2025 gardening predictions: trends and themes for the year ahead

In 2025 gardeners will be tearing up traditional planting choices with front gardens and urban areas reimagined for a greener future. While gardening will increasingly have a purpose, it will also be sure to include plenty of fun and frivolity as people grow in ways that matter to them.

1. More edible perennials

Blueberries are reported to be in high demand by growers and retailers. This highly palatable and attractive superfood is fairly easy to grow at home on compact bushes that have lovely flowers and autumn colour

Fruit trees and shrubs as well as

Perennials are plants that live for multiple years. They come in all shapes and sizes and fill our gardens with colourful flowers and ornamental foliage. Many are hardy and can survive outdoors all year round, while less hardy types need protection over winter. The term herbaceous perennial is used to describe long-lived plants without a permanent woody structure (they die back to ground level each autumn), distinguishing them from trees, shrubs and sub-shrubs.

2. From community water butts to sponge cities

With the remarkable wet weather in the last 12 months gardening minds will be more focused than usual on drainage and water

Community gardens are increasingly at the centre of local water capture and storage, helping to meet the needs of the immediate space but also local people during extended dry spells. The proliferation of smaller scale growing spaces in more urban areas is also seen as valuable protection from flash flooding with plants helping to slow the flow of rainwater before being soaked up by the soil – nature’s largest natural water butt. 2025 is expected to see a growth in so called ‘sponge city’ capabilities as developers and councils increasingly cotton on to the broader benefits of planted spaces.

3. Green infrastructure

Green roofs bring similar benefits to green walls, particularly in terms of air quality, biodiversity and often providing a wellbeing space

As research continues apace to evidence the benefits of plants, they’ll start to feature in towns and cities in more creative but practical ways. Green roofs and walls will be sought out to provide all important thermal regulation for buildings, reduce flooding and sewage spills by capturing and slowing the flow of water, boost habitat provision, filter the air within spaces and along polluted roads and be used to cool solar panels on roofs to ensure good functionality, known as hortivoltaics. 

4. A new look at bedding

Consider perennials and drought-resistant bedding options for greater sustainability, with less water and feeding needed

Heathers bring colour and pollinators, but are low maintenance

2025 will see a continued shift away from traditional

Bedding plants are usually colourful half-hardy, short-lived or annual plants, grown for displays in beds or containers. They may be changed seasonally, with spring, summer and winter bedding displays each using different plants of appropriate hardiness and flowering times.

5. Front gardens on the front line

If you want to park on your front garden, then there can still be room for plants

With ever increasing numbers of electric cars on the road, homeowners will be looking for landscaping options that provide easy access to charging points. Permeable paving and gravel gardens flanked with low maintenance plants are low cost, and prevent pooling or run off of rainwater, making them an ideal option in dense, urban areas.

6. Gardeners start small

Small coir pots can be planted directly into the soil

The new Oudolf Landscape at RHS Wisley opened in May 2024

9cm potted plants have proved popular in 2024, being cheaper than the standard 2 or 3L potted varieties and meaning gardeners can dabble with a greater variety of plants for the same price. These smaller plants take a little longer to reach maturity but have been effectively used in the new Piet Oudolf Garden at RHS Garden Wisley which is already well established just one year on.

7. Hunger for carnivorous plants

Venus fly traps (Dionaea muscipula) are always popular with children

Carnivorous plants have long been popular among younger gardeners and loved for keeping house-bound insects in check. The advent of new peat-free formulations in 2024 is expected to benefit UK based propagation and breeding with increased availability, variety and appeal for sustainably minded growers. This is welcomed by retailers who have found it difficult to import these plants in the quantity needed from abroad.

8. Gardening for the fun of it

The RHS’ Your Space, Your Story campaign will help to showcase creative and personal approaches to design over the next 12 months

Composting is the process by which plant material is heaped together to rot (decompose) to produce compost. Garden or kitchen waste can be broken down over time in a compost bin or heap to produce crumbly organic matter that can be used as a mulch, soil conditioner and a constituent of potting compost.

composting