planting to slow down runoff. Tom Bannister’s cascade of ponds was a favourite in the Ecotherapy Garden. 

Colours charting
Green, first. Lush around Bannister’s cool pools, house plants (which had their own zone) have influenced what we place in the garden. Leafy lovelies such as Asarum europaeum and Saruma henryi (both gingers) were some of the most photographed in the show. Picking up from last year, when Sarah Price created a gorgeous garden inspired by the painter Cedric Morris, irises were plentiful, in shades of pale blue, yellow and rust. Orange geums and primulas in Dolly Mixture shades of pink, orange and yellow appeared, as did the rich claret tones of Papaver ‘Lauren’s Grape’ and the traditional pale pinks, blues and whites of an early summer English garden. 

The message? Keep calm, carry on and let the plants do the talking. As the show’s headline sponsor, The Newt in Somerset, demonstrated with its recreation of a Roman villa – filled with lupins, opium poppies and herbs – what was thought beautiful in the 1st century AD still looks pretty good today. 

Pictures from top: the WaterAid Garden by Tom Massey and Je Ahn; World Child Cancer’s Nurturing Garden by Giulio Giorgi; the Stroke Association’s Garden for Recovery by Miria Harris; and St James’s Piccadilly: Imagine the World to Be Different by Robert Myers