The world’s most prestigious flower show is more than 100 years old but RHS Chelsea still delivers new ideas in horticulture
1. Show gardens innovate
For ground-breaking design, RHS Chelsea’s show gardens continue to lead the way. The Royal Entomological Society Garden designed by Tom Massey features a functioning laboratory which will study insect numbers visiting the garden during the show. A movable projector screen linked to the microscopes in the lab gives visitors the opportunity to see enlarged insects at magnified scale.
In another Chelsea first, The Savills Garden will be cooking for the Chelsea Pensioners in a working kitchen cooking set amongst edible planting for a true ‘from plot-to-plate’ experience. Meanwhile Horatio’s Garden will be the first garden on Main Avenue to be specifically designed to be wheelchair-accessible.
2. First children’s picnic
.jpg?width=800&height=533 "HRH The Princess of Wales and school children")
In 2023, 100 children from 10 schools in London who have joined the RHS Campaign for School Gardening are invited for a special celebration on Press Day. RHS Director General, Clare Matterson CBE is championing the picnic as part of a plan to draw more young people into horticulture. Clare said: “Having picked up my first gardening trowel as a young child, this is a really important moment for me as we plan the future direction of the RHS.”
3. New plants revealed
Exhibitors in the Great Pavilion often introduce their finest new plants at RHS Chelsea. Among those being unveiled in 2023 will be two cottage garden favourites.
RHS Chelsea veteran
Raymond J. Evison has bred and developed
Clematis ‘Tumaini’ at his Guernsey Clematis Nursery. The pinkish-mauve flower is named in recognition of the work done by the Guernsey based charity, The Tumaini Fund, which helps orphans in Tanzania.
Darren Everest Dahlias have two new sweet peas they have been saving for Chelsea. Darren said: “Lizanne Davies is named after one of my dad’s clients who sadly passed away at a young age due to cancer. The other one is Dawn Everest, which I had named as a wedding present for my wife when we got married back in 2012. I have been waiting for the right opportunity to release both varieties and what better place to do so than RHS Chelsea.”
4. Gardens rehomed
From 2023 all RHS Chelsea gardens are required to have a plan for life after the show. Some will be moved in their entirety and relocated permanently while others will be rehomed in parts.
Many of the gardens from 2022 were successfully moved to new locations, including the Alder Hey Urban Foraging Station, which was moved to the Alder Hey Children's Hospital in Liverpool.
5. First fungi growers
Mushrooms can be seen as the ‘flower’ of fungus, but they have never had a specific grower at RHS Chelsea Flower Show until now. Suppliers of grow-at-home kits, Caley Bros will be in the Great Pavilion making their debut. “We will be displaying a variety of glorious and edible home-grown mushrooms, for both indoor and outdoor growing, and we will be on hand to share just how accessible growing mushrooms can be regardless of space.”
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