This year's Best Show Garden at RHS Chelsea Flower Show has been announced, with Kazuyuki Ishihara's garden Cha No Niwa - Japanese Tea Garden being named as the winner.
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Mr Ishihara has created 17 small show gardens at Chelsea, many winning Gold or Best in Show, but this is his first garden and first Gold and Best in Show on Main Avenue. He is known for his exquisitely crafted, serene Japanese gardens that evoke the beauty of the Japanese satoyama (landscape). Acers always feature, along with irises, calming water, artfully placed stone and moss.
Created to be the designer’s personal garden, it is designed to evoke a sense of shedding the world's cares as he slowly meanders through the garden to the tea house and it didn't disappoint his many fans (including our columnist, Nigel Slater).
Mr Ishihara said that he found it easy to scale up to the large space - the garden is open on two sides so that the public can see all the details of the garden. It includes trees commonly seen in the Japanese countryside, including Acer palmatum 'Inaba-shidare', Acer palmatum f. polymorphum, hornbeam (Carpinus betulus) and Cornus florida as well as perennials including the delightfully named Iris 'Flight of Butterflies' and is influenced by the traditional flower arranging art of ikebana. The shape and arrangement of the stones has been carefully designed to interact with the plants.
Unlike many of the gardens at Chelsea this year, which are colourful and packed with plants, this garden shows that less can be more. "Instead of adding lots of plants, I use a small amount and keep them pruned to create space. This is my signature style," he told Monty Don. All his gardens are created with utmost precision and even the back – unseen by visitors – is as immaculately finished as the visible areas.
"Every time I come here, I think I will never come back again," he said. "When I come back I see familiar faces and all the visitors are very complimentary. I like to see the work of other designers and I can keep learning from them. I'm addicted to Chelsea. I feel like Chelsea is my life itself."
Few exhibit such unrestrained jubilation as Mr Ishihara on winning Best in Show, and this year didn't disappoint - he cheered enthusiastically, hugged Monty Don and RHS director general Claire Matterson and lost his trademark hat temporarily in the process.
And Mr Ishihara has further call for celebration this year - his son Jun Ishihara has followed in his father's foosteps for the first time, creating a garden in the Balcony and Container category.
Read our exclusive interview with Kazuyuki Ishihara.
Discover our guides to all the 2025 show gardens
- RHS and BBC Radio 2 Dog Garden
- Avanade Intelligent Garden
- The Glasshouse Garden
- Hospitalfield Arts Garden
- Hospice UK: Garden of Compassion
- King's Trust Garden
- Down's Syndrome Scotland Garden
- Tackle HIV Challenging Stigma Garden
- Boodles Raindance Garden
- Garden of the Future
- Children with Cancer UK 'A Place to Be...'
- The British Red Cross 'Here for Humanity' Garden
Gold medals were awarded to four of the large show gardens this year. On paper, the Best in Show garden has achieved the highest score on the judges’ checklist, which covers nine criteria, including design, spatial composition, quality of the build and planting excellence. Discover what it takes to win Best in Show at Chelsea.
Elsewhere in the show, there were Best in Show wins for the Small Garden, All About Plants and Balcony and Container gardens. The Addleshaw Goddard: Freedom to Flourish garden won RHS Chelsea Small Garden of the Year, while Balcony and Container Best in Show was the Navium Marine: Blue Mind Garden, designed by Ashleigh Aylett.
Seawilding garden took home the Best All About Plants Garden, while The Avanade Intelligent Garden won Best Construction (Show Garden) built by The Outdoor Room. Best Construction (Small Show Garden) went to Addleshaw Goddard: Freedom to Flourish garden, which was built by The Outdoor Room as well.
The RHS Environmental Innovation Award was awarded to The Pathway Garden, while Babylon Beats, designed by James Whiting of Plants by There and The Little Botanical won Best Houseplant Studio.