The RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2022 came back last week. Before the Pandemic it was a "must attend" in the gardening calendar, and I'm so pleased that the much-loved flagship Royal Horticultural Society event has moved back to its rightful time of year after being postponed to last autumn.
Set in the grounds of the Royal Hospital Chelsea, the prestigious flower show this year had the themes of "Embrace the Wild" and "Bring Nature Back". And so today on the blog I've drafted in the help of luxury garden-ware experts Gardenesque, to show you that you don’t have to be a professional garden designer to recreate the "Chelsea look" in your home or outdoor area. And with that in mind, here are their predictions for the garden trends we'll be seeing emerging this year following on from the show.
Wild and natural
A key focus of the show was rewilding Britain’s landscape. So we can expect to see plants that are native to the UK, wildlife-friendly sanctuaries, and naturalistic planting designs lined the Main Avenue of Chelsea Flower Show gardens as consumers were encouraged to reconnect with nature around them.
Soft meadow colours, wildflowers and native plants such as cow parsley, poppies and buttercups are set to accompany wispy grasses, hedgerows and woodland trees and shrubs such as hazel, crab apple, willow and hornbeam. The garden that caught our eye was ‘The Meta Garden: Growing the Future’ which took its inspiration from the UK's countryside and featured almost 3000 plants and trees including sweet chestnut to highlight the connection between plants and fungi in our woodland ecosystems.
Gardening in small spaces
The Balcony and Container Gardens returned to Chelsea this year. Five amateur garden designers each created a pocket-sized realistic garden in the footprint of the average-sized 2m x 5m balcony.
The Cloud Gardener’s show garden was a particular highlight, Jason Williams demonstrated how he transformed his balcony, in a high-rise apartment in Manchester into an urban oasis during the lockdown. Using containers and hanging baskets, he created a colourful mix of flowering plants and edibles to create a wildlife-friendly haven in the centre of a city. The Potting Balcony Garden made the most of the small space using functional design to create a place for its flat owner to enjoy the surrounding plants.
The Container Gardens demonstrated how to maximise planting when floor space is at a minimum. The 4m x 3m spaces featured an array of different container and planter styles and showcased how even the smallest area can come alive when filled with lots of blooms and foliage.
Our wide range of luxury containers and planters ooze Chelsea style and will make you feel like you have a show garden of your own.
Edible gardening
One of the key show gardens at Chelsea this year is A Foraging Garden, designed to create awareness for Alder Hey Children’s hospital. The garden will create an outdoor kitchen, filled with tasty edibles including crab apple trees, elderflower and wild garlic and feature a white, cream and blush pink colour scheme.
In the Brewin Dolphin Garden, there was an area dedicated to a variety of fruits, herbs and vegetables to demonstrate the idea of the best use of space in an urban setting.
William Murray’s ‘The Potting Balcony Garden’ and Ann Treneman’s Wild Kitchen Garden showed us how even with a small outdoor space, gardeners can still grow their fresh produce outside their door. The planters used in the exhibit were made from recycled material, demonstrating how sustainability can be adopted in the garden.
Why not try our Kitchen Herb Planter and embrace the Chelsea trend of growing your own?
Houseplants
The Houseplant Studios once again focused on turning your indoors into positive green spaces for health and wellbeing.
The collection, was based on Eastern Avenue in the site, and featured several studio spaces showcasing how indoor plants can be suitable for any room in your home. The exhibit aimed to inspire even the novice gardener on how houseplants and nature can combine to produce inspirational statements reflected indoors. With many living in flats or houses with no garden, and the RHS revealing that city dwellers spend an average of 90% indoors, the Houseplants Studios were a sensory experience that tapped into the increasingly important ‘wellness’ trend, showcasing how indoor plants purify the air that we breathe and remove toxins and other chemical nasties in the home.
You too can create your Houseplant Studio with our range of contemporary indoor planters that will create the ultimate Chelsea display in your home.