There will be 12 main show gardens at RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2023, including gardens from Chelsea veterans such as Cleve West, Chris Beardshaw, Sarah Price and Paul Hervey-Brookes.

As with last year, many of the Show Gardens are funded by the recent initiative Project Giving Back.

Don’t miss our piece on everything you need to know about Chelsea Flower Show 2023. 

Chelsea Flower Show Gardens 2023

Centre for Mental Health’s The Balance Garden  

Designers: Jonathan Davies and Steve Williams (Wild City Studio)
Sponsor: Project Giving Back/Centre for Mental Health
Contractor: Stewart Landscape Ltd.
Website: www.wildcitystudio.com

This garden explores the importance of inclusivity and affordability in creating authentic nature experiences in the urban landscape. It features crushed site waste as a growing medium; wildflowers, grasses and hardy shrubs that thrive in stressful environments; and sand piles and habitat layers for wildlife.
Large concrete pieces reclaimed from waste salvage make up a central area overlooking a clear pool. Suspended steel walkways allow movement through the space and access to the wild planting layers. At the heart of the garden is a ‘mushroom den’ made from a reclaimed steel-clad shipping container. The planting layers contour from wetland towards a denser, shadier canopy of food forestry and ‘edimentals’. The planting also highlights wildflowers and “weeds” as an important part of urban ecology.

The RBC Brewin Dolphin Garden 

Designer:  Paul Hervey-Brookes
Sponsor: RBC Brewin Dolphin
Contractor: GK Wilson
Website: www.paulherveybrookes.com

The garden is imagined as part of the home of a young couple who want to relax and enjoy spending time in an outdoor environment. This contemporary-style space has minimal hard landscaping, but features traditional flowering beds, which give a sense of a country garden. A hand-built oak pavilion forms the centre piece of the garden, while a series of three open spaces, intended for small gatherings, feel enclosed and will be submerged in planting.
Cottage garden plants form the backbone of the planting, with an informal mix of herbaceous perennials and structural shrubs.

Watch: Chelsea designers explain their 2023 gardens

The Centrepoint Garden 

Designer: Cleve West
Sponsor: Project Giving Back/Centrepoint
Contractor: Crocus Ltd
Website:   www.clevewest.com

This garden, for the UK’s leading youth homelessness charity, explores the notion of ‘home’ in several different ways. At its centre lies the remains of a Victorian townhouse that has fallen into decay. Nature has taken over the house, giving it a new lease of life and a sense of renewal and optimism. Low, fragmented walls indicate the footprint of the demolished house and an uprooted birch tree serve as a metaphor for displacement and being abandoned.
The naturalistic plantings of saplings and wildflowers co-exist with ornamentals and survivors from the imagined original domestic garden, such as Cordyline australis and Yucca gloriosa. ‘Self-seeded’ elder, hawthorn and birch will also feature with wildflowers, grasses, ferns and ornamentals.

The Fauna & Flora International Garden 

Designer: Jilayne Rickards
Sponsor: Project Giving Back/Fauna & Flora International
Contractor: Living Landscapes
Website:  www.jilaynerickards.com

Celebrating the success of the International Gorilla Conservation Programme, at the behest of Sir David Attenborough, this garden maps the journey of an ecotourist on a gorilla trek, tracing a rough track through a succession of lush and changing landscapes, showcasing the familiar, unusual and spectacular plants found in the Afromontane Virunga area in Central Africa. Along the way is a medicinal garden shaded by eucalyptus and banana trees; a typical tourist kiosk selling local crafts; a true-to-life gorilla nest set amongst bamboo; and an entrancing waterfall and viewing rock surrounded by plants found only at high altitude.
Many plants are being sourced with help from The Eden Project in Cornwall where the garden will be re-located. Spathodea campanulata, an iconic tree from Central Africa, provides height and structure and Lobelia stuhlmannii, which is commonly found in gorilla habitat.
The garden also aims to highlight the importance of ‘wild’ patches in British gardens, showcasing the value that nettles, brambles and weeds have not only for animal habitats in Africa, but for insects and animals in UK gardens too.

Hoban Cultural Foundation: Land of Healing, Korean Mountain Light

Designer: Jihae Hwang
Sponsor: Hoban Cultural Foundation
Contractor: The Landscape Tailor

This garden represents the medicinal herbal colony located in the eastern part of Jirisan, also known as ‘the mother mountain of Korea’. This area is home to 15,000 or more species of native medicinal plants. It is the last primeval forest of Jirisan where Korean native medicinal herbs, specialty plants and rare endangered alpine plants grow. This garden highlights how the recovery of the natural environment is key to the coexistence between humans and nature and how this can be made possible by minimising human interference. Key plants include Filipendula formosa and Maianthemum bicolor along with many other plants with medicinal properties which were nearly extinct but now thrive on Jiri mountain following rewilding work.

Myeloma UK: A Life Worth Living Garden 

Designer:  Chris Beardshaw
Sponsor: Project Giving Back/Myeloma UK
Contractor: Cultura
Website:  www.chrisbeardshaw.com

This calm, immersive and unapologetically beautiful garden opens with a richly planted, structured and ordered border of sun-loving perennials with a backdrop of formal clipped yew, and leads on to a secluded shady woodland beyond. The passage initially appears unclear, but a charred oak path leads to the first of two neoclassic temples, nestling beneath the trees including Cercidiphyllum japonicum, Gingko biloba, Acer tataricum and varieties of Cornus kousa, decorated with a stone and moss labyrinth floor and a specially commissioned paper leaf and flower motif artwork. The second, more opulent temple features lavish seating and a suspended porcelain precious-metal leaf sculpture. Both temples feature reflective water pools.

The Nurture Landscapes Garden 

Designer: Sarah Price
Sponsor: Nurture Landscapes
Contractor: Crocus Ltd
Website:  www.sarahpricelandscapes.com

British artist and plantsman Sir Cedric Morris was the inspiration for this garden, which is based on the plants he collected in the grounds of his 16th-century home, Benton End in Suffolk. This low-carbon garden takes traditional techniques that were found in Morris’ home, and reinterprets them for contemporary use, with locally sourced, sustainable materials. Climbers growing up and over supports frame pictorial-like compositions, whilst also creating seclusion and intrigue. Handcrafted furniture encourage relaxation and sociability as well as opportunities for observation of the garden.
The sword-like leaves of Benton irises contrast with looser, meadow-like planting and scrub. Mature trees, dead wood and saplings feature to represent the environmentally beneficial succession of woody plants within a mature garden.

Horatio’s Garden

Designers: Charlotte Harris and Hugo Bugg
Sponsor: Project Giving Back/Horatio’s Garden
Contractor: Ryan Alexander Associates
Website:  www.harrisbugg.com

The wheelchair-accessible garden for the spinal injuries charity will have a future permanent home at the Princess Royal Spinal Injuries Centre in Sheffield. The garden is a beautiful, immersive, restorative haven – the antithesis of a busy, clinical hospital environment and puts the requirements of people with mobility needs at its heart.
A dappled woodland edge opens out into a sunny glade, with tactile stone cairns to give rhythm and structure. Water adds a sensory experience, animates the garden and encourages wildlife. An organic and discreet garden pod structure provides a cocooning place for physical and emotional shelter.
The garden’s planting is influenced by the flora of the wooded valley sides that provided the essential timber for the forges and furnaces of the city of steel. It is also strongly influenced by the ways of seeing and experiencing for patients, often interacting from very different vantage points – from a bed, looking up or from a wheelchair at a different level.
The tree canopy will be complemented by a beautiful lower storey of shrubs, perennials and ephemerals. Lime greens, pinks, purples, bronzes, creams, pale yellows and oranges will be the colour palette.

The Royal Entomological Society Garden

Designer:  Tom Massey
Sponsor: Project Giving Back/The Royal Entomological Society
Contractor: Landscape Associates
Website:  www.tommassey.co.uk

Diverse topography across this garden – from rammed earth floors, hoggin pathways and dead wood, to piles of rubble, bare sand and gabion walls – provide numerous and varied habitats for insects. Water in still pools and flowing streams provides additional important insect habitats and added interest to the aesthetic and soundscape of the garden.
A dead tree ‘sculpture’, cut into rings elevated on steel poles, ‘floats’ over biodiverse planting – the open structure allowing ease of access for study. A standing dead tree and tree stump provide further sculptural habitat and visitor interest.
An outdoor lab, built into a hillside, takes visitors down into the landscape, offering an ‘insect eye view’ and a space in which to study. A movable projector screen links to the microscopes in the lab, giving the opportunity to show enlarged insects at magnified scale, revealing their fascinating morphology and offering opportunities for education. The lab’s roof structure is inspired by a compound insect eye and will provide ‘modules’ permeable to insects, providing an accessible opportunity for on-site research, study and identification.
Planting has been designed for a wide range of beneficial insects and with our changing climate in mind. At the front of the garden, colourful and textural drought resistant planting – mulched with mixed recycled aggregates – is representative of plants found on brownfield sites.
Naturalistic planting behind the lab evokes native woodland edge meadows, buzzing with insect life. The planting will contain a mix of native and non-native plants, extending the garden’s flowering season and providing a mix of food sources for pollinators and other beneficial insects.

The Samaritans’ Listening Garden

Designer: Darren Hawkes
Sponsor: Project Giving Back/Samaritans
Contractor: Landform Consultants Ltd.
Website:  darrenhawkeslandscapes.co.uk

The Listening Garden is intended to be a safe and secure space where people can feel comfortable sharing their internal struggles. The garden creates an authentic representation of the journey people struggling with their emotions will go on – from an area that feels chaotic and overwhelming, through to a calming and tranquil space.
Sculptural oak seats serve as places to talk and listen or reflect on conversations. Other elements that appear rough or uncomfortable can also be beautifully honed, artistic and valuable. Parts of the garden will go on to create a permanent garden at Samaritans in Truro, and other plants will be sent to further Samaritans sites.
The feature tree, Ulmus × hollandica ‘Jacqueline Hillier’, is used for its unpredictable habit, its otherworldliness. Aralia, Zanthoxylum, Rosa and Corokia are used as attempts to make the visitor feel hesitant about entering the garden, aware of the spikes and thorns that surround them. The plant forms gradually soften into a sunken area with Stipa, cultivated rose, × Halimiocistus and Aralia continentalis mixed with perennials.

The Savills Garden

Designer: Mark Gregory
Sponsor: Savills
Contractor: Landform Consultants Ltd.
Website:  www.landformconsultants.co.uk

The Savills Garden will evoke the experience of stepping into the intimate walled-garden, seasonal potager setting of a country hotel. Combining beautiful ornamental and edible planting, this ‘edimentals’ garden will be both sanctuary and source of the very best in flavours and nutrition.
At the heart of the garden is a working kitchen and adjoining dining area, where guests can enjoy meals prepared with ingredients from the potager and walled garden beyond – a ‘from plot-to-plate’ experience, cementing the relationship between grower, guests and chef.
The planting style is formal with pleached trees and topiary elements, but also areas with a more naturalistic-style and useable vegetables and herbs in raised beds. The garden contains a wide selection of edibles, featuring new varieties of vegetables, such as leafy crops. Along with companion planting, herbs, garnishes and edible flowers will be used to dress dishes and show how diverse planting can be used to great effect. Whites, soft pinks and blues, with touches of lime and silver dominate the formal planting scheme adjacent to the buildings.

Memoria & GreenAcres Transcendence Garden

Designer:  Gavin McWilliam and Andrew Wilson
Sponsor: Darwin Alternative Investment Management Ltd.
Contractor: The Outdoor Room
Website:  mcwilliamstudio.com

The concept for this garden relates to end-of-life experience, with the intention of creating a spiritual and uplifting space to help the bereaved feel a sense of calm and profound reflection during their grieving process. The design delivers a physical downward movement whilst simultaneously creating a sensation of uplift through trees and a cantilevered canopy. The gravel planting features Salvia, Verbascum and Linaria, contrasting with darker evergreen mounds or cushions of yew.

Head to our Chelsea Flower Show hub page for all the latest coverage

Get ready for the RHS Chelsea Flower Show for 2023 with the most prestigious flower show arriving in May next year.

All the information you’ll need on Chelsea Flower Show is below, along with more information on where Chelsea Flower Show is, when it is, tickets and what you can expect from the flower show this year.

Head to our Chelsea Flower Show hub page for all the latest coverage of the Show 

 

We’ll update this article with information as we have it, so keep this article bookmarked to make sure you don’t miss all the information on Chelsea Flower Show tickets, dates and more in the months leading up to the show.

But for now here’s everything you need to know about Chelsea 2023!

Chelsea Flower Show tickets

Where is the Chelsea Flower Show?

It takes place at the Royal Hospital Grounds, Chelsea, London SW3 4SR. The nearest tube station is Sloane Square, which is just a 15 minute ride from London Paddington.

When is Chelsea Flower Show?

The RHS Chelsea Flower Show runs from Tuesday 23 to Saturday 27 May 2023.

How much are tickets to Chelsea Flower Show?

There are two members only days (where only RHS members can buy tickets and attend the show). These members only days are the first two days of the show: Tuesday 23 May and Wednesday 24 May.

Tickets for RHS members on these days are from £45.85.

The show then becomes open for non members (and members too) from Thursday 25 May through to the shows last day, Saturday 27 May.

Tickets for the public on these days are from £40.85, while RHS members can pay a reduced price from £35.85.

(You can find out more about RHS membership here.)

Where can I buy tickets to Chelsea Flower Show?

Tickets are available for members and the public right now from here.

Show guides can be bought for £14.50 including postage which will be mailed to you one week before the show.

What are the opening times for the Chelsea Flower Show?

This year the show is open from 8am to 8pm from Tuesday 23 May to Friday 26 May. The final day, Saturday 27 May will be 8am to 5:30pm.

Does my child need a ticket? And can I bring my dog?

While some RHS shows allow ticket holders to bring children under 16, this does not include Chelsea. Children under five are not permitted (and no prams, pushchairs or babes in arms) and children over five will require full price tickets.

And, sadly, dogs are not permitted.

Is there a preview day this year?

The two members days are often referred to as the ‘preview days’. This year that’s Tuesday 23 and Wednesday 24 May.

What do I need on the day?

Usually the answer to this is very dependent on the weather! Read our article on ten essentials for visiting the Chelsea Flower Show.

What’s new this year?

There currently hasn’t been a huge amount of news announced, apart from the Show Gardens – see below, and the fact that there will be a new initiative called the Children’s Picnic, where schools from across London will be invited to send ten pupils each to join in with a picnic at the Show.

Here’s more on the Children’s Picnic and more announcements at Chelsea.

What are the gardens at The Chelsea Flower Show?

There are twelve Show Gardens…

Chelsea Show Gardens 2023

Centre for Mental Health’s The Balance Garden designed by Jonathan Davies and Steve Williams (Wild City Studio)

The RBC Brewin Dolphin Garden designed by Paul Hervey-Brookes

The Centrepoint Garden designed by Cleve West

The Fauna & Flora International Garden designed by Jilayne Rickards

Hoban Cultural Foundation: Land of Healing, Korean Mountain Light designed by Jihae Hwang

Myeloma UK Garden designed by Chris Beardshaw

Sponsor: Project Giving Back/Myeloma UK
Contractor: Cultura

The Nurture Landscapes Garden designed by Sarah Price

Horatio’s Garden designed by Charlotte Harris and Hugo Bugg
Sponsor: Project Giving Back/Horatio’s Garden
Contractor: Ryan Alexander Associates

The Royal Entomological Society Garden designed by Tom Massey

Samaritans’ Listening Garden designed by Darren Hawkes

The Savills Garden designed by Mark Gregory

Transcendence designed by Gavin McWilliam and Andrew Wilson

The rest of the gardens are yet to be announced!

Gardens Illustrated at Chelsea 

Of course, Gardens Illustrated will be there too. Come and see us at our stand on Eastern Avenue, where you can meet the team, enjoy an exclusive show subscription offer and browse our latest issue.

What else can you do at Chelsea Flower Show?

Besides the fabulous show gardens to explore, there’s the Great Pavilion, which features growers from all over the world showcasing blooms, and in which you can buy the best gardening kit around along with plants for your own space. The Great Pavilion is also an opportunity to discover more about recent advances in the world of horticulture, including up-to-the-minute research.

Then there are demos and announcements to attend such as the RHS Chelsea Sustainable Product of the Year and countless eateries for resting and refreshments including Raymond Blanc’s Jardin Blanc ‘Secret Garden’ restaurant.

Have fun!

Gardens Illustrated’s Chelsea Flower Show daily digest newsletter covers the annual event, bringing you all the news on what you can expect, experience and take part in. We’ll be sending you all the latest news around RHS Chelsea Flower show and updates with our daily digest of all the coverage when the show takes place.

Read our full list of Chelsea Flower Show gardens

Sign up to more of the Gardens Illustrated newsletters, including our weekly editorial update of news, features, gardens, plants and more

Head to our Chelsea Flower Show hub page for more information and coverage of the event.

Applications are now open for the 2023 Chelsea Fringe – the alternative garden festival that takes place at around the same time as the RHS Chelsea Flower Show. This year it is running from 20-28 May.

Individuals, organisations, first-timers and Fringe veterans with an idea for a Chelsea Fringe event – however unformed – are encouraged to get in touch with the Fringe team now. Tim Richardson, Fringe founder and director, is also hoping more garden designers and landscape designers will take part this year, given the new emphasis on community engagement in garden and landscape design.

Read more on 

Chelsea Flower Show 2023: All About Plants gardens full list

Chelsea Flower Show 2023: Sanctuary Gardens

Chelsea Flower Show Main Show Gardens 2023: the full list

“Garden designers were a strong volunteer element of the Fringe in its early days, but because we are not a funding platform, not too many of them actually created events in the festival, because the focus was always on physical installations,” he explains. “But times have changed. You don’t need much funding (or any, in some cases) to create a meaningful and interesting participatory event around gardening. We are hoping to see more of this kind of thing in the Fringe, some of it from a new generation of designers.”

The festival is a “true fringe” in that it doesn’t commission or curate. “We accept everything that our participants suggest – if an event is on-topic, legal and interesting, it’s in,” Tim explains. “That means everything from community-garden events, art projects and performances to walks and talks, craft demos, and workshops – just a few of the categories we end up with. We are always surprised – and delighted – by what pops up each year, fresh from the imagination of our horticultural comrades in the UK and around the world.”

Contributors and venues over the years have included community gardening groups, public parks, artists, poets, chefs, galleries, schools, and major institutions such as RBG Kew, the Inner Temple, the Natural History Museum, and Covent Garden Flower Market, among many others.

Despite its name, the festival reaches well beyond Chelsea – all over the UK and around the world. Events have taken place on the Isle of Mull, in Monmouth, Margate, Leeds, Bristol and Henley-on-Thames, as well as Canada, the US, Sweden, Poland, Italy, Australia, and Japan. Many events in the festival are free to attend.

Events usually begin to appear on the Fringe website from February, while registration remains open right up until the very last day of the festival. Potential event organisers are encouraged to make contact as soon as possible, however, so that the event can be promoted early on.

Gardens Illustrated will bring you highlights of the Chelsea Fringe later in the year.

Contact the team at info@chelseafringe.com with a proposal and find out more about the Chelsea Fringe at www.chelseafringe.com

Following from the RHS’s announcement of Show Gardens to be featured at the Chelsea Flower Show in 2023, more details of the Sanctuary Gardens and All About Plants Gardens have been released.

Among several themes this year Japanese Zen philosophy and the European countryside will make up a part of the spirit of the Sanctuary gardens category. Filippo Dester is designing the Hamptons Mediterranean Garden, which will be a rural family garden with an outdoor kitchen surrounded by edible planting. Kazyuki Ishihara returns to Chelsea with a garden inspired by satoyama landscapes.

The RSPCA’s garden is being designed by first-time Chelsea designer Martyn Wilson and will be a space for both humans and creatures to live in harmony, while The National Brain Appeal’s Rare Space sees Charlie Hawkes designing alongside people living with rare dementias. The garden will be a refuge for exploration and calm navigation.

Read more about the 2023 Sanctuary Gardens.

The All About Plants category made its debut in the Great Pavilion last year and in 2023 there will be six gardens featured, all supported by Project Giving Back. Each of the gardens is designed in conjunction with a UK charity to reflect their individual planting. Three of the All About Plants gardens are inspired by the arts, with Joe and Laura Carey designing a garden to demonstrate Talitha Arts’ work with people suffering from trauma. Sadler’s Wells celebrates its new community performance space with a garden designed by Alexa Ryan-Mills.

Helena Pettit, the RHS director of shows and gardens said: “The breadth of creativity across the Sanctuary and All About Plants categories is truly inspirational and will take visitors on a journey across diverse landscapes, as well as imaginary worlds. Sustainable and wildlife friendly planting is central to each design, with gardens offering new combinations of species that will bring sensory delights across the show.”

Here’s all the Show Gardens for Chelsea 2023. 

For more on Chelsea 2023, head to our Chelsea hub page. 

Here’s the full list of Sanctuary Gardens in 2023

The full list of All About Plants at Chelsea in 2023

There will be six all about plants gardens at RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2023, including gardens from Jane Porter, Camellia Taylor, and Alexa Ryan-Mills.

As with last year, many of the All About Plants gardens are funded by the recent initiative Project Giving Back.

Each garden has been designed in collaboration with a UK charity to reflect their individual causes using a minimum of 80 per cent planting, highlighting the vital role specialist growers play within UK horticulture. Following the show, all of the gardens will live on at the charities’ chosen locations, from Glasgow to Kent.

Don’t miss our piece on everything you need to know about Chelsea Flower Show 2023.

• Main Show gardens
• Sanctuary gardens

RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2023 All About Plants Gardens

Choose Love Garden

Sponsor: Project Giving Back supporting Choose Love

Designer: Jane Porter

Contractor: Stone Inspired

 

The Natural Affinity Garden for Aspens

Sponsor: Project Giving Back supporting Aspens Charities

Designer: Camellia Taylor

Contractor: The Outdoor Room

 

School Food Matters Garden

Sponsor: Project Giving Back supporting School Food Matters

Designer: Harry Holding

Contractor: Landscape Associates

 

The Sadler’s Wells East Garden

Sponsor: Project Giving Back supporting Sadler’s Wells

Designer: Alexa Ryan-Mills

Contractor: To be confirmed

 

The Talitha Arts Garden

Sponsor: Project Giving Back supporting Talitha Arts

Designers: Joe Carey & Laura Carey

Contractor: Landcraft

 

The Teapot Trust Elsewhere Garden

© Sandra Dieckmann

Sponsor: Project Giving Back supporting Teapot Trust

Designers: Nicola Semple & Susan Begg

Contractor: Stewart Landscape Construction Ltd

Seven Sanctuary Gardens at RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2023, sponsored by the Newt in Somerset, have so far been announced, including gardens from Chelsea veterans such Thomas Hoblyn, Taina Suonio and Kazuyuki Ishihara and first-timers like Martyn Wilson.

Don’t miss our piece on everything you need to know about Chelsea Flower Show 2023.  

What is a Sanctuary Garden at Chelsea?

The Sanctuary gardens at Chelsea are smaller gardens that highlight the benefits of gardening on our wellbeing. Sustainable and wildlife friendly planting is central to each design. Two of the gardens are being sponsored by the grant-giving charity, Project Giving Back.

Here’s what we know about the gardens so far.

• Main Show gardens

RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2023 Sanctuary Gardens

The Boodles British Craft Garden

Sponsor: Boodles

Designer: Thomas Hoblyn

Contractor: The Landscaping Consultants

Inspired by the Pre-Raphaelite’s stylised depiction of woodlands, this is a woodland glade-like garden is filled with plants selected for their perfected forms. The garden is a celebration of British craftsmanship and Thomas Hoblyn has worked with some top craftspeople to create it. Selected, refined and stylised forms of plants in shades of pinks, reds and blues include the feathery Alnus glutinosa ‘Imperialis’, weeping Betula pendula, the double flowered rambling rose ‘Félicité Perpétue’ over the arbour whilst coloured forms of ornamental grasses, sedges and perennials surround the pool.

Cavernoma On My Mind

Sponsor: The Cavernoma Society

Designer: Taina Suonio & Anne Hamilton

Contractor: Tom Salmon Landscaping

The Cavernoma On My Mind garden has named areas which describe the feelings of cavernoma patients, such as “fragility of life”,“unconditional love” and “fresh start”. The plants in these named areas have been chosen for
the feelings a patient goes through, or for the plants’ healing qualities. The glass steps ascending to the viewing platform symbolise hope for progress and the optimism required for living with the condition. The viewing platform represents security and clarity of vision into the future. The water feature which flows gently down a wall denotes on one hand the tears shed by the patients, and on the other, the calming effect of letting your emotions out. The garden contains plants that have been chosen to symbolise cavernoma, such as Acer griseum, commonly known as blood-bark maple, which represents the thin blood vessels that make up cavernomas and peonies, whose root extract also has medicinal qualities against epilepsy and seizures.

Hamptons Mediterranean Garden

Sponsor: Hamptons

Designer: Filippo Dester

Contractor: Garden Club London

The Hamptons Mediterranean Garden by Filippo Dester will transport visitors to a rural family garden with an outdoor kitchen surrounded by edible planting for alfresco dining, with the look, feel and smell of the Mediterranean.
There is a palette of Mediterranean plants in a dry, gravel garden area, productive borders to forage edibles, and ornamental borders. The colour scheme is rich in soft whites, blues, and glaucous foliage, with splashes of bold pinks and yellows. Statement plants in the garden include a fig tree and Arbutus unedo, large agaves, clouds of Pittosporum tobira ‘Nanum’ and Rosa glauca.

The London Square Community Garden

Sponsor: London Square

Designer: James Smith

Contractor: The Landscape Consultants

The garden reflects London Square’s ethos of providing a vital connection between people through communal gardens. This garden represents a place to meet, to share food and to connect with nature and relax. There are two contrasting areas of what would be a larger garden. A welcoming meeting space has a a large communal table and borrowed chairs, and there are areas for growing produce, playing games, or sitting under the shade of a pergola. Planting will be a mix of lush green textures with highlights of purple, white, and pink.

The National Brain Appeal’s Rare Space

Sponsor: Project Giving Back supporting the National Brain Appeal

Designer: Charlie Hawkes

Contractor: Landscape Associates Ltd

The National Brain Appeal’s Rare Space has been created by designer Charlie Hawkes alongside people living with rare dementias. Non-memory led dementias can make seeing, understanding, and moving confidently through physical spaces extremely challenging, so the resulting garden is a space of contrasting materials to help identify and locate structural components, with a simple layout. Central to this is a level path which turns through the garden, offering along its way three seating areas. The garden highlights the exceptional work of the charity in funding worldleading research to address and support those with rare dementias and other neurological conditions. The garden uses a colour scheme of pink, purples, blues and reds with some flashes of light yellow. Key plants include Rosa glauca and Parrotia persica with a dense canopy to minimise dappled light, which can be confusing for people living with certain rare forms of dementia.

The RSPCA Garden

Sponsor: Project Giving Back supporting the RSPCA

Designer: Martyn Wilson

Contractor: Landscape Associates

Animals will also have their own sanctuary with the RSPCA’s wildlife friendly garden by first-time Chelsea designer Martyn Wilson, blending a space for both humans and creatures to live safely in harmony with each other. It is a contemporary interpretation of a wildlife sanctuary, inspired by native woodlands and the rehabilitation of wild animals that forms part of the RSPCA’s vital welfare work. Created using a fusion of natural, sustainable and recycled materials, it demonstrates how we can have a positive impact on biodiversity and live as part of the natural environment. Planting will be in a multi-layered naturalistic style, in shades of green, whites and tones of ‘RSPCA’ blue, with pollinator-friendly plants. The garden is a celebration of the 200th anniversary of the RSPCA.

Zen Garden

Sponsor: Ishihara Kazuyuki Design Laboratory

Designer: Kazuyuki Ishihara

Contractor: Ishihara Kazuyuki Design Laboratory

Chelsea favourite Kazuyuki Ishihara makes a welcome return to RHS Chelsea in 2023 with a garden inspired by the traditional satoyama landscapes found in the foothills of Japan. This garden is a refreshing place in which to live a simplified life. The water moves yet is quiet as in mountain spring. Surface fluctuations reflect flowers. The simple land area allows enjoyment of the charming rock garden, dry as in the mountains. The Japanese satoyama woodland plants of acer, pine, and mosses feature. The waterside uses watercress, iris, and natural materials that are deeply involved in the spirit of Zen forming a solid base for our spiritual lives.

Head to our dedicated Chelsea Flower Show hub page

The RHS has today announced several of the gardens to be featured at RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2023.

At the autumn press conference, the first press conference held by the RHS since 2020, the new director general Clare Matterson announced there would be a series of restorative gardens at the Chelsea Flower Show in 2023. The gardens will make up some of the 12 show gardens and will be inclusive green spaces for socially deprived communities to connect with nature, as well as gardens for patient recovery.

The Royal Entomological Society Garden will be designed by Chelsea gold medal winner Tom Massey, who will focus on the biodiversity found on brownfield sites.

Horatio’s Garden will be designed by Charlotte Harris and Hugo Bugg and will be wheelchair accessible. It will be a garden created for patients recovering from spinal injury and will be relocated to Northern General Hospital in Sheffield.

Designer Cleve West, returns to Chelsea Flower Show in 2023 with a Show Garden for the first time since 2016 with designs for The Centrepoint Garden.

Watch: meet the designers of some of the Chelsea Flower Show Gardens 2023

Korean designer Jihae Hwang’s garden will look at how a rewilding project in her home country has helped prevent native plants from becoming extinct. The garden, called The Hoban Cultural Foundation: Land of Healing, Korean Mountain Light, promotes balanced ecosystems from around the Jiri Mountain region.

Other Chelsea Flower Show highlights include The Savills Garden by Mark Gregory, championing how growing your own food can form the basis of a healthy lifestyle and The Nurture Landscapes Garden, designed by Sarah Price. The garden will be low carbon, which celebrates the art and craft of garden making. Below is the full list of Show Gardens this year.

Other designers appearing at Chelsea this year will be Jonathan Davies and Steve Williams, Paul Hervey-Brookes, Jilayne Rickards, Chris Beardshaw, Darren Hawkes and Gavin McWilliam and Andrew Wilson.

Also announced at the autumn conference is the first ever Children’s Picnic at Chelsea Flower Show. The Children’s Picnic will see 100 children attending a picnic from schools in some of the most disadvantaged areas of London. Ten schools will bring ten pupils along with their teachers.

The initiative is one of Clare Matterson’s first initiatives since beginning as director general at the RHS.

She said: “I want this to be a special experience for all the children at RHS Chelsea, igniting an interest in gardening that will be with them throughout their life. We know that spending time in nature leads to better well-being and creates a greater attachment and desire to protect and cherish the natural world. So, with the huge issues facing future generations of mental health, a changing climate and loss of biodiversity, we hope this picnic represents a beginning for children to connect to nature through a love of gardening.”

She added: “With RHS Chelsea being the world’s greatest gardening show, this will also shine a light on all we do as a charity through our campaigns, gardens and other shows to bring gardening into the lives of millions of children.”

Project Giving Back will be supporting several of the Show gardens for the second year running at Chelsea Flower Show and the Great Pavilion will this year feature 70 specialist nurseries including Raymon Evison Clematis and the Caley Bros.

Helena Pettit, RHS director of shows and gardens, said: “It’s no coincidence that the restorative power of gardens and gardening – both for people and the environment – returns as the main theme for next year’s RHS Chelsea Flower Show.

“So whether you’re looking to create a wildlife haven on your doorstep, ideas to garden more sustainably or to brighten up your balcony, the 2023 show will be teeming with gardening inspiration to help you bring more plants into your home.”

This year’s Chelsea Flower Show will be sponsored by The Newt in Somerset for the second year running and runs from 23 to 27 May 2023 at the Royal Hospital Chelsea.

Head to our Chelsea Flower Show hub for more information. 

Here’s the full list of Chelsea Flower Show Gardens for 2023

Chelsea Show Gardens 2023

Centre for Mental Health’s The Balance Garden designed by Jonathan Davies and Steve Williams (Wild City Studio)

The RBC Brewin Dolphin Garden designed by Paul Hervey-Brookes

The Centrepoint Garden designed by Cleve West

The Fauna & Flora International Garden designed by Jilayne Rickards

Hoban Cultural Foundation: Land of Healing, Korean Mountain Light designed by Jihae Hwang

Myeloma UK Garden designed by Chris Beardshaw

Sponsor: Project Giving Back/Myeloma UK
Contractor: Cultura

The Nurture Landscapes Garden designed by Sarah Price

Horatio’s Garden designed by Charlotte Harris and Hugo Bugg
Sponsor: Project Giving Back/Horatio’s Garden
Contractor: Ryan Alexander Associates

The Royal Entomological Society Garden designed by Tom Massey

Samaritans’ Listening Garden designed by Darren Hawkes

The Savills Garden designed by Mark Gregory

Transcendence designed by Gavin McWilliam and Andrew Wilson

Avon Bulbs is a long-standing, family run, mail-order nursery specialising in bulbs for the flower garden. Owned by Chris Ireland-Jones and managed with Alan Street, it’s located near South Petherton in Somerset, a stone’s throw from the famous garden of the late Margery Fish at East Lambrook. The nursery was originally set up by Walter Stag, a former UK representative for the bulb giant Van Tubergen, in 1979, and Alan joined soon afterwards. It moved twice before settling near Trowbridge on a site overlooking the River Avon, after which the nursery was named.

Chris bought the nursery from Walter in 1987, but the site was proving to be difficult, and after the glasshouses were flattened by a gale, a move seemed to be in order. Fortuitously, in the early 1990s, Chris was told about a small dairy farm, with seven acres, cattle sheds and heavy clay soil, that was coming up for auction and he bought it. “It was less than ideal for a bulb nursery,” he remembers. “Alan had wanted something much lighter for his snowdrops. There wasn’t a tree on the place, so no shade for woodland bulbs.” Thirty years on it is a very different scene.

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Gardeners will know Avon Bulbs as a regular of horticultural shows, where it is renowned for its excellent Gold medal displays. I remember its immaculate stands at the RHS London Shows in Vincent Square, the snowdrop displays were legendary – so carefully laid out as if plucked fresh from a woodland floor.

At the RHS Chelsea Flower Show the stands were more luxurious with drifts of tulips, lily-of-the-valley, gladioli and alliums (to name but a few), each flower in flawless condition. It’s no surprise the nursery has won 30 RHS Chelsea Gold medals, in addition to Gold at Malvern, Birmingham and Hampton Court Palace.

Key plants from Avon Bulbs

Fritillaria thunbergii 

A tall, rangy plant producing milky-green, often mottled, conical flowers above thin, glaucous-green foliage. The topmost leaves are twining and tendril-like. Be sure to plant bulbs deeply. 80cm. RHS H5, USDA 6a-9b

Lathraea clandestina 

A harmless, parasitic plant with no chlorophyll. This plant gains all its sustenance from the roots of its host, which could be willow or poplar. 15cm. RHS H6, USDA 4a-8b.

Fritillaria meleagris

One of the prettiest of our native wildflowers. It is a bulbous perennial that prefers moist, rich soils where it will self-seed. 30cm. AGM. RHS H5, USDA 3a-8b.

Tropaeolum tricolor

An alpine nasturtium from Chile that makes thin, climbing tendril growths in winter, then in spring bears masses of small, tricoloured flowers. 1.3m. AGM. RHS H2, USDA 8a-10b.

Scilla liliohyacinthus

Mid-blue flowers are produced in loose, delicate racemes above smart glossy green foliage. It thrives in woodland conditions where it will make sheets of colour. 25cm. RHS H6.

Lunaria annua var. albiflora

A white form of the common purple honesty. A biennial that will self-seed throughout the garden. Looks good with late tulips and early alliums. 60cm. RHS H6, USDA 5a-9b.

Fritillaria raddeana 

Similar in appearance to F. imperialis, but generally of smaller stature with very pale primrose flowers. A good garden plant for a sunny site with good drainage. 45cm. RHS H6, USDA 5a-8b.

Fritillaria imperialis ‘William Rex’

A selection of a garden plant that has been popular for over 400 years. This deep-orange form has stout, dark stems with a notable bushy top. 75cm. RHS H6, USDA 5a-8b.

Muscari aucheri ‘Ocean Magic’

A well-behaved grape hyacinth that is good for naturalising in dry, sunny sites. It makes small spikes of globular, scented, pale-blue flowers. 20cm. RHS H6, USDA 4a-8b.

Ipheion ‘Alberto Castillo’

A very good starflower that creates drifts of short, strap-shaped leaves above which hover upward facing, large white flowers. Prefers a sunny site. 15cm. AGM. RHS H5, USDA 5a-9b.

Narcissus ‘Hawera’

A pretty, scented narcissus with nodding flowers in a shade of cool, primrose yellow, and rush-like foliage. Excellent for naturalising. 20cm. AGM. RHS H6, USDA 4a-8b.

USEFUL INFORMATION. Address Burnt House Farm, Mid Lambrook, South Petherton, Somerset TA13 5HE. Tel 01460 242177.
Web avonbulbs.co.uk Open Mail-order only

This article is a shortened version of a longer feature from Gardens Illustrated magazine. Why not subscribe to our print edition here?

RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2022 was very much about naturalistic planting, greens and the concept of rewilding, with Best in Show going to Lulu Urquhart and Adam Hunt for their A Rewilding British Landscape.

Reflecting the trend, plant nursery The Plant Centre at Hortus Loci, created three 50cm x 50cm planters for the Gardens Illustrated stand at Chelsea Flower Show, showcasing a selection of plants that would fit into any garden scheme. So even if you don’t have a big garden to let areas go completely wild, there are elements to take on board from the rewilding message, whatever space you have.

This container planting idea draws on the rewilding aesthetic to use hardworking, tough plants that don’t need too much mollycoddling and are brilliant for pollinators. By using perennials alongside annuals, the display can be adapted seasonally and come back year after year to give a loose, naturalised appeal.

How to get the rewilding look

Plants used

Centranthus ruber (x 6 for three containers)

Often seen growing on walls and in hedgerows, red valerian is a tough perennial with masses of tightly clumped flowerheads in crimson, pink or white. Beloved by pollinators and with good drought tolerant qualities. Flowers from late spring to autumn. Deadhead regularly if you want to control self-seeding.

1m x 50cm
RHS H5

Cosmos bipinnatus ‘Double Click Cranberries’ (x6)
Gorgeous, intensely coloured cosmos with flowers in dark reddish-purple. Double petalled with a bright-yellow centre. Attractive to pollinators and flowering in profusion through summer and into autumn.
1.5m x 1m.
RHS H3
Read more about the best cosmos varieties to grow.

Geum ‘Bohema Pink’ (x6)
Introduced in 2020, this geum produces masses of flowers from as early as April and into summer (keep deadheading to encourage repeat flowering). Large flowers of ruffled petals in salmon pink surround bright yellow-orange stamens. Grows best in sun but will tolerate some shade and works well alongside low-growing grasses and other creeping perennials to give low-level interest.
40cm x 40cm
RHS H5

Linum narbonense (x3)
This blue flax is a lovely addition to the garden with open blue flowers with a white centre held above lance-shaped leaves on wiry stems. Tolerates dry soils. Flowers from late spring to midsummer and will self-seed if happy.
60cm x 30cm

Oenothera lindheimeri (x3)
White gaura is a graceful delicate-looking perennial with arching stems bearing starry white, or pink tinged flowers. Long season of interest and good for pollinators.
1.5m x 1m

Salvia ‘Cool Cream’ (x2)
Semi-evergreen, busy perennial with lipped flowers in creamy white that contrast with the purple stems. Aromatic green foliage. Good for pollinators.
1m x 50cm
RHS H5

Delphinium ‘White Swan’ (x6)
While delphiniums do need a bit of care and attention, they are a great statement plant, bringing height to a container display and summer indulgence. Pure-white flowers borne on tall spires with lovely informal appeal.
1m x 50cm
RHS H5

Containers

Terrazzo Cube from The Plant Centre at Hortus Loci

With thanks to Hortus Loci for creating our RHS Chelsea Flower Show stand planters
The Plant Centre at Hortus Loci
Hound Green
Hook
Hampshire RG27 8LQ
Tel 0118 932 6487

hortusloci.co.uk