With the late-spring gardening season upon us, we’re enjoying getting into our gardens in much-welcome sunshine and, for many, near-cloudless blue skies. And at this time of year, our thoughts naturally turn to the Chelsea Flower Show, the trends which will bloom in 2023 and the show gardens we can’t wait to see.
Chelsea 2023 – Key themes and show gardens
1. Health and wellbeing are themes still firmly top of the agenda for this year’s main Show Gardens. Many of us will identify with the pursuit for calmness and tranquillity in a busy, ever-digital world where people will increasingly turn to nature and their gardens as a therapeutic balm to relax and restore.
Several show gardens further deepen our awareness of the positive impact being in our gardens can have on us. Gardens such as The Balance Garden, Land of Healing, and The Samaritans Listening Garden stand out as good examples of this.
2. Women in Horticulture – A special installation will celebrate women’s roles within the industry – from designers, scientists and campaigners, to artists and plant collectors. Featured inspirational women number Beth Chatto (1923 – 2018), Nobel prize winner Barbara McClintock (1902 – 1992), Wangari Muta Maathai (1940 – 2011), Margaret Mee (1909 – 1988), and Marjory Stoneman Douglas (1890 – 1998) to name a few.
And take note of the Small Space category where gardens designed by all-female teams dominate the group.
3. Children in Horticulture – A first at Chelsea this year is a picnic for 100 children from ten London schools who took part in the RHS Campaign for School Gardening. This fun celebration will highlight the role children can play in the future of horticulture.
4. Eco gardening – Another first for the RHS Chelsea Flower Show, the gardens will be judged on their eco-friendly credentials and, from hereon, each garden will require a post-Chelsea rehoming or relocation ‘plan for life’.
5. Small spaces continue to have a big impact across the show, and community-led gardening and education also have an important presence (note the creative greening of a train platform garden). Also highlighted are Balcony Gardens and Feels Like Home Container Garden. With hybrid working and working from home very much here to stay, people will be continuing to look at how to greenify their outdoor and indoor spaces.
Here at Yarnton Home & Garden we are excited to provide our customers not only with wonderful Chelsea-inspired plants, but all the advice needed so that people can get creative at home. And remember, you do not need a huge garden to inject some colour and nature into your world. A simple window box full of beautiful blooms can be a magical thing!
Main image: RHS Letters, Chelsea Flower Show 2022 (Credit: RHS/Sarah Vivianne)
RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2022. Detail of The Mothers for Mothers Garden – ‘This Too Shall Pass’. All About Plants. Credit: RHS/Sarah Vivienne.