Text by Virginia Clak
Cancelled in 2020 and postponed until autumn in 2021, the RHS Chelsea Flower Show is back on in May this year. Beautiful as the autumn gardens were, we're excited to see the joyful, cheerful blooms of spring back in all their splendour.
The Royal Horticultural Society is predicting a focus on wild, naturalistic gardens this year, a trend we've certainly seen gaining pace in recent years. Expect plenty of hedgerows, woodland plants, and wildflowers taking over the grounds of the Royal Hospital. As the trees bloom in spring, it's the perfect time to contemplate swathes of greenery on weeping willows and hawthorn trees and the cheerful, delicate blooms of cow parsley and poppies.
Rewilding is one of the themes of the show, and first-time Chelsea designers Lulu Urquhart and Adam Hunt will use their Show garden to show the transformative effect on the landscape of reintroducing beavers. One of the Sanctuary Gardens, ‘A Garden Sanctuary by Hamptons’, aims to champion biodiverse ecosystems with a space full of woodland planting. Meanwhile, Joe Perkins will showcase the relationship between plants and fungi in another woodland-themed scheme, ’‘The Meta Garden: Growing the Future’.
Perennial Chelsea designers such as Chris Beardshaw and Andy Sturgeon will be joining a host of newcomers and other longstanding favourites for the Sanctuary and Show gardens. Other gardens we're excited for include Ruth Wilmott's garden sponsored by Morris & Co, and Tom Hoblyn's Boodles Travel Garden.
A new category of gardens, ‘All About Plants’ will take its place alongside the growers and nurseries in the Great Pavilion; each garden will raise awareness for a charity, and will ‘visualise the many ways plants can positively influence mental health, community, and industry.’ We're particularly excited to see Lottie Delamain's ‘A Textile Garden for Fashion Revolution’, which focuses on the use of plants for dyes in the textile industry.
The Chelsea Flower Show takes place from May 24-28 2022 at Royal Hospital, Chelsea, London SW3 4SL. To book tickets visit www.rhs.org.uk/shows-events/rhs-chelsea-flower-show
This article originally appeared on House and Garden UK
