Image credit: Getty Images / Robert Way
The RHS Chelsea Flower Show on this week is the annual celebration of glorious gardens and plants from the Royal Horticultural Society – but it's also so much more.
It's a global media and design event and a social honeypot that attracts royalty, A-listers, artists and aristocracy, as well as ordinary gardeners keen to learn what's new.
Despite the hype, it's open to everyone, but just like Wimbledon, you can beat the crowds and enjoy the best of it on TV from the comfort of your armchair.
This year promises to be the 'greenest' ever show, with all 16 show gardens going through a rigorous environmental audit before being accepted. All designers are urged to use plants suited to the demands of climate change, plus less cement in the build and more recycled materials, while every show garden will find a permanent home after the show – often at a hospital or community site.
Some of the show gardens will feature take-home ideas for conserving and retaining water, to reduce flood risk and save you money.
With so many health charities using gardens to highlight their messages, the links between gardens and our health are a rich seam this year. The National Garden Scheme, Muscular Dystrophy, National Autistic Society, Terrence Higgins Trust, Stroke Association and World Child Cancer charities all feature, with their attendance funded by the philanthropic Project Giving Back fund. Each tells a different story using the gardens as metaphors for the experiences patients go through, but all champion the power of plants and natural spaces to soothe our troubles.
The calming power of a walk among trees is evoked in three stand-out gardens this year. Chelsea show veteran Tom Stuart-Smith returns after 14 years to create a 'woodland edge' for the National Garden Scheme Garden, for whom he opens his own private garden. Stately hazels will cocoon the space, while much of the under-planting comes direct from owners opening under the NGS charity scheme – and will go on to be rebuilt at Maggie's cancer centre, Cambridge.
On the Muscular Dystrophy UK’s Forest Bathing Garden, designed by Ula Maria, over 40 birch trees envelope the garden, inspired by the Japanese approach to relaxing in nature, under a green canopy. Robert Myers' design for St James's Piccadilly: Imagine the World to be Different highlights the cooling qualities of city trees, in his urban oasis garden. Expect your pulse to lower as you watch.
RHS Chelsea used to, famously, ban children but it's now Access All Areas for kids, as the RHS celebrates the benefits of gardening from the youngest age. The centre-piece feature of the show is the RHS No Adults Allowed Garden, created by primary schoolkids of Sulivan School in London, with a little help from designer Harry Holding. With a water slide, den, pond and sensory plants, it'll be a walk-through, interactive experience for visitors – while the aim is to champion gardening for a healthy future.
At the centre of the Great Pavilion, meanwhile, the joys of a career growing plants is the theme of a new plant-rich feature, A Day on the Nursery, overseen by multi-medal winning nursery owner Rosy Hardy. Her planting is exquisite, so expect floral fireworks.
Everyone can grow something, however tiny your space, says the RHS, which created the now super-popular Balcony & Container spaces for first-time designers. This year, nine gardens feature, many with a city-living theme to demonstrate how to green up our urban grey.
Look out for Michela Green's homage to Venice, designed as sheltered balcony able to cope with rising city temperatures.
Bridgerton comes to Chelsea, as the Netflix blockbuster is reimagined into a garden, telling the story of character Penelope Featherington's emergence into the limelight. Expect blousy planting to match the plot-lines!
Royalty at Chelsea – will King Charles and Queen Camilla make it, in time-honoured tradition, for a royal walkabout? Both are known for their love of gardening, so the money's on them coming, along with the Edinburghs and Kents.
But sadly we're unlikely to see the Princess of Wales – who's championed the links between gardens and children's mental health and development, in her 2019 Chelsea show garden, Back to Nature.
More than 25 new plants will be launched at the show, all competing for the RHS Chelsea Plant of the Year award, revealed on Sunday evening. Look out for a still-under-wraps new rose from world-famous breeder David Austin Roses, plus four other roses including the 'Chelsea Pensioner' from Harkness Roses, ‘National Trust Beauty’ from Blue Diamond, and a rose bred for hanging baskets, 'Scentifall Lemon'.
Veteran clematis breeder Raymond Evison brings a new white-flowered variety 'Guernsey Flute', which resembles a champagne glass in bud. And Taylors Bulbs are launching a new narcissus called 'King Charles' – no doubt hoping for a regal visit to the stand!
Don't be fooled into thinking that gardeners are laid-back types – this show is fiercely competitive, and every designer wants to win a Gold Medal and Best in Show, the top gardens prize.
Best in Show hot contenders are Tom Stuart-Smith for the National Garden Scheme, Ann-Marie Powell for the National Trust, Ula Maria for Muscular Dystrophy and Tom Massey for WaterAid. Any garden built by leading landscapers Crocus or Landform will be a top contender.
The four categories of medal – Gold, Silver-Gilt, Silver and Bronze – are judged to set criteria by a team of RHS judges, rather than being a ranking of gardens. There's always controversy, so expect to see the suave James Alexander-Sinclair, head of judging, popping up on TV to be grilled by Monty Don (they're old friends, so it won't get too heated!).
Last-minute tickets are still available.
The show ground is a 10-15 minute walk from Sloane Square tube (District & Circle lines), or by taxi drop-off on the Embankment.
If you're lucky enough to visit, three things to know are:
Instagram – key people to follow for real-time updates include @the_rhs and @gardenersworldtv, plus daily reels from the show manager Gemma Lake @chelsea-gardens_the.edit
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