What’s Hot at RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2025 – Key Trends at the UK’s Top Flower Show

RHS Chelsea Flower Show is the most inspirational event of the gardening calendar. Kicking off the rest of the season, the show helps us envisage how to design our own spaces, whether our gardens are big or small, indoor or outdoor.

A Chelsea Pensioner checks for pollinators on a thistle at RHS Chelsea 2025 - Image courtesy of Julie Skelton

Over recent years, we’ve seen common themes running through the show. There’s been a huge amount of conversation around sustainability and climate change, in fact my own 2024 exhibit – 'Hope After Humanity', tackled this very issue. At this year's RHS Chelsea, however, there’s also been a spotlight shone on other topics.

David Tennant enjoys a private tour of the 'Terrariroom' houseplant studio by Hugo & Green on press day - image courtesy of Julie Skelton

So far the show hasn't disappointed on planting, medals and celebrity, but you may be interested to hear what gardening trends have developed as forerunners for 2025. Whether you’re interested in top plants to grow, or tips for space-saving gardening, RHS Chelsea has given us inspiration for the rest of the season. From bold cottage garden planting to AI, wellbeing and regeneration, this article covers what's hot at RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2025.

What to Grow

Mycelium panels in the 'Avanade Intelligent Garden' by Tom Massey - image captured by Nicky Flint

Mushrooms

This year, mushrooms feature heavily at Chelsea. Whether you’re heading to the pavilion, or to the main avenue show gardens, you can’t avoid mushrooms. The focus is on edible mushrooms, with Tom Massey’s 'Avanade Intelligent Garden' featuring a building built with mycelium panels. Inside there’s Lion’s mane mushrooms and oyster mushrooms, too. Not to be missed however, is the Caley Brothers’ pavilion display, featuring mushrooms like Shitake, oyster and, the infamous cordyceps mushroom. Recently highlighted in the hit HBO television remake of ‘The Last of Us’ game, cordyceps reigns supreme in this apocalyptic universe, turning people into fungal zombies. Mushrooms are very in vogue, though hopefully we don’t end up like the ‘infected’.

Digitalis and cottage garden planting in the ADHD Foundation Garden - image courtesy of Julie Skelton

Cottage garden plants

Cottage garden plants did well again at this year’s RHS Chelsea Flower Show. There’s just something about whimsical flowers that capture our imagination when it comes to landscaping. Add height with taller species like digitalis, or go for something lower to the ground, but less compact, with geums. What’s more, both these varieties of plant come back year after year and are pollinator friendly. So not only will you end up with texture and height variation in your garden, you’ll also get plenty of bees and insects if you plant a cottage garden border.

Images of cottage garden inspired plants in this year's RHS Chelsea gardens - image courtesy of Julie Skelton. From left to right: Baptisia 'Pink Lemonade', Rosa x odorata 'Mutabilis', Digitalis Purpurea 'Suttons Apricot'

Roses

Roses did particularly well at this year’s show, with the new 'King’s Rose' being announced by David Austen Roses. This rose comes in a fuschia pink and white candy stripe with a yellow centre and is the famed company’s very first bicolour variety. At RHS Chelsea Flower Show this year, roses were having a revival in the gardens, too. Pink blooms featured heavily in 'The Glasshouse Garden', which was designed by Jo Thompson, and the Children with Cancer Uk ‘A Place To Be’ garden also featured a muted palette of pastel roses.

Moss balls decorate the Japanese Tea Garden by Kazuyuki Ishihara - image by Julie Skelton

Cornice Trees

This underrated tree is having a moment at this year’s favourite gardening show. Blooming with four white petals per flour and a purple centre, the flowers turn pink as they go over and fall off the tree. Known also as ‘dogwood’, this tree was the obvious choice for Monty Don and BBC Radio 2’s ‘Dog Friendly Garden’. It also appeared in the balcony and container gardens in the 'A Space to Read' Balcony Garden, designed by Freddie Strickland & Ben Gifford. Just by chance, I spotted another one of these beautiful trees at the Devon County Show last week in a feature garden by Urban and Rural Landscapes, too. I’d say dogwood is the tree for 2025!

Bees enjoy the thistles in the Downs Syndrome Scotland Garden at RHS Chelsea - image courtesy of Julie Skelton

Thistles

With two gardens at the show inspired by Scotland’s fauna and flora, it’s hardly surprising that thistles did well. With thistles planted playfully in the cottage garden style borders of the 'Down’s Syndrome Scotland Garden' and thoughtfully placed in The 'Hospitalfield Arts Garden' to recreate a coastal scene, this unusual plant has found its way into popularity at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show for 2025. Thistles also found their way into Tom Massey's 'Avanade Intelligent Garden'; if Tom's planting it, you bet it will be popular for the season.

Ferns in planters and alongside paths in the ADHD garden - image courtesy of Julie Skelton

Ferns

Ferns featured heavily this year at RHS Chelsea Flower Show. With shady planting schemes popular across the small space gardens in the houseplant area and the balcony gardens, ferns were a great choice for texture and height. In ‘Secret Base – The Another Green Room’ and ‘Room to Breathe Hospital Garden for the TSA’, designers created a calm environment by using ferns in ground-level planting, recreating a forest environment. In the 'Terrariroom' houseplant studio by Hugo & Green, the designers chose to plant an entire wall with blue-star ferns, creating a monotone of blue-green colour that’s a feast for the eyes! You can even discover tree ferns in the pavilion at Blue Diamond’s shade garden, too!

Moss balls in The Japanese Tea garden by Kazuyuki Ishihara - image by Andrea Gilpin

Moss

Many of the exhibits at RHS Chelsea feature moss and it’s usually an underrated addition to the displays. However, this year it was made into a feature by the moss balls included in the 'Japanese Tea Garden' by Kazuyuki Ishihara. Beautifully arranged around borders and boulders, the spherical moss balls add texture and interest in repeating patterns around the garden. Moss was also used effectively in kokedamas in the 'Terrariroom' by Hugo and Green.

Tom Massey's 'Avanade Intelligent Garden' on Main Avenue at RHS Chelsea 2025 - Image courtesy of Nicky Flint

The Role of AI in Gardening

AI is trending right now, and so naturally, it’s pervaded RHS Chelsea as much as it has our daily lives. This year, Tom Massey has designed the ‘Avanade Intelligent Garden’ to present what’s possible in gardening when we think about how we monitor our soil, temperature and weather. The integrated Artificial Intelligence assistant in this show garden helps to track and predict future care, interacting with visitors live, to tell them what it needs to thrive! Now that’s smart.

If you love technology, then another not-to-miss is the scientific strawberry growing machine in the great pavilion. The ‘Electric Berry’ by Hugh Lowe Farms and Greenwich University uses solar panels to create energy for the strawberry plants and a machine arm plucks the berries!

Manoj Malde talks about his 'Tackle HIV Stigma Garden' - Image by Andrea Gilpin

Health and Wellbeing

This year’s show had a real focus on health and wellbeing, from the 'Tackle HIV Stigma Garden' by Manoj Malde to the Down’s Syndrome Scotland Garden. The RHS Chelsea Flower Show is an inclusive event that celebrates diversity, regardless of health, gender and sexuality, and 2025’s show seemed to champion some particularly worthy causes.

The ADHD Foundation Garden by Katy Terry - image courtesy of Julie Skelton

A garden that struck a chord with me was the ADHD Foundation Garden, which showcases a calming, tranquil environment with an abundance of different types of plants. This special garden by Katy Terry encourages us to ‘think differently about thinking differently’. The central reflective pool allows for a moment to pause and refocus, whilst the umbrellas symbolise inclusivity. With 1 in 5 adults thought to be neurodivergent, this garden creates a moment of calm for those of us with busy minds.

'The Roots of Wellbeing' houseplant studio by Botanic York - image courtesy of Botanic York

Another garden worth visiting is ‘The Roots of Wellbeing’ houseplant studio by Botanic York. This design showcases beautifully how plants can be integrated from inside to outside, with trailing tropical plants indoors, and palms, fruiting plants and herbs outdoors. Featuring a desk and home workspace, the studio promotes how working with nature promotes good mental health. This is biophilic design at its very best!

One final mention is the ‘Room to Breathe’ Hospital Garden, with its stunning cocoon chair and calming planting. Designed for parents and caregivers to relax whilst they wait at hospital for their loved ones, this immersive environment is tranquil and cool, stimulating rest and regeneration.

Colourful planting in the 'Tackle HIV Stigma Garden' by Manoj Malde - Image by Andrea Gilpin

Rebirth and Regeneration

The regeneration theme was also strong this year at RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2025.

Alan Rutter, Chelsea Pensioner, and I, Gemma Haigh, standing outside the Royal Hospital with the Chelsea Pensioner's Rose on the left behind Alan

The Chelsea Pensioner’s Garden was a firm favourite of mine because my gardening Chelsea Pensioner friends, Alan and Archie, had a hand in its creation. We met at last year’s show when they visited me at my ‘Hope After Humanity’ houseplant studio, that celebrated the reclamation of human spaces by nature. ‘The London Square Chelsea Pensioners Garden’ is a stunning space featuring winding paths, a woodland setting, and my favourite feature – old Pensioner uniforms that have been upcycled into scarlet red cushions.

The stunning planting scheme in the Glasshouse Garden by Jo Thompson - image courtesy of Julie Skelton

Another return to RHS Chelsea this year was for The Glasshouse team, who exhibited at last year’s show in the houseplant studios. This time they brought designer Jo Thompson on board to create a space fit for rehabilitating female prisoners. ‘The Glasshouse Garden’ was sponsored by Project Giving Back and features a range of traditionally ‘feminine’ flowers in pinks and reds. As of May 2024, The Glasshouse Project helped to rehabilitate over 30 female offenders, teaching them about horticulture and reintegrating them into society.

The BBC Radio 2 and Monty Don's 'Dog Friendly Garden' with its purples and oranges offset with green foliage - image courtesy Nicky Flint

Colour and Planting Schemes

Neutrals for architectural features was a strong trend at this year’s RHS Chelsea. Muted colours, industrial materials and natural grasses and woods were woven into the planting at this year’s gardens.

Overall, planting was bolder and more standout, using warm colours like oranges, deep purples, pinks and reds.  Think loud when it comes to your planting this year – it’s go big or go home, whether you’re indoors or outdoors!

The warm planting scheme in Tom Hoblyn's Hospice UK: Garden of Compassion - image courtesy of Julie Skelton

Mediterranean planting schemes also made an impact at RHS Chelsea 2025, as they featured in many of the gardens highlighting the significance of rising temperatures in the British Isles. There’s a special shoutout here to Sarah Gerrard-Jones’ collaboration with the RHS, Conservatory Archives and Ottershaw Cacti, who collaborated on ‘The Victorian Arid House’. Filled with exciting looking cacti and succulents in the greenhouse and outside of it, Sarah has shown how these incredible plants can be displayed to maximalise impact in an unusual garden.

'The Victorian Arid House' designed by Sarah Gerrard-Jones, The Plant Rescuer - image courtesy of Sarah G-J

Huge thanks to talented fellow Garden Media Guild members Julie Skelton, Nicky Flint and Andrea Gilpin for the accompanying professional photographs of RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2025. Please find further information about their work at www.julieskelton.com, www.sussexstills.com, and andreagilpinphotography.com.