Show Gardens at RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2025 explore how gardens can work towards a better future as well as providing a sanctuary
London Square Chelsea Pensioners’ Garden, designed by Dave Green
Innovation and introspection
Increasingly, RHS Chelsea has showcased how garden design and cutting-edge technology can help create resilient and sustainable gardens which embrace the inevitable challenges gardens will face. The Garden of the Future is set in the near-future reality of extreme weather, where gardens must survive both drought and flood. Designer Tom Massey and architect Je Ahn explored a similar theme last year in their WaterAid Garden. For 2025 they have reunited to bring The Avanade ‘Intelligent’ Garden to the Show. Exploring tech-hort solutions by using AI to not only monitor conditions and help make resilient planting choices, but also be responsive and even interact with visitors.
Both this garden and The Pathway Garden, designed by Allon Hoskin & Robert Beaudin, make innovative use of mycelium as a building material – the latter being formed from recycled waste material from previous RHS Show gardens. Not only is this a sustainable choice, but it also serves as a succinct metaphor for the support networks that help people out of homelessness. The Killick & Co Futureproof Garden also brings cutting edge green tech, most notably in its 3D printed walls and approach to water management.
Down’s Syndrome Scotland Garden, designed by Nick Burton and Duncan Hall
Challenging Preconceptions
Challenging preconceptions is also an emerging theme of RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2025. Down’s Syndrome Scotland Garden, designed by Nick Burton and Duncan Hall, and Manoj Malde’s Tackle HIV Challenging Stigma Garden, both address different prejudices around medical conditions with optimism and positivity. Duncan Hall’s nephew inspired his garden, which celebrates the many loving characteristics people with Down’s syndrome often share. Meanwhile, Manoj Malde’s design acknowledges the suffering caused by misconceptions surrounding HIV, while looking ahead to a brighter future.
Jo Thompson’s The Glasshouse Garden shows the progress that can be achieved by looking forward and enabling people to thrive despite the odds, working with a charity that supports female offenders working in horticulture. The King’s Trust Seeding Success Garden takes its inspiration from young people and their potential for growth.
Creating an oasis
Addleshaw Goddard: Freedom to Flourish Garden, designed by Carey Design Studio
While some of the Gardens explore the world around them, many of the designs coming to the Show are about creating gardens as an inner sanctum, a place for calm reflection. The Addleshaw Goddard: Freedom to Flourish Garden demands a slower pace, with its flowing grasses and muted colour tones. RHS Chelsea is a busy place but Dave Green’s London Square Chelsea Pensioners’ Garden provides a peaceful haven, with a private meeting area for the Pensioners and their guests.
The Hospice UK: Garden of Compassion, designed by Tom Hoblyn, and the Children with Cancer UK “A Place To Be…”, by Tom Clarke and Ros Coutts-Harwood, are both spaces for reflection, peace and joy for patients and families facing their most difficult times. Two very different designs show the comforting, biophilic role that gardens can play.
Celebrating the arts
Boodles Raindance Garden, designed by Dr Catherine MacDonald
Inspired by aesthetic crafts, the
Boodles Raindance Garden, designed by Dr Catherine MacDonald, and
Cha No Niwa – Japanese Tea Garden, by Kazuyuki Ishihara, celebrate jewellery making and flower arranging respectively, each demonstrating the symbiotic relationship between art and nature.
RHS Chelsea Flower Show runs 20 – 24 May 2025
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