This year’s RHS Chelsea Flower Show appears to be quite a hodgepodge, mixed bag of different inspirations and messages, which is probably why the RHS has settled on the inclusive theme of ‘Your space, your story’, focusing on the individuality of people’s gardens and how they express their personal passions in their outdoor spaces.
This is a nice way of saying that anything goes, from a garden just for Chelsea Pensioners to a balcony just for reading. Fun is also important, to keep the TV coverage upbeat and offer people some welcome escapism from the reality of the world in 2025, and we can’t wait to see the promised working ‘monorail’ for kids to ride and the bubble water feature on the Children with Cancer UK garden.
Discover all the details announced so far for RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2025
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Also get ready for much frolicking as the nation’s gardener Monty Don and his golden retriever Ned unveil the RHS and BBC Radio 2 Dog Garden. It will include a shaggy, utility ‘dandelawn’, as well as a beat-up sofa with a throw made out of Monty’s old trousers. It is rumoured that the man himself will be mowing the lawn during the show, which is sure to break the internet and make it difficult for every ‘No Mow May’ advocate to stop their other half getting the mower out immediately to follow suit.
Grow your own pergola
One theme that is apparent is designers’ preoccupation with the future. What will our gardens look like in 25 to 50 years? Both the Killik & Co ‘Save for a Rainy Day Garden’ and The Garden of the Future want to answer this question, with their resilient planting and climate-focused features.
On more of a tech bent, the Avanade Intelligent Garden by Tom Massey and Je Ahn has embraced the idea of integrating AI into horticulture with a system for monitoring tree health.
You can expect lots of interesting structures as usual, including a 3D-printed pergola on the Killik & Co garden, and two gardens using mycelium – the branching, root-like structure of fungi – as a new building material.
The Pathway Garden will have five mycelium structures grown using waste from last year’s show; and on the Avanade Intelligent Garden, craftsman Sebastian Cox has developed walls for the pavilion using mycelium fed on wood shavings, then compacted and dried out.
Several gardens are Scottish in nature, including the Hospitalfield Arts garden, where Nigel Dunnett hopes to channel the spirit of seaside sand dunes, and the Seawilding garden based, in imagination at least, right off the Scottish coast.
The Down’s Syndrome Scotland garden is inspired by a woodland setting, and this enduring theme, which suits the time of year, is evident across the show, with lots of trees creating dappled shade. Hazel, acer, birch and hawthorn are popular choices, but one standout pick is Zelkova serrata, which is appearing on the gardens of Manoj Malde, Jo Thompson and Baz Grainger.
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
The landscape inspiration is strong elsewhere too with Mediterranean vibes on the Hospice UK and King’s Trust: Seeding Success gardens, and a literal evocation of the arid Karoo region in South Africa on show sponsor The Newt’s feature succulent garden exhibit. The Addleshaw Goddard: Freedom To Flourish Garden takes its cue from the coastal landscape of north Norfolk.
Other things that jumped out were the repeated motif of the hexagon and the increase in designer duos bringing show gardens to life.
What to see in the Great Pavilion at Chelsea Flower Show 2025
There are a whopping 60 exhibits in the Great Pavilion this year, in a reassuring return to a full tent brimming with blooms. Tree nursery Frank P Matthews is exhibiting for the first time with a display of Malus trees including blossoming apples and crab apples. The stand for English Sweet Peas will feature 4,000 of those scented beauties including a new launch sweet pea cultivar called ‘Amy Dowden’, a pale-pink variety with long stems named after the celebrity dancer.
David Austin Roses will also be launching a new cultivar at the show in a grand reveal – details so far are few, but we have been promised the launch will be “one of the most significant” in the company’s history and took 12 years of breeding work to bring to market.
Hare Spring Cottage Plants plans a display of hardy perennials in vintage galvanised containers for different conditions and Moore & Moore Plants has something similar in mind with four categories of planting including full shade/moisture retentive soil and partial shade/well-drained soil.
Other displays we are looking forward to include the mingling of wildflowers and border perennials by Kent Wildflower Seeds; and the return of Plant Heritage with first-time National Collection Holders showing their wares.
The only downer is the announcement that the RHS will not be able to enforce a peat-free ban at the show as planned next year, since around 40 per cent of the nurseries use peat starter plugs from abroad to grow on plants. Without firm legislation coming into force from the Government, the RHS says, it is difficult to see how this can be fast-tracked. Sustainability and climate change continue to be core concerns all around the showground.
What’s new?
Regular visitors to the show will notice the disappearance of the usual second category of show gardens. In the past, these have been known variously as the Urban, Artisan and Sanctuary Gardens but, whatever the theme, were generally thought of as the smaller show garden category. This year, however, the RHS has decided not to separate them out from the main, larger show gardens, as “the distinction didn’t mean much to our visitors”.
However, there will still be two Best Show Garden awards, to recognise the different challenges associated with designing a garden for each size. So, there will be six large show gardens of 150 square metres plus on Main Avenue; and ten medium show gardens of 149 square metres and under, which will be located across Main Avenue and Royal Hospital Way.
In another interesting change, the All About Plants category gardens – for the past few years consigned undercover in the Great Pavilion – will this year move outside, with the four gardens in this category split across the Rock Bank and the corner of Main Avenue.
This, it is generally felt, will be a good thing, levelling up these four first-time designers alongside the other show garden categories and giving their displays the light, air and attention they deserve. The Balcony and Container Gardens will appear as usual along Serpentine Avenue, and we are interested to see that Jun Ishihara, son of the much-loved Chelsea regular and multi-Gold winning Japanese designer Kazuyuki Ishihara, is stepping out on his own in this category this year with Secret Base – The Another Green Room garden.
Aside from this, the most notable change at the show is, really, the lack of major changes. During the Covid years, and since, the progressions were swift and alterations to the format were many, such as the presence of Project Giving Back tipping the sponsorship scales from investment banks to charities, and sustainability concerns leading to last year’s Green Audit and Environmental Award launch. There was always plenty to talk about, and themes such as weeds and rewilding were really apparent.
This year widespread trends are less obvious, and there are no new initiatives to speak of. It’s back to business it seems, with a little bit of something for everyone, whatever your bag, and those all-important ‘take-home ideas’ being touted from every corner. How the 2025 show proves to be memorable (aside from seeing Monty mow the lawn) we shall have to wait and see.
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