Chelsea Flower Show 2024: Trends and Highlights
The RHS Chelsea Flower Show headlines the gardening calendar each year, with designers, gardeners and Pimms-lovers flocking to admire the incredible show gardens and soak up the inspiration.
This year’s event was bigger and better than ever. Whether you managed to get your hands on a ticket or not, read Rocket’s highlights and top trends spotted for the gardening year ahead:
1.Drought tolerant planting
The climate is changing, summers are hotter and water is a precious resource. The Main Avenue gardens reflected that, with drought tolerant playing a key part. The RHS Chelsea Repurposed Garden not only included features from show gardens a decade ago, but focused on tough, drought tolerant species planted in crushed concrete and demolition sand.
Elsewhere, rock gardens and gravel with hardy planting were popular. The WaterAid Garden designed by Tom Massey and architect Je Ahn harnessed the power of rainwater and explored how water can be managed sustainably. In the Container Gardens section, designer Sam Proctor showed it can be done in small spaces via his Water Saving Garden, sponsored by Affinity Water.
2.Yellow, orange and red
Although pastels are often favoured by gardeners, Chelsea turned up the heat this year, with yellow, orange and red taking centre stage. Sunny Achillea, bright red Papaver (oriental poppies) and one of the most popular plants across show gardens and the pavilion, Geum ‘Totally Tangerine’.
In many cases, these bright colours were contrasted against deep purple petals and foliage, and in some gardens, set against greys and silvers.
3. Pines are back
Several stands were spotted cleverly combining evergreen pines with frothy flowers and foliage.
Pinus mugo and Pinus sylvestris featured front and centre in The Stoke Association’s Garden for Recovery, designed by Miria Harris, and other pines popped up elsewhere amongst Iris and Geranium creating sculptural shape.
4. Statement water features
Gently trickling water is out, big and bold water features are in.
The Paul Vanstone sculpture stand pulled in the crowds with its enormous stone water bowl, and designer Matthew Childs incorporated changing water levels to reveal a monolith slate plinth in the Terrence Higgins Trust Bridge to 2030 garden, designed to mark the huge progress made in the fight against HIV since the 1980s.
If your back garden doesn’t have space for a statement installation, take inspiration from Tom Bannister’s gold winning ‘Ecotherapy’ Balcony and Container garden, demonstrating a London courtyard with a cold plunge pool.
5. Curated wilderness
The movement towards loose, wild and wildlife friendly gardens is building momentum. Wildflowers were everywhere, native ‘weeds’ were championed, and perfectly trimmed shrubs were scarce.
Insects and time-poor gardeners alike will relish is this laid back attitude to maintenance, and although Chelsea showed us some very well curated wildness, the style is certainly here to stay. The Bumblebee Conservation Trust showed that ‘Diversity is Queen’ with it’s bee focused Pavillion display, featuring a relaxed edible garden.
6. Quintessentially British
Would Chelsea be Chelsea without some classic English garden favourites?
The Netflix sponsored Bridgerton Garden by designer Holly Johnson cleverly depicted the story of Penelope Featherington in a Sanctuary Garden. Offering privacy and respite, a central fountain was surrounded by Digitalis (Foxgloves) and Lupins, pretty in pinks, purples and sky blue.
Meanwhile, inside the Pavilion, queues for Roses, Fuschias and Alliums showed that certain favourites will never go out of style.
This year’s themes for Chelsea Flower Show were ‘the greenest Chelsea ever’ - prompting the vast quantities of reclaimed and recycled materials - as well as ‘the joy of gardening’ and ‘how to attract a younger and more diverse audience to gardening’.
Catch up on iPlayer’s RHS Chelsea Flower Show deep dive into the gardens and the incredible causes they support, as well as where these gardens will go after the show is over.