Blooming Great: Chelsea Flower Show Highlights & Events

Photo: Royal Horticultural Society

Chelsea Flower Show Highlights

The date change has seen many designers adapt their show gardens to the change of seasons as well as consider Britain’s collective reaction to emergence of Covid-19.

Autumn/winter houseplant trends. Photo: N1 Garden Centre

1 Houseplant Studio

Ah, houseplants! So easy to love, so easy to kill. The Houseplant Studio returns after last year’s success and is packed full with inspiration and advice on how to turn your home into a lush green sanctuary for your plants and yourself. This year, the Happy Houseplant x The Plant Rescuer has an immersive clinic to help you with any houseplant issues you may have. The Planted House has created a a display that focuses on climbing and twining plants and rattan.

2 Balcony and Container Gardens

Back again, these gardens provide inspiration and ideas for small space gardening, and show how compact outdoor areas can be transformed into positive green spaces. The Jay Day display by Alison Orellana Malouf and Su-Yeon Choi show how balconies can provide important habitat for birds, while the Wild Kitchen Garden and The Potting Balcony Garden demonstrate that even with limited outdoor space, you can still grow fresh produce.

3 Floral Platinum Jubilee Celebrations

It would be impossible not to mark the Queen’s 70 year reign at the CFH and four displays in particular pay tribute to the monarch. Florist Simon Lycett has created a silhouette of the Queen in Platinum Jubilee purple and made with native British-grown plants and feature the Queen’s favourite plant, Lily of the Valley. Lucy Vail Floristry will dress Bullring Gate up with royal iconography and country meadow flowers such as sweetpeas, foxgloves, geraniums and irises. Also watch out for Veevers Carter and Dave Green’s tributes to the Queen.

4 Sustainable Garden Product of the Year 2022

The competition highlights the best eco friendly consumer gardening products, inline with the flower show’s aim for championing sustainability. Shortlisted products include AquaBloom watering system, Gardena’s Ecoline Range of gardening tools, Twool’s sustainable tree and shrub ties and Niwaki’s Kenzan which you use in flower arranging, replacing foam.

5 A Rewilding Britain landscape

Also watch out for first-time Chelsea designer team Lulu Urquhart and Adam Hunt who re-wild a landscape using British native plants. The design is based on the positive impact beavers have on their environments by creating new habitats for other animals, fish and plants.

The RHS Chelsea Flower Show is on May 24-28.
Address: London Gate, Royal Hospital Road, Royal Hospital Chelsea
London SW3 4SR
Tickets: From £40.85
Times: Tuesday & Wednesday RHS Members’ Day 8am-8pm; Thursday & Friday 8am-8pm; Saturday 8am-5.30pm
Website: rhs.org.uk

Chelsea Flower Show- Related events In London

Want more flowers and greenery? Of course you do, and these exhibitions, events and afternoon teas will ensure you get your fill…

Belgravia in Bloom. Photo: Belgravia

1 Belgravia in Bloom

Belgravia in Bloom returns this year with the theme Beautifully British and will be a floral celebration of Britain’s most iconic and historic moments, and national treasures too. Involved florists includes Neill Strain, Moyses Stevens and Judith Blacklock.
Date: May 23-29
Address: around Elizabeth Street, Motcomb Street, Pimlico Road and Eccleston Yards
Website: belgravialdn.com

2 Chelsea in Bloom

The theme for this year’s Chelsea in Bloom is British Icons, so expect the neighbourhood’s streets to be filled with floral arrangements and displays inspired by characters, symbols and emblems from all corners of the United Kingdom. Chelsea in Bloom will also pull in more than 90 of the area’s shops, hotels, and restaurants, from Sloane Street to the King’s Road, as they decorate shop fronts and venues to compete for the coveted award of Best Floral Display.
Date: May 23-28
Address: around Sloane Street, Pavilion Road, Duke of York Square, King’s Road
Website: chelseainbloom.co.uk

3 Chelsea Barracks’ Spring Fair

The Chelsea Barracks celebrates the garden show with an artisan’s market, food and drink market as well as sustainable flower installations and garden seminars. The programme of events also pays tribute to the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee by working with the theme British and Iconic. Guest speakers and gardening experts include Chelsea Flower Show gold medallist Jo Thompson, Jekka McVicar, Hugo Bugg and Charlotte Harris, Shane Connelly and The Land Gardeners.
Date: May 25-27
Website: chelseabarracks.com

4 Ganymede & The Hunter’s Moon Special Menus

Sister venues Ganymede and The Hunter’s Moon are putting on a special floral set menu in honour of the flower show for lunch and dinner. Dishes will change daily but will feature the likes of crab stuffed courgette flower; Marinda tomato salad with mozzarella, chimichurri and borage flowers; and pan-friend salmon fillet with wild garlic velouté, buttery potatoes and asparagus. For dessert think passion fruit pavlova topped with pansy flowers or vanilla panna cotta with strawberry and honeysuckle compote. Both bar and dining rooms will be bedecked with colourful flowers as well, jus to get you in the spirit of things.
Date: May 23-28
Price: Ganymede: £29.50 for two courses or £34.50 for three courses, The Hunter’s Moon: £26.60 for two courses or £29.50 for three courses
Address: Ganymede: 139 Ebury Street, Belgravia, SW1W 9QU86; The Hunter’s Moon: Fulham Road, South Kensington, SW3 6HR
Website: ganymedelondon.co.uk; huntersmoonlondon.co.uk

5 Sketch for mayfair in Bloom

As part of Mayfair in Bloom, Sketch will transform into the Dream Garden, making the venue, which was recently named the most photogenic restaurant in the world, even more Instagrammable. JamJar Flower, Ricky Paul Flowers and Carly Rogers Flowers to create a series of installations based on the theme, Peace.
Date: May 18-30
Address: 9 Conduit Street, W1S 2XG
Website: sketch.london