🌸 What We Loved at Chelsea Flower Show 2025 | Best Garden Designer Ideas!

Come along with us as we explore the stunning RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2025! 🌿 From vibrant floral installations to creative garden designs and plant-packed displays, this year’s show was full of inspiration. We’ll take you through our favourite exhibits, incredible gardens, and a behind-the-scenes peek at the floral magic. Don’t miss the vibrant energy, blooming beauty, and joyful atmosphere that make Chelsea Flower Show a highlight of the year for every garden lover. 🌸🌼

📍 Location: Royal Hospital Chelsea, London
🎥 Featured: Floral arrangements, edible gardens, eco-gardening, and more

💬 Let me know your favourite display and garden in the comments!

Below is a link to planting lists for some of the gardens. For other gardens the plant list is on a leaflet so if there is something in particular you want to know then ask me in the comments and I will do my best to answer.

London Square Chelsea Pensioners Garden:
https://davegreen.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/105-CFS25-4005-Plant-List-with-Images.pdf

Kings Trust Garden: watch Ollie Gunn’s channel to see the construction of this garden: https://youtu.be/snxEzXqW46s?si=Nvx8xUhDoubE_WDY

https://www.kingstrust.org.uk/support-our-work/chelsea-flower-show/our-garden/plants?utm_source=chelsea_flower_show&utm_medium=leaflet&utm_campaign=CFS_plants

Avanade Intelligent Garden:
https://intelligentgarden.avanade.com/

Red Cross Garden:
https://www.redcross.org.uk/get-involved/fundraising-and-events/chelsea-flower-show

The Glasshouse:
https://www.theglasshouse.co.uk/the-glasshouse-garden

ADHD Garden (not featured)
https://www.adhdfoundation.org.uk/chelsea-flower-show

The British Rainforest Garden:
https://www.wildlifetrusts.org/rhs-chelsea-flower-show-2025-british-rainforest-garden

Room To Breathe Garden:
https://www.wildlifetrusts.org/rhs-chelsea-flower-show-2025-british-rainforest-garden

The Songbird Garden (not featured):
https://www.songbird-survival.org.uk/what-we-do/campaigns/chelsea/chelsea-flower-show-the-plants

The Boodles Raindance Garden – not available

The Pathway Garden:

Chelsea 2025

0:00 Intro
0:35 Eastern Avenue – Trade Stands
1:04 Freckleface
1:40 Deborah-Maire Nelson
2:15 Curated Living
2:45 CHIVE
3:09 Michael Michaud Jewellery
4:10 Happy Cabbage
4:14 Moloh
4:43 The Oxford Shirt Company
5:18 Felco
7:43 Titania Living
9:05 The Great British Bee Co
9:11 Atlantic Mats
9:27 The Chelsea Cough
9:47 Chiltern Seeds
10:05 Map
10:17 The Large Show Gardens
10:23 The Hospitalfield Arts Garden
12:53 The Avondale Intelligent Garden
14:16 The King’s Trust Garden: Seeding Success
15:13 Cha no Niwa – Tea Garden
15:55 The Glasshouse Garden
16:49 The Great Pavilion
17:01 Kitchen Grden Plant Centre
17:09 Miles Japanese Maples
17:15 In The Garden
17:31 Ray J Evison
17:50 Alpine Grden Society
18:08 David Austin Roses
20:37 The Monument
21:03 She Grows Veg
23:22 Trinidad & Tobago Tropical Flowers & Foliage
23:29 Blackmore & Langdon Begonias & Delphineums
23:41 Jonathan Sheppard – British Cosmos
24:00 Bowdens Hostas
24:28 Floristry
27:20 Federation of British Bonsai Society
27:37 Plant of the Year
31:00 Smaller Show Gardens
31:19 The Boodles Raindance Garden
31:30 The Wildlife Trusts’ British Rain Forest Garden
31:56 Seawilding
32:26 Children with Cancer UK ‘A Place to Be.. ‘
33:06 Down‘s Syndrome Scotland Garden
34:16 The London Square Chelsea Pensioner’s Garden
35:17 The Addleshaw Goddard: Freedon to Flourish Garden
36:50 Tackle HIV Challenging Stigma Garden
37:27 The British Red Cross ‘Here for Humanity’Garden
38:34 Killik & Co ‘Save for a Rainy Day’ Garden
40:11 The Pathway Garden
41:07 Star Trees
42:40 Shopping
42:31 Sofas & Stuff
43:07 Bamford
44:11 Sophie Allport
44:38 Brillig & Borogove
45:31 Lucie Annabel
45:42 The RHS and BBC Radio 2 Garden
49:07 Thank you & Goodbye!

Summer is here. It’s a beautiful day. And the excitement is palpable as gardeners, florists, and lovers of all things green from all over the world converge in 2025 on this stage to celebrate this floral extravaganza. And we’d love to have you join us. Hello and welcome to Murphy’s Garden. and you join me today at the fabulous Chelsea Flower Show. So come with us as we explore. I’m here as always with my daughter Olivia and she can lead the way down Eastern Avenue. This treelined avenue is also lined during Chelsea week with the most beautiful shops displaying their wares related to all things botanical. Incidentally, all the trade stands are judged and so standards as you would expect are of the highest and many rival the show gardens in their execution and detail. They look so beautiful. So, let’s have a taste of some of the things on offer and what caught our eye. This is Freckleface, a familyrun business, and we thoroughly enjoyed chatting to them and hearing their passion about their beautiful botanical fragrances for the home. Based in Lincolnshire, their products are stocked in over 800 shops, but of course, everything can be ordered on their website. The products are all vegan, ethical, plastic-free, and locally sourced here in Britain. The candles are decorated with dried botanical mixes and I was so excited to discover it. This is from the flower farm in Shroptshire which we visited last summer. Reasonably priced we thought these pick a mix wax melts make a beautiful gift and we particularly love the colored glass melters. And of course this one called me. This is my kind of stall as I love dried and pressed fl of any kind. And look how good these dried flowers look displayed against this dark indigo background. The stall displayed dried flowers and herbs, wreaths, and these beautiful little botanical pieces of art. And I just love the way that she presented the stall. It’s just stunning. It looks so so good. And I love even the way she’s stuck little dried flower stems on the wall with some tip. Um just looked beautiful. I loved it. The next one called Curated Living was full of lovely fabrics including botanical prints. There’s a stripe here, but there’s also some lovely botanical ones. Um, tea towels, tablecloths, also got jewelry. I love these earrings. They’re just lovely. And they also had little earthwear products, ceramics, um, glassear. These little skewers were really cute. But what I loved more than anything with these, um, look at the little botanical um, imprints on the side. Very nice. Based in Toronto, San Diego, and Birmingham, Chive aims to keep you on the edge of your gardening seat with mind-blowing avongguard design. It was, of course, these vibrant handcrafted ceramic flowers that caught our attention. But the collection also consists of vasees, terrariums, and pots, too. And a nice way to display my renunculars if and when they do eventually flour. Anyone out there looking for the perfect gift to mark a special occasion for the botanical enthusiast in their life? Then look no further. This jewelry collection captures the beauty and exquisite detail of nature using soft patas on bronze accented with pearls, beads, semi-precious stones to create stunning botanical jewelry. Michael perfected his craft of jewelry making, working in New York and living in the beautiful Connecticut countryside, surrounded by natural beauty and his two passions blended together to create this jewelry collection. Each piece is handcrafted and cast from the actual plant using a technique similar to lost wax casting, creating true to nature botanical jewelry, including rings, earrings, pendants, necklaces, brooches, tie pins, and cuff links. There really is something for everyone who loves nature. And I thought for Chelsea the prices weren’t too prohibitive and were quite reasonable considering the clear workmanship and detail involved in each piece which were each of them was just lovely. Someone once asked me the question, can I wear jeans to Chelsea? And the answer is that although there is officially no dress code, it is an occasion and so most people do try and make an effort. After all, for us gardeners, it’s an opportunity to scrub up and get out of our gardening scrubs for one day in the year. and dressing up is fun and it’s an unwritten mark of respect and thanks for all the effort that the exhibitors go to for us. Floral prints are definitely the theme along with comfortable shoes. Perhaps a difficult look to pull off. But if you’re struggling, then these stalls show us how it’s done well. And chaps, there’s no excuse for you not to get on message to look at the array of floral shirts here on offer. But it’s not all about glamour and appearances. And once Chelsea is over, we’ll be back to work in our gardens. And having the right tools and equipment is very much key to performing gardening tasks efficiently and well. Chelsea showcases some of the leading brands in this field from Henchman, Nwaki, Silky Saws, Spear and Jackson, and many more. But for those of you that follow my channel, you will know my favorite gardening companion, as well as Murphy, of course, are my trusted go-to Felos. So I’m with Barry from Felco who’s going to demonstrate how to sharpen our Felcos because we’ve all got Felcos and they’re invaluable. So let’s see. So sharpening the Felco, it’s nice and easy. So basically with a diamond seal stone, you take the angle. So if I come a little bit closer. So place the stone onto the aluminum on the side of the beveled edge of the blade. You reach around to the blade and just lift up slightly so you’re not rubbing on this part here. Once you’ve got that angle, that’s the correct angle for sharpening. And then you just push through and over the blade. And you can sort of hear that slight scissor sound as you go across. You do that about three or four times. And then once you’ve done that, you flip the seer around and about a five degree angle, take it off the bur off the back. So 23° on the front, which will be about that. Open over and then 5° on the back. And that keeps them nice and sharp. How often should you sharpen them? So once you start to notice the um blades not as efficient or as easy as as easy as cutting or you’re getting slight tears when you’re cutting, it’s time to give them a sharpen. The other thing is to keep them clean. So bit of um WD14 um a brillow pad. Clean both sides of the blades, get the sap and all the mud off. And also clean the sap groove, which is this part in here. Keep that nice and clean. And the top and inside the don’t sharpen that that and you don’t sharpen. We do get a few people that do sharpen but that will always leave sort of a gap where it won’t cut. So it’s only the blade that you sharpen. Right. Good to know. Thank you. I will do that when I go home. Enjoy the rest of Chelsea. Thank you for showing. Thank you. Bye. If you’re new to gardening then you will need some secretaries and buying Felicas will last you a lifetime so long as you don’t lose them. They sell quite a range and mine are model 6 which are compact and comfortable for smaller hands. If you’ve got bigger hands then consider model 2 original or model 11 but their website explains more and you can select what you want to use them for your hand size whether or not you’re left or right-handed and it will select the perfect ones for you. So I’m with Katherine from Tatana and she’s going to tell us a little bit about her beautiful stand and her beautiful products. Thank you. So our main business is the garden umbrellas which are based on traditional Indian ones but rather than the traditional ones which are all made of cotton which sadly fade and mildew quite easily. We’ve reimagined them all in um and they’re manufactured in contemporary fabrics. So they’re in a polyester which doesn’t sound very romantic but it’s very very practical. So it’s a polyester taffeta lining and then on the outside it’s a polyester canvas. Um and we’ve got eight different options of nine actually this year. Now we’ve got a new sweet pea. Um we’ve got nine different options of prints and then they come in two sizes. Um and they’re just a little bit of joy and because the print is on the un underneath um you know you sort of arrive and your little part is happening around the dining table. Um and they don’t interfere in the garden because we’ve got the canvas on the outside which is natural. So whatever time of year they don’t look wrong. You know that’s quite simple and understated. Will they withstand the British weather? Well that’s the that’s the whole idea. So we’ve worked really hard to get the fabrics right and we’ve had the polyesters woven especially and then we buy the frame is a FSC uh eucalyptus um from the Far East. So we’ve married various different components to get the perfect product. Brilliant. Beautiful. Thank you very much. Pleasure. Thank you. And like bees round a honeypot. Lots of women at this stall. I couldn’t really get looking at what they sell unfortunately. And if you want to up your game with your doormat, after all, first impressions count, then this company does an RHS Bloom range. And you’ll be sure to find a color range to coordinate with your home decor. They’re absolutely lovely and a statement in their own right. You will notice in this shot how everyone is coughing and wiping their eyes. And what no one tells you is that the beautiful plain trees on Eastern Avenue give off an orange dust causing sneezing, itchy eyes and uncontrollable coughing fits. Known by regulars as the Chelsea cough. It was fine in the morning but by the afternoon it seemed to affect nearly everybody. Just something to be aware of if you have asthma, hay fever, or other respiratory issues. And this is the children’s seed stand. Very, very busy doing a very brisk trade. Uh we did come back a little bit later when it was a little bit quieter, but not much quieter. Um and they had a lovely stand. So we will leave Eastern Avenue and go and look at some of the show gardens which are located on Main Avenue and Royal Hospital Way. There really is so much to see and so we’re just going to cover some of the gardens and features that caught our eye. There are six large show gardens and the first one which we made a beline for is by Nigel Dunnet, Olivia’s tutor at Sheffield University who teaches horicultural ecology. Throughout his career, Nigel has been responsible for advancing the drive to make gardens and landscapes more sustainable in a changing climate which not only look beautiful but are rich in biodiversity. He invited us into the garden and chatted to us at length and is a wealth of knowledge. His role in teaching the next generation of landscape architects is every bit as important to him as his other work. Recognizing that affecting long-term change is a job beyond one person’s lifetime and must be progressed by future generations. Nigel created the pictorial meadow mix which many of you will be aware of and we saw a few years ago at Chelsea and which has been used so successfully in so many applications. This garden was designed for hospital field arts which is contemporary art center based in our broth on the east coast of Scotland to support young artists to help them develop their careers. Taking inspiration from the surrounding sandunes the garden seeks to reimagine the setting through the eyes of an artist or a sculptor. The striking feature within this garden are the ribs which aren’t metal as they seem, but rather wood painted with iron filings. The gaps were filled with sand, gravel, or other mineral materials with no compost in sight, creating drought tolerant planting. The ribs create microclimates to allow an array of plants to be grown in the crevices. Planting is predominantly deep green, gaucus gray or gray green, and is made up of tough Mediterranean or coastal plants. Some of the feature plants in this garden included lameus or junrass, geranium palmatum or canary island geranium, lagastroia or create myrtle aria or thrift and cystus which is rock rose and cystus has been very out of fashion but this drlerant evergreen shrub was seen in this garden and in Tom Hoblin’s hospice garden of compassion and each pink flower with a large deep red blotch at its center lasts only for a day but they’re produced in profusion in early summer and thrive on poor soil in full sun. Suds or sustainable urban drainage systems I know is something Nigel talks a lot about to his students and how not to only manage rain water but to collect it and utilize every drop effectively. And here we see Nigel practicing what he preaches. There’s no plastic use in the garden and the pond has been created using clay puddling techniques. The paving gently undulates, creating an invisible rail which channels excess water back into the pond. And the sand acts like a wick, wicking water up to the plants above. All clever stuff. And speaking of clever stuff, the next garden, the Avanid intelligent garden by Tom Massie and Gian, sponsored by Avanid and Microsoft. This garden utilizes technology to monitor the garden. We all know that trees are allies in combating climate change, filtering pollution, cooling the air, supporting wildlife, and boosting well-being. But despite good intention, 50% of newly planted trees do not survive beyond 10 years, and up to 30% dying in their first year. Most trees reach their ecological peak at around 50 years old. So, planting new trees is not enough. Caring for them is vital. This garden uses sensors that track tree health, including sap flow, soil conditions, air quality, and weather patterns. AI analyzes the data, spotting trends, and informing the custodian of potential issues such as over or underwatering. The aim being to remove the guest work out of tree care and encouraging a two-way conversation with trees, thus gaining a deeper understanding of them whilst retaining essential human interaction in their physical care and management. Another innovative but very beautiful Chelsea garden from these two again this year and they’re always at the cutting edge of design. This QR code which will also be in the description. If you click on it, it will link to all the information you need all about this garden. It really is quite clever. The King’s Trust Garden Seeding Success represents the link seeds and young people have. It showcases how plants can adapt, grow, and flourish in challenging environments and represents how if given the right support, young people can overcome adversity and go on to thrive. The charity helps young people gain experiences to help them get into work. And the steel and glass weave through the garden is an artistic representation of seed dispersal, symbolizing social mobility. Similar in planting style to Nigel’s garden, the plants are chosen for their resilience and many are pioneering species which germinate, flour and set seed within a single season. Plants include trees such as pinus structural shrubs such as fyeria and other plants such as poppies, dorcus, aliums, breezia, leneria and nigella. But a full list can be obtained by clicking on the QR code in the description as I will do for as many of the gardens as I can. The next garden is a traditional Japanese tea garden designed as a place of quiet reflection and to feel fully immersed in the beauty of nature and be inspired by its living art. The garden is designed as a place not just for people to commune with nature, but also to forge connections with one another. Composition is everything in a Japanese garden. Elevations play with our sense of perspective and create depth. And the use of stones echo the mountains and hills. Boulders interact with the planting in an interesting way and serve as wayfinding tools, guiding visitors through the space. As you would expect in a Japanese garden, acers dominate, adding bursts of red amongst the otherwise lush green planting. The Glass House Garden by Joe Thompson is a follow-on from last year’s Chelsea when many of us first became aware of this charity and its great work in helping women who are reaching the end of their prison sentence learn new skills, gain employment, and resettlement support. It has a 0% reaffending rate and demonstrates the power of horiculture. The garden celebrates the transformative effect of second chances through horiculture. It’s an immersive space centered around a translucent pavilion that emerges from the foliage. The planting is full of sensory delights, strong jewelike colors, fragrant plants, and the sound of water. The planting consists of beautiful birch trees, bachula, niigra, ferns, grasses, and some stunning roses. The colors and plants symbolize a strength through beauty. I love the use of the copper beach, the um Vegas Levatica aturia domes, which create a lovely contrast to the planting in front. Let’s leave the show gardens for now and head into the great pavilion. The Great Pavilion is full of dazzling displays from the nation’s finest nurseries. So, let’s go and see what there is to see in here. This display is by the Kitchen Garden Plant Center. Everything here is edible, but how beautiful it looks, too. And if it’s not here, it’s not worth knowing about. Most plants are represented here. And here we have Japanese Maples and lots of house plants. This is a company called In the Garden, and it’s got such an array of beautiful house plants. and they’ll be experts in their field. So if you have any questions, they’re the ones to ask. And this stall is interesting. Gernzie horiculturalist Raymond Everson has won his 35th gold medal at the RHS Chelsea Flow. He is now 81 and still performing on a gold level. These clemetists look absolutely incredible. And if you haven’t got a garden, um, then why not create a garden in miniature and this company show us how this can be done on a micro level. Isn’t it sweet? Um, you can really feel yourself getting into this little scene and getting in with all the little characters in the garden. And one of the things most people come for is the David Austin stand, rose stand. And this year it just looks stunning. They’ve got arches full of white roses. Some of them are rambling recctor and the pink, very pale pink rose is queen of Sweden. And the two together look so romantic and so delicate and just beautiful. Um they’re not all rambling recctor. They they do vary going up. That one’s rambling recctor which is a lovely rose. um met a lady, two ladies actually when we’re having our lunch and they had come from Germany to see the David Austin roses. Um they’ve got a reputation worldwide. And this one looks quite similar to the Rambling Recctor, but it’s called Frances E. Lester. Let’s have a look at that one close up with a lovely yellow stamon. And this is the Danahue rose introduced I think not last year but the year before I think it was in this collection. We’ve got the dark pink one which is Gabrielle Oak on the right is Elizabeth um the pale pink one and then the pale pink one at the top is called Mary Delani all beautiful roses and here is Emma Bridgewater which was introduced this time last year at Chelsea and it’s a rose which is pink on the outside but it goes into a lovely yellow color on the inside and this all leads up to the buildup is to the new rose for this here which is the king’s rose. And this is it. To be honest with you, I wasn’t terribly sure of it. When I saw a picture of it, I wasn’t sure whether I liked it. But seeing it in real life, is actually really, really beautiful. It’s got this kind of raspberry ripple effect of two tones, pink and white, which is what I wasn’t too sure about. Um, and then it’s got a yellow center, but seeing it in reality, I really do like it. And it um has been 12 years in the making. Here it is here. And here are some of the other ones just to see them in comparison. And another fabulous stand. It must be really difficult for them to keep coming up with original content to produce standards as high as the last year, but every year they managed to pull it off. So hopefully they can relax for a bit before they begin planning next year’s stand. And we really must go and visit again because um David Austin Roses is located in Shroptshire, not very far from us. So, it’ be a really lovely um video to go and do. At the heart of the great pavilion is the monument and this year’s display celebrates the work of brilliant British nurseries and represents a grinding walk in nature. Visitors are invited to walk through manicured avenues of clipped u around a formal real then wander into woodlands over highlands and then onto a vibrant herbaceous border. A collaborative installation between four nurseries and designed by Maxmillian Parker Smith. A big treat now for all you vegetable growers. This is probably one of my favorite things at Chelsea this year. I love growing vegetables and I love things to look good and this installation tick both these boxes. Often vegetable growing in the past has been something that’s been tucked away out of sight from the main garden, but this display turned all that on its head. And if you haven’t got room for a dedicated vegetable patch, then simply incorporate edibles into your garden. And as you can see, edibles look ornamental in their own right. She grows Veg is a company dedicated to making vegetable gardening accessible and enjoyable for everyone. They offer a wide range of heirloom vegetables, fruit, and edible flour seeds, ensuring that gardeners can grow unique and high quality produce. Their seed subscription provide monthly deliveries of seasonal appropriate seeds complete with growing guides and resources. She grows veg emphasize eco-friendly practices and supports gardeners of all skill levels with no jargon advice. Their commitment to sustainability and education help gardeners achieve a beautiful zero miles harvest from any size of growing space. And don’t these vegetables just look incredible? The quality is phenomenal. And the skill of getting them ready in time for May. I mean, the work that must have been involved in that and I bet a lot of stress was involved. But just to give you a little bit of background on the company. So Lucy was the founder. She started an Instagram account about seven years ago posting pictures of all her heirloom varieties of vegetables that she was growing. Um this kind of blew up on Instagram. She was then joined by Kate. Kate came from a a marketing and strategy background and a love of cooking. So the partnership was formed and um and look at the the result. So, they’re producing these beautiful seeds and um oh, look at the marketing. All the the pictures and everything look incredible. Looks so lovely and so well presented. So, the two of them together um this business is just going to skyrocket. It looks fabulous. And um I’m definitely going to try out some new varieties next year. It’s a little bit late for some things. I did buy some lettucees and radishes, but I like the look of these um cucumbers, dragon’s egg cucumbers. and from exotic vegetables to exotic flowers. And look at all the colors and forms of these. And now we’ll move on to this is sensory overload. Now we’ve got blues of delphiniums and all the beonas in various shades of whites, reds, yellows, and oranges. And onto cosmos, which many of us grow in our gardens. And there’s quite an array now of different colored cosmos. uh these apricot colors and even the shapes can vary to these um cupcakes seen here at the back. Um so lots of different ways and ways to experiment with cosmos and you can get ones that are kind of more bushy and ones that grow taller. And after all the color overload we come to Bowdens and the calming influence of hostas and hostas look great in those woodland areas in the shitty nooks and crannies of our gardens. And also really really good to grow in pots. In fact, growing in pots is often easier because you can control any problems that you may have with slugs if they’re in the ground. So there’s some beautiful ones here. And as well as the gardens and the plants, Chelsea Flower Show is all about florestry as well. And here Poppy Surley demonstrates how florestry can be done without the need for oasis and rather using chicken wire can be very effective at creating these wonderful arrangements. So these are the kind of tools that you need. A bit of chicken wire and a vase and then you start to introduce some shape into the arrangement with mostly kind of greenery. Here she’s used some sweet pea as well. And then she’s adding a bit of depth and volume with some of the bigger flowers. And that’s looking lovely. And then she’s moving on to sort of layering, putting some more layers in to create a bit more interest. She’s adding some highlights here. And then finally in the final one, she’s adding some things like loopins to add a little bit of movement to the arrangement. and that just looks incredible. So, we’ll go now and have a look at some of the floral exhibits in this category. This one entitled Botanical Bliss, a tapestry of texture, and it exemplifies masterful florestry through hand tied bouquets that celebrate the richness of nature. Isn’t it stunning? And the next one is called Love Our Rivers. And this is using dried flowers, which must be a lot easier to do in the pavilion. I do wonder how the fresh flowers managed to stay so fresh throughout the whole week cuz we’re here on the Friday so they’ve been here for quite some time but they still look relatively fresh. If you look at this one they they all seem to be quite fresh still. And this one was by Plantology um which is a florist in Sheffield which I have visited with Olivia. So that was nice to see them being represented at um Chelsea this year. And everyone’s so very different. All the different forms, different shapes, the creativity to come up with these ideas. Uh look at this. This is a seed. And that lovely really kind of modern looking. And this is called lunar texture. I think when you study them in close detail, there’s a lot of little vasees hidden out of view. And I guess that’s how they do it. But you know from a physics point of view trying to assemble all of this is quite a feat really. Um a lot of skill involved in this and I have great admiration for these florists that can do this. This is humid house. So a real top tropical take on florestry and this one is um very modern humus using um sprayed branches and leaves and things. I think wild nest using lovely renunculars. And we’ll head now through the marquee just passing this beautiful bonsai stall. And look at the aelia is definitely the star of this stand. Um the color is very intense. But we’ll head now to the RHS stand to find out the much coveted plant of the year. When choosing any new plants for your garden, if you choose plants that have got AGM award, you know they’re good plants. But if a plant has been either nominated for or has won the plant of the year, you know it’s fantastic. And these are the plants on this year’s list. And the prestigious award of plant of the year goes to this Philadelphia petite perfume pink breeder Alan Posel. And it’s the first truly pink flood Philadelphia. It’s got these deep pink fragrance flowers which fade to pale with dark pink centers and it’s really really lovely but it’s the exciting because it’s the first pink one and that’s why it won. And there were two plants awarded second place and one is the Salvia tropical sunrise and the other is hosta silly strings. So let’s have a look at the salvia. So the salvia has a unique color combination for the salvia marker. It’s got a vibrant orange red petal which contrasts with coppery yellow centers and it has deep green leaves but the striking thing about them is that they have purple unders sides which were lovely. The other plant that got second place was the hosta silly strings and it was unique um has these unique blue leaves with intensely wavy margins forming a cascading mind of foliage with pale purple flower spikes in summer. So quite unusual. Here are a few of the other nominations. All great plants with great characteristics. This is an agapanthus. And what’s unusual about it? It’s got broad dark green leaves stre with creamy yellow and edged by golden yellow margins. And it has violet flowers on tall stems. This is stptoarpus Betty grown in Britain as a house plant and it’s a very compact shape and it flowers all year round and it has these large sky blue purple flowers and a very upright habit and strong stems. This is Dewoutia pretty stars pink cloud and grown for its profuse flowering compact ballshaped habit. A lovely little plant. Raffyus indica white cloud. I’ve never heard of this plant. This is quite an unusual compact evergreen shrub with minded habit and prolific white fragrant flage over a long period and it’s exceptionally resilient to drought and cold. And another salvia mix onto the list and this is Salvia peach malba which boasts brilliant blooms of peachy salmon bycolor flowers with pink tips from spring into deep autumn. This is a hemorrhalis or a dilly called see you tomorrow. Call so as day lily flowers usually only last for one day but this one can last up to seven days. Prunis crystal falls is an outstanding hardy winterflowering cherry with unique densely double dainty pure white flowers. Doesn’t look much here because it’s not in flour but it’s stunning. And one for all you hydrangeanger lovers. This is fairy trail white um called so because it has mop headshaped flowers on long trailing stems at every leaf node covering the entire plant. And a rodendum this one called pink star. It’s got these deep reddish pink flowers. Extraordinary because it has 20 to 30 petals on each. So we’ll leave the marquee now and go and have a look at some more show gardens. But before we do, we’ll just have a little um rest on here and just um rest the old feet for a bit before we head on. So, we’ll head now to some of the smaller show gardens. And there are over 30 gardens in total at the show. Over 30. So, we can’t possibly do all of them. And we certainly can’t do all of them justice. So, we’ll just have a glance at some of them. The Boodles Rain Dance Garden. I thought this was a very feminine, very pretty and very sophisticated planting palette of pinks, blues, and whites, and it just sparkled with the metallic structure. With dapple sunlight and flowing water, this evocative garden rekindles the wild, wet woodlands that once swayd our landscape along the West Coast. It’s an expression of the Wildlife Trust’s 100year ambition to return rainforest to the UK. In this mossy fernf fil dell, ka slip, hazel, blue bells, and marshmar thrive beneath the birches. And from a woodland forest to Scotland’s rural west coast, home of the charity Sea Wilding, the UK’s first community-led native oyster and seaggrass restoration project. I really like the clever construction of this garden using stones laid on their side to provide the edges to this deep pond. The sculpture is of seaggrass and through a viewing window. Visitors can also glimpse the thriving underwater world dense with tendrils of seaggrass which is our only native ocean plant left. Children living with cancer can escape the rigors and routines of their treatment when immersed in this garden designed to feel embraced by nature away from the world of doctors, nurses, and worrying parents. It’s a place to be carefree. Children can ride or meander along one of the paths which leads through lush immersive planting to the refuge of the nest. This clever construction made of recycled acrylic wrapped in steamed hazel is the perfect hideaway. Planting of deep burgundies and pinks graduates along the path into greens and whites as the children approach the calming zone around the nest and plants are tactile and aromatic and the addition of water adds to the calming effect. This garden celebrates the characteristic qualities of compassion and empathy of people with Down syndrome and their positivity and determination. Visitors are transported to a semi-wood glade containing elements of fun and surprise. Crazy paving paths wine through naturalistic planting and a secret water spray concealed within a water cauldron adds an element of fun and mischief. Around the cauldron, the planting consists of cerseiums on the left. We’ve got some peies. We’ve got some digital. So we’ve got some pericaria. And these are aliums. These are called alium balgarakum. I believe I’ve got some of those. And this is valyium afficionalis. There’s also a ground level water pool with a hidden walkway just beneath the surface. And that represents barriers and misconceptions that people with down syndrome face. The um alium bulgarams seem to be attracting lots and lots of bees. It’s cover. They’re covered in them and we are seeing these aliums pop up in lots of the gardens and as I say these and the cersium seem very popular with bees and this lovely tree is bula The flash of scarlet through the soft pallet of planting is clue to what this garden is all about. This is the Chelsea pensioners garden. The Chelsea pensioners themselves help develop the linked hands layout of the circular entrance and exit path which evokes an important gesture of new friendship and connectiveness. Climate resilient trees such as perotia persa vanessa which is the one we’ve got at home. Persian ironwood um are in this garden and planting is quite similar to the last one. lots of kind of wood wood woodland plants um fox gloves um valerium afficionalis and lots of things like that really but it’s this scarlet I think that makes this garden very very striking and it’s the Chelsea pensioners who call the RHS Chelsea showground their backyard so I’ll just show you um the backdrop to to this setting and behind where Olivia stands is Royal Hospital Chelsea This next garden we absolutely loved and from a construction point of view it’s really really complex when you start to study it. So um one of the main trees in this garden is hepticodium minoenoides which is the tree that we have at home commonly known as seven sunflower tree. If you’re interested in this tree we did do a video all about it and when we at the time we planted it. So have a look at that. Inspired by the wisdom of a Norfolk colloquialism, slow you down, this island garden advocates patience and stillness as part of our daily rhythm. A slowly rising pull represents the incoming tide of busyiness and eventually leaving the visitor cut off in an oasis of botanical beauty. A precious point of calm within life’s turbulence. Planted entirely in gravel, the scheme favors native wild flowers and herbaceous perennials from Norfick’s hedge and coastal habitats. Things like sea kill, red vin dock, and sea daisies all pay tribute to the distinctive landscape of salt marshes, golden fields, and pockets of ancient woodland. A soothing palette of lilac, indigo, and peach is grounded in the sandy tones of the hepticodium minoenoides, and drifts of tactile faring flowering grasses. The secluded seating area on the garden island is defined by reclaimed sheet pile steel while gibians filled with natural materials represent craggy coastal cliffs. A creative interpretation of nature’s call to embrace an unhurried pace. This garden reminds us to find calm amidst the complexity of our modern lives. This dainty little white flower is Olaya and we’re seeing it pop up frequently in several of the gardens. And here it is in the HIV challenging stigma garden. Hexagonal paving references the key molecular structure found within many of the HIV medications and is also referred to in the unusual hexagonal growth of Kokoia XA frosted chocolate, a shrub with delicate star-shaped fl. A pair of tree statues fashioned from recycled aluminium serves as a solemn tribute to life’s lost to HIV. Plants planted in a colorful canvas represent hope and water represents a transition to a healthy life. The British Cross has been helping people in crisis for over 150 years, providing safety and sanctuary to those who need them most. And here, the humanity garden reminds us of the power of hope at a time when their work is needed more than ever. The garden offers a contemporary twist on an alpine garden where every plant tells the story of resilience, kindness, and hope. Large interlocking hexagonal columular stone planters, each unique, fit together harmoniously, referencing the Red Cross’s global humanitarian movement. Trees include varieties including pines, larch, and mountain ash. Swiss pine, pinus sra, is a reference to Swiss finder Henry Dunant. Being from Northern Ireland, this landscape was immediately reminiscent of the giants causeway where the geological phenomenon of columnular jointing is formed. The build of this garden must have been incredibly complicated. Working on so many levels using water. It’s um structurally very very complex and the result is very very impressive. It looks incredible. Set 25 years in the future, this garden is a celebration of preparation and resilience in the face of a changing climate. Designed to withstand unpredictable weather patterns, it symbolizes thoughtful planning and navigates life’s challenges. Rain water is collected, redirected, and stored, reflecting how, with a little bit of foresight, we can weather life’s unpredictability. The garden is planted with futureproof trees, recognizing that traditional natives such as oaks and birches may have to migrate north. Trees such as prunis machi, cretagus lavelli and zelova serarata may be more suitable to southern parts of Great Britain. Walls and foundations have been 3D printed and cantalver troughs are suspended above the seating area channeling rainwater through a stone arch and into ascending pools below. This garden blends a beloved cottage garden style of the past with climate ready pragmatism. Silkova serata is a tree that we saw when we visited RHS Bridgewater. Um, and it’s a really impressive tree. It’s just by the visitor center as you come into the garden and it looked absolutely beautiful. Um, I think the tree here on the right is the is definitely the cretagus. Um, there’s lots of pines as well in this garden as we’re seeing in most of the gardens. I think pine trees are definitely coming back into fashion again. Yeah, this is the um Hawthorne Lavlli. And then just over here, I think this is the Zelova Serata. Yes, that’s it there. I believe our final garden in the smaller show garden category is the pathway garden. And this aims to raise awareness of the dangers faced by homeless people. Poor health outcomes for homeless people means that the average age of death for women is just 43 and 45 for men. Pathway teams aim to support people experiencing homelessness by improving access to health outcomes. At the heart of this garden is a bold commitment to sustainability. Upcycled steel and reclaimed timber come together in a pergola representing shelter. Coppist hazel forms the bindary screen representing regrowth and mycelium structures are growing on w from last year’s RHS shows. Boulders interrupt the path in places symbolizing setbacks. Plants included are oln coralus ailana osmanthus buck woody geranium maculatum beth chatau kix grasses and there are over 360 ferns in this garden. I always like to look out for trees that make an impression at each show at Chelsea and as well as the Zulova Serata which I’ve already mentioned. The other tree that really stood out for me was seen outside the Alatex greenhouse exhibit on the eastern side of the pavilion and was this elegant multi- stem tree called Chioanthus Retus also known as Chinese fringe tree. Paul Cook RHS curator from Harlo car says this is a great tree. It has wonderful delica white flowers that are long lasting. It’s easy to grow, but hardly anyone does. It’s resilient and will survive in the north of the UK as well as the south. And it’s really easy to look after as a tree or a shrub. It also has wonderful bark and lovely yellow leaves in autumn. And there are lots more gardens. There are the balcony and container gardens up that way. But I think we’ll leave that for another video and perhaps do a video all about small space ideas from the Chelsea Flower Show because there are lots. But just check out this man made of pots. Isn’t he lovely? And his little dog sitting here too with his little potty ears. And this is just a little like a little potting shed. Um it’s just lovely. So beautifully done. But I think for now we need a little bit more retail therapy. So, let’s go and have an ugle at all these beautiful things on offer to buy and dream of having thousands of pounds and we could go on a a spending splurge in here. I think this is sofas and stuff and they are here every year at Chelsea. We’ve seen them before. Their products are beautiful. Um sofas um got a kind of velvety color. We’ve got stripes and then there are lots of botanical themed prints. Um I particularly like these peachy colors. Peach and green look so good together. And um this one looks gorgeous. Look at the print on that. Isn’t that lovely? All the planting schemes and everything all around the show and all the little areas around the shops everywhere just are done exquisitely. Really, really nicely. And this is um Bamford, which is a spa brand um celebrating 20 years of making signature scents. And all the scents here are made from peloniums. I think they’ve got some bath essence, hence the bath. And then they’ve got candles. And the display was done very nicely. If you’ve got money to burn, then literally this is the brand for you. This candle, this big candle on the left was 200. So, um I’m not sure I would light it if I owned that. But we did get some free samples, which was lovely. And I particularly loved the way they displayed the some of their brands and things here. Um, if you just look at the shelves at the back, look how they’ve got the silver birch branch running through the shelves. I thought that was a really nice touch. And the other thing that was lovely was this. Look at this place setting. All pelagonium leaves. And the color is is really nice. Imagine having that as an outdoor party. But at the party, we wouldn’t be able to eat anything because somebody might spill something on my nice tablecloth. And here are more tablecloths. This is Sophie Oldport. Um, similar color theme actually. Um, all these greens. Oh, I love this. This is nice, too. Plates, bowls, cups, um, cushions, rows, everything that you could possibly want to give your house and garden that, um, lovely botanical theme. Oh my gosh, I love this. This lovely quilt. Isn’t that gorgeous? Oh, I like that. And the very last stall that I spotted just as we were leaving. This is Brillig and Borugov. Um, look at this wallpaper on the left. Oh, I love that. I love a botanical themed wallpaper. Not so keen on the poppy one. That might be a bit too much, but love this one. So, I went in to inquire. Um, it’s very pricey, but my justification would be if you use very expensive wallpaper on one very small area, just on one like a chimney breast, then you don’t need any more than that. And it looks really, really good. And it pulls all the the rest of the um the room in. And you can do all the color themes accented elsewhere. That’s my justification. I’ll try that one on my husband and see if he wears it cuz I do really like this. And they’ve got some of these little botanical prints as well, which look really lovely, too. And if you’re on the lookout for nice botanical wallpaper like me, then this is another one that we saw. This is by Lucy Annabelle and it’s called Chulip Garden, Sweet Pink and Olive on Cream. and you can claim three free samples um with this QR code. But there is one last garden that we were able to go into and explore and that was the RHS and BBC Radio 2 dog garden which is apt as we are a gardening and dog channel. This was a feature garden and so wasn’t Judge. The concept and ideas for the garden came from Monty’s own garden at Long Meadow and his experiences of living with dogs in a garden. He wanted a lawn and planting that consisted of only native varieties. The plants are also ones that can easily be sourced from local nurseries. Jamie Butterworth designed and created the garden and we were really fortunate to meet him and talk to him about this garden. He and Chris Batra are my gardening heroes and so although I would have liked to get a photo with him, I was under strict instructions to be cool and not embarrass my daughter. In case you don’t know who he is, Jeremy is an award-winning gardener. He was a finalist on BBC 3’s Young Gardener of the Year, aged just 16. He co-founded Young Hort which encouraged more young people into gardening and he founded form plants in 2020 after becoming frustrated at not being able to find the right plants. He made history at RHS Chhatzsworth when he won all four accolades, a gold medal, best in show, best in construction and people’s choice in 2019. He then went on to win his first gold medal at the Chelsea Flower Show in 2022. He’s been doing a bit of presenting on Gardener’s World and if the BBC have any sense, he should be in line to take over for Monty when he retired. In my opinion, he is a breath of fresh air and everything this industry really needs. He invited Olivia to go and visit the nursery and was approachable, kind, and very generous with his time. All the volunteers had only wonderful things to say about him, so keep a close eye out for him as he’s destined to go far. Incidentally, he’s just got a new book out called What Grows Together. Anyway, back to the garden. There are 4,000 plants including quite common plants like Salvas, GMs, Nepitas, poppies, poppy, papavar, Laurens’s grape um was used and it really does pop all over the garden. He had intended to use aliums, but they were starting to go over and this actually worked really well. The trees are native varieties. Meddlers, corners, cursor, dogwood, field maple, hornbeam, and the brick paths meander in the way a dog would meander through the garden. The lawn isn’t perfect, but rather a bit scruffy and muddy, but a place for dogs to have fun in. And like we saw in Joe Thompson’s garden, Jamie’s using Fusatica or beach, copper beach and green beach to as um ball shapes dotted throughout the herbaceious planting. And I think this looks really, really good. I love the um purple against the with little, you know, accentuates the purple in the herbaceious planting. Look really really lovely. I think that’s a great idea. And lots of water in this garden too. Somewhere for the dogs to um dip in and out of when it gets a little bit hot or to have a little drink. And the other thing that was a really nice touch um just by the um the little house, the little shed, there was this um running water little dog bowl. I thought that was lovely. And I can just imagine Murphy stopping to have a little drink there. And of course somewhere nice to go and sit both inside and then on this chair with nice cushions, nice informal cushions. You can sit and have a little cuddle on the bench with your beloved dog. So, as you can see, we’ve had a wonderful day here at the Chelsea Flower Show. And come and join us back home when we return home. And see you in the next video. Bye for now. [Music]