There are three feature gardens at RHS Chelsea Flower Show this year, but perhaps the one that will be most in the limelight is Frances Tophill's Curious Garden which has some very famous names connected with it, not least His Majesty King Charles III and Sir David Beckham.
A feature garden at RHS Chelsea is one of the designed spaces that aren't judged - which means there are no gold, silver gilt, silver or bronze medals involved and they also can't be up for the People's Choice Awards. Here's our full guide to the garden, which you will be able to see at RHS Chelsea Flower Show or on the BBC coverage across the week.
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A guide to The RHS and The King's Foundation Curious Garden
Who's behind the garden?
This feature garden will be a first for horticulturalist, author and TV presenter Frances Tophill, who, much like Monty Don at RHS Chelsea 2025, has never brought a garden to Chelsea before.
But Frances is not the only person behind the garden as The King's Foundation ambassador Sir David Beckham and RHS and The King's Foundation Ambassador Alan Titchmarsh will both be joining Frances to pull the Curious Garden together.
The team helping on the garden will include garden apprentices and trainees from The King's Foundation's gardens and the RHS, and act as a showcase for their talents from gardening to millinery and wood-work.
Frances told Gardens Illustrated: "The Curious Garden is all about getting people curious about horticulture and plants. It will be joyous and fun, full of colour, full of experiences, you'll be able to walk through the space into a museum building full of curiosities showing all the things you can do with plants, many of which you will be able to see in the garden. It's really immersive, fun and enjoyable and hopefully beautiful as well."
What to expect
A garden to inspire little steps into creating pockets of nature near you, whatever your size of space. Frances Tophill and Alan Titchmarsh's intentions behind the garden is to explore plant diversity and the role they have bringing health to people and the planet.
Features and plants in the garden
Central to the garden is an oak-framed building which stands as a museum of garden curiosities and will demonstrate sustainable techniques in garden, such as water saving and composting. Many of the plants you see being used for things in the museum of curiosities will be in the garden itself.
You can expect native broadleaf hedging, shade-loving and woodland plants, water plants, veg and cut flower beds as well as mixed herbaceous beds. The emphasis on planting will be that everything should have a function - whether that be for pollinators, or economically. Plants featured will include delpiniums, Coreopsis tinctoria, pistachio, Mulberry and of course the Sir David Beckham rose which was recently unveiled.
What it hopes to do
The aim of the Curious Garden is to try to help inspire a new generation of gardeners and to inspire people into a career working with plants.
Where will it go after the show?
After RHS Chelsea the garden will head to a collage for young adults where some of the plants will be used by fashion students to make dyes, while vegetables and herbs will be used by catering students in their studies.
Designed by: Frances Tophill
Built by: Jake Catling
Plant suppliers: Jon Wheatley, Jekka McVicar and Hardys
Sponsors: The RHS/The King's Foundation
