The BBC Studios Our Green Planet & RHS Bee Garden by Joe Swift
(Picture: Kate Jacobs)This year’s RHS Chelsea Flower Show is a case of evolution not revolution, with an ongoing pull towards naturalistic planting schemes that owe more to meadow and woodland than the overly manicured show gardens that we might associate with Chelsea.
There are conventional designs, like the undeniably beautiful The Perennial Garden ‘With Love’, designed by Richard Miers, but you’ll find far more spaces that are deeply rooted in the wild landscape, like A Rewilding Britain Landscape, by Lulu Urquhart and Adam Hunt, and Medite Smartply ‘Building the Future’, designed by Sarah Eberle.
Then there are the gardens that focus on the importance of the natural world, like BBC Studios Our Green Planet & RHS Bee Garden, designed by Joe Swift, and The New Blue Peter Garden - Discover Soil, designed by Juliet Sargeant.
The reasons for this trend are threefold. Firstly, there’s the RHS’s push for action on the myriad issues faced by the planet, from climate change to habitat loss to freefalling pollinator populations, so they’re encouraging gardens that tell these stories and offer solutions.
Secondly, as urban populations increase and life seems ever more stressful, we feel the pull of the natural world more acutely, so it makes sense for our outdoor spaces – however small – to provide that connection.
Finally, there are the aesthetics. In the straitened times we’re in, flashy, ostentatious gardens can feel a little crass and vulgar, while nature-inspired, wilder gardens offer a consoling sense of honest beauty.
As well as being a reminder of what’s important in life, they’re relaxed and happy places that contribute to our wellbeing on every level. And, thankfully, they’re so much more achievable.
While it’s a lot of work for the designers to assemble their intricate show gardens in just a few short weeks on a patch of Chelsea grass, it’s good news for anyone whose garden is looking a little overgrown. With ‘weeds’ such as nettles cropping up in show gardens, we can happily embrace our own scruffy plots as shining beacons of biodiversity.
Laid-back layouts
Perhaps as a way to make our outdoor spaces more immersive and experiential, many of this year’s Chelsea show gardens have ditched straight lines and symmetry for curvy borders and meandering paths.
Likewise, lots of the garden structures and seating are amorphous and sculptural. If you’re lucky enough to have a lawn, cut some curves into it and let your borders break loose.
Indoor gardens
With the addition of the Houseplant Studios to the Chelsea mix last year, the RHS has taken on board the importance of indoor plants, especially for the gardenless urbanite.
Ariods, like philodendrons, anthuriums and monsteras, as well as variegated plants, are trending right now, while hanging houseplants in stoneware spheres and micro terrariums prove that we can always find room for another houseplant or five.
Plant power
Just like catwalk trends, the same plants crop up across many of the gardens each year. In the same way that fashion designers visit the same textile suppliers and notice the same colours and fabrics, garden designers rely on just a handful of specialised nurseries to supply their show plants. Sometimes, several designers fall for the same beguiling patch of, say, tangerine Geums.
Certain colours and forms simply feel right for the times, so this year we’re seeing more delicately beautiful, less showy flowers that bear a closer relation to their wild counterparts.
In many show gardens, irises, lupins, ferns, ox-eye daisies and Aquilegias are all thrown into an often joyfully chaotic mix, with an emphasis on keeping the pollinators happy.
Cool Corten
Tapping into a wider architectural trend, the material star of this year’s show is Corten steel, along with other rust-coloured elements that work so well in the garden, as green plants leap out against their rich, red-brown tones. Buy into this trend in the simplest way with a Corten-effect pot or two.
Bounteous balconies
Bursting with personality, these compact spaces now have their own dedicated section – and as ever, the bigger the challenge, the more creative the results. Here, you can learn which plants will thrive on wind-battered high-rises and how to pack in more plants, overhead and even underfoot.
Offbeat tones
While there’s a sense of anything goes in terms of colour, designers like to offer something new, leading them to explore quirky and unexpected palettes.
This year there are lots of zingy vibrant blues, as well as layered apricot and terracotta tones including Verbascum like ‘Clementine’ and ‘Helen Johnson’ – possibly the standout plant of Chelsea ’22.
Add to that dabs of intense claret and purple, via opium poppies, lupins and roses (which make a long overdue return to the show gardens this year).
Self-contained
There aren’t many piffling little pots at Chelsea; instead, you’ll find clusters of large containers housing whole landscapes and even ponds. To save water – and time – follow the designers’ lead and go big with containers – they’re also harder to pinch from front gardens.
Realising containers are the only option for many renters and those with very limited outside space, there’s a container garden section at this year’s show to plunder for ideas.
Roughing it
To contrast with the airy planting, this year’s material palette features raw, rugged elements like rough-hewn wood and stone used for seats, walls and paths – including crazy paving slabs set into grit or recycled crushed slate — as well as rustic-looking rendered walls.
Multi-story
Multi-stem trees now appear to be compulsory at Chelsea, and why not? These sculptural beauties are so much more interesting than their (bog) standard counterparts and will elevate any small garden into something special, drawing the eye up and away from boundary fences.
The right species – like an espaliered apple – will even work in a balcony container.
Incredible edibles
Especially since the Covid lockdowns, many of us have come to realise the immense satisfaction of growing an edible or two.
Many of the 2022 gardens tap into that idea, with nut trees in hedges, lettuce and strawberries tucked in among the ornamentals, and even a balcony kitchen garden, this year’s show proves that you don’t need a veg plot to grow your own.
From the Alder Hey Urban Foraging Station, designed by Howard Miller and Hugh Miller to The Potting Balcony Garden, designed by William Murray, there’s a lot of inspiration to be found. And, it’s an idea that can be scaled down even further, to a pot outside your front door.
Punctuation points
This year’s Chelsea is not about formal structure, but across the show we saw large low-slung domes of yew, dwarf pine and copper beech helping to anchor all that airy planting – they’d be a striking addition to any small garden and are surprisingly therapeutic to clip.
Blurry borders
Perhaps as a response to an increasing need to feel transported by time spent in our gardens, there is a loose, airy feel to a lot of the planting.
Fluffy fennel fronds and the trembling seed heads of grasses like Melica uniflora f. albida brought a hazy, dreamy-like vibe to many borders. Tuck these plants into gaps in your garden to tap into this mood.
Gardens for good
Many of this year’s gardens touch on the endless benefits of gardening for our mental and physical health, such as The Mind Garden by Andy Sturgeon, where people can be themselves, connect and open up, and Hands Off Mangrove by Grow2Know, designed by Tayshan Hayden-Smith and Danny Clarke, which seeks to create a protective sanctuary where communities can reconnect with each other and nature.
Both will be reinstalled in new homes after the show ends on Saturday May 28. We should all empowered by RHS Chelsea 2022’s naturalistic and anything-goes approach to horticulture, and feel encouraged to just get out there and give it a go.
