Royals and a host of famous faces are today getting an exclusive first look at this year’s Chelsea Flower Show, where gardens celebrating British landscapes and communities are sharing the spotlight with an unexpected, quirky guest: the garden gnome.
The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS), organisers of the prestigious annual event, has made the rare decision to lift its long-standing ban on gnomes for only the second time in the show’s history.
Stars including actress Cate Blanchett and Queen guitarist Sir Brian May have lent their artistic flair to decorate the whimsical figures, which will be auctioned to support the RHS’s school gardening campaign, aiming to provide children with access to horticultural benefits.
A potential sighting of these popular ornaments could also occur within the RHS and King’s Foundation Curious Garden. This central exhibit, designed with input from the King, Sir David Beckham, and Alan Titchmarsh, seeks to ignite public interest in gardening.
The RHS’s director general Clare Matterson said that with “so much uncertainty in the world, we’ve never needed the joy of gardening so much” as she promised a show that would inspire everyone to grow.
The world-famous event has sold out before opening to the public for the first time since before Covid.
Visitors to the show – and those tuning in on TV – will be able to see the Curious Garden, designed by Frances Tophill and championed by Charles, King’s Foundation ambassador Sir David and leading horticulturalist and TV gardener Titchmarsh – an RHS and King’s Foundation ambassador – who have all had input into the design.
The display is free of man-made materials such as concrete, and has features including an oak building that represents a “museum of curiosities”, and seven raised beds in a nod to Sir David’s famous number 7 shirt in the Manchester United and England teams.
The garden will also feature delphiniums, one of the King’s favourite flowers, and roses named after the three champions.
Other gardens include Flourish in the City from law firm Addleshaw Goddard, which is inspired by London’s overlooked green spaces and hidden rivers, featuring water features, and walls made from oyster shells recycled from the capital’s restaurants.
Another putting eco-friendly materials at its heart is the Eden Project Bring Me Sunshine garden, which celebrates the 25th anniversary of the Eden Project in Cornwall and its new coastal project in Morecambe, Lancashire, where the display will take centre stage after Chelsea.
The garden features boundary panels created from mussel shells and terraces crafted from cockle shell by-products, as well as Austrian pines, sea buckthorn, green olives, coastal-inspired planting and “edimentals”, including sea kale, samphire and artichokes to champion productive and sustainable gardening.
Sir Tim Smit, co-founder of the Eden Project, said designer Harry Holding “captures the magic and possibility of Eden Project Morecambe so beautifully, a wonderful confection of horticultural bravura, technical challenge, great design and a great dollop of love and faith in the future” in his design.
Elsewhere displays focus on the Woodland Trust’s fight to save the UK’s “forgotten forests” – ancient woodlands buried under timber plantations, as well as “edgelands” on urban fringes that connect people with nature, championed by the Campaign to Protect Rural England and designed by Sarah Eberle.
The Killik and Co A Seed in Time garden designed by Baz Grainger celebrates traditional crafts from Britain’s natural wetland heritage and the need to respond to climate change, while a display for Asthma and Lung UK is a woodland-edge garden designed as a restorative “breathing space” for people living with lung conditions.
Other gardens include a space for people with Parkinson’s and their supporters which will relocate to the John Radcliffe Hospital after the show, and a garden that reimagines female anatomy to open conversations about gynaecological health.
Anti-poverty charity Trussell’s Together Garden aims to highlight the power of community and people working together, with the garden being relocated to Strabane Foodbank in Northern Ireland after Chelsea finishes.
Ms Matterson said: “With so much uncertainty in the world, we’ve never needed the joy of gardening so much and over RHS Chelsea week we can’t wait to share with the nation an abundance of horticultural highlights.
“From thousands of breathtaking blooms in the Great Pavilion, showcasing roses, clematis, peonies, vegetables and so much more, to the spectacular large, small, balcony and container gardens to houseplant studios and artisan shopping, there is something here to inspire everyone to grow.”
She added: “And for a final sparkle of even more gardening joy, keep a look out for our gnomes.”
