Highlights from Chelsea Flower Show 2025
We were delighted to be asked by the RHS this year to design and build a garden for their hub building / shop on Main Avenue at Chelsea. Not only was it amazing to have a garden designed by us right on Main Avenue, but we were in the very thick of it to see behind the scenes of the frankly mind-blowing set up and build of all of the show gardens around us.
Being there in the week running up to the show opening was an incredible experience and has given us plenty of insights and ideas to take away. Here are some of our highlights from this year.
Be present with what you’re doing
Our garden was right next to Kazuyuki Ishihara’s prize winning garden this year (winning Gold, Best Chelsea Garden and People’s Choice, pictures right and above) and it was an absolute privilege to watch him and his team at work on their build. The level of attention to detail was unlike anything we’ve seen before, each person working on their own task with absolute focus – whether it was raking the gravel or carefully inspecting and trimming each one of the moss balls.
It was a great reminder of the deep joy there is to be had in focusing on details, both with designing gardens and with all of the tasks of gardening itself. Taking the time to be present in the moment, focusing on the moss (or whatever it might be!) and paying close attention to the task at hand.
And generally, meeting Kazuyuki Ishihara was a complete highlight of the show for us! Take a look at our Instagram for a few more pictures.
Gardening and activism
The gardens at the flower show are more theatre than real-life garden: set up in a few weeks, then dismantled and taken elsewhere. There are definite questions around the environmental impacts and sustainability of this, which the RHS is also trying to address by ensuring the gardens all live on beyond Chelsea week (the plants from our garden will all be planted into permanent position in our current project at Matthew’s House). What we do get though, with this theatre of so many gardens all together is a vast array of inspiration, which is especially important when it comes to gardening for the changing climate.
It was great to catch up with one of our university professors Nigel Dunnett, whose Hospitalfields Arts garden highlighted resilient coastal planting. The undulating structures that mimicked sand dunes were filled with low-fertility, free-draining mineral mulch and planted with plants that survive in erratic rain conditions. Meanwhile, the artist’s bothy, at the back of the garden, was filled with posters and placards by artist Bob & Roberta Smith, speaking to the importance of teaching art in schools. It was inspiring to see Nigel use his space to advocate.
Height and perspective bring new interest to gardens
After spending the week running up to the show busy building our own garden, press day on Monday gave a real treat of time to go and check out all of the other gardens once they’d been finished. We were especially lucky to get a chance to walk inside lots of them and see them from different angles.
Tom Bannister’s garden ‘Here for Humanity’ for the British Red Cross looked stunning from all angles. A landscape of increasing height had been created with geometric concrete-like pillars, planted with alpine species. On Monday evening, we walked across the top and sat and viewed the rest of the grounds as the sun set.
In any garden at all, it’s worth thinking about what the view is from seating areas: what’s in your eyeline as you sit down? Can you frame interesting views or features with plants? And in this garden, looking out through the trees and plants to the rest of the show was an unforgettable moment. A reminder of the importance of including taller structures (and plants) even within small spaces.
Roses are always in fashion!
Of course, it’s partly down to the time of year Chelsea takes place – in May, at the start of the rose season – but while some plants come and go at Chelsea as fashions change, there are always amazing displays of roses.
The Glasshouse Garden by designer Jo Thompson’s featured a gloriously soft and lush planting with plenty of scented roses, that you could smell long before you could see them. The David Austin stand in the pavilion was as popular as always, with plenty of visitors stopping to literally smell the roses, and get a first view of the freshly-unveiled King’s Rose.
Include water
We mentioned water last year as one of our highlights from the show, but once again we were especially drawn to all of the different water features in the show gardens, from streams in the Addleshaw Goddard ‘Freedom to Flourish Garden,’ the water bowls in Tom Hoblyn’s Garden of Compassion for Hospice UK, to the “trick” feature in the Down’s Syndrome Scotland garden, where pressing down on a tile laid in the path triggered a spray of water.
Water features in gardens are great for so many reasons: encouraging wildlife, helping to naturally keep the garden cool in especially hot weather (which we’re seeing more of in recent years), and for peace and contemplation too. You don’t need a Chelsea garden or a Chelsea-standard water feature to use water: a wildlife pond, a water bowl or even just a bucket in a shady corner will all work.
Take a look at our post on how to build a wildlife pond if you’re inspired to add water to your own garden.
Planning for the future
Lots of the gardens at the show this year rightly spoke to climate change, and the rising temperatures we’re seeing in the UK, leading to changes in the plants we use. Though it remains fairly rainy where we’re based in Swansea, many areas in the UK are seeing increasing periods of drought. Rather than wasting water resources to water more frequently, planting with species that can cope with drought conditions offers a far more environmentally-friendly option.
The Killick + Co ‘Save for a rainy day’ garden featured adaptable species, such as trees that can cope with both drought and flooding, and showcased plenty of rainwater-saving techniques, such as troughs to capture rainwater and permeable paving to prevent rainwater runoff. Even in rainy Wales, these are concepts we think about with every garden design we take on: how to save the rainwater that does fall, and how to prevent unnecessary run-off and waste. Dedicated rain gardens are one of our very favourite projects, so we loved seeing some of the innovative solutions in the Killick + Co space.
Advancing the conversation
Throughout the weeks we were at Chelsea, we had so many fascinating conversations with designers, plantspeople, and everyone involved in garden design and horticulture. We talked about everything from climate change, sustainability, the future of gardening, AI, practices in our new plant nursery, to what we should do about the caterpillars we found on our hazel trees!
Talking about where we’re at, and what comes next, both for our business, and the industry in general was so inspiring. The exchange of ideas, especially around the future of gardens and gardening, left us feeling full of hope and excitement. And really, along with the beautiful plants, and the stunning spaces, connecting with other people in the industry is always one of the best highlights.
And more…
There was too much to mention everything in one post, so to finish, here are a few more photos of some of our favourite moments from Chelsea this year. Leaving you with these, until 2026!
