Chelsea Flower Show 2020: climate change gardens and themes announced

The RHS Chelsea Flower Show has announced its initial gardens and designers, many of which are themed around the challenges of our changing climate.

Find out date, times and ticket details for RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2020

Sustainable materials and growing methods are highlighted in next year's Chelsea Flower Show garden line up, with garden designs considering the future of cities in the face of climate emergency.

Responding to the statistic that in 30 years a third of the world's population will live in cities, Hugo Bugg and Charlotte Harris return to Chelsea Flower Show with a communal, residential garden for show sponsor M&G on Main Avenue. The garden design focuses on the need to have both beautiful and sustainable green spaces within growing cities, for the benefit of plants and people.

The M&G Garden designed by Hugo Bugg & Charlotte Harris at Chelsea Flower Show 2020 — The M& G Garden designed by Hugo Bugg & Charlotte Harris at Chelsea Flower Show 2020 - © RHS/image by Christian Tate

Bugg and Harris have woven sustainability throughout their design, using repurposed materials, water management techniques and resilient plants suitable for climate change.

Elsewhere, first time show garden designers Peter Chmiel and Chin-Jung Chen of Grant Associates offer a city garden of the future with the Guangzhou China: Guangzhou Garden, which balances the need of both people and wildlife. There will be a woodland dell to clean the air and a pool to clean water.

10 essentials for visiting Chelsea Flower Show

A Facebook garden returns to next year's Chelsea Flower Show, specifically with deforestation at its centre. The Facebook Garden: Growing the Future looks at the importance of the UK's tree cover and good woodland management. Joe Perkins once again designs the space, which will showcase timber's renewable and sustainable properties.

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Visit our gallery for previous examples of the work of year's designers

Yeo Valley, Britain's largest organic dairy company, is presenting a garden with organics at its heart. Designed by Tom Massey, The Yeo Valley Organic Garden will be created with plants that will be grown using organic principles, and the carbon used to create the show garden at Chelsea will be offset.

The Florence Nightingale Garden - A Celebration of Modern Day Nursing, designed by Robert Myers

Many designers this year are focusing on timber as the building material of choice and Robert Myers and his contractor Bowles and Wyer will experiment with a sustainable 'wood' concrete in The Florence Nightingale Garden - A Celebration of Modern Day Nursing. Nikki Tibbles will design The Bicester Village Artisan Garden, all of the materials of which have been sustainably sourced.

This year's Chelsea Flower Show will take place on 19 to 23 May. Read our guide for more information on the show.