SPOTLIGHT ON

RHS Chelsea Flower Show highlights

31 May 2018

Gardening season is well and truly upon us and it’s marked with the recurrence of the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) Chelsea Flower Show, an annual event which has been setting the benchmark for garden design and innovation since 1913.

Regarded as the most prestigious international gardening show, we have taken the opportunity to shortlist the horticultural highlights from this year's floral fanfare in Chelsea, London, and take a look at what pots, plants and garden accessories are available from Next for an easy garden update.

From South Africa to Yorkshire, this year’s exhibitors didn’t disappoint with their diverse inspiration for designs and planting.

Whilst providing us with undeniable visual delight, there were also some great themes and causes behind the gardens this year. The Morgan Stanley garden which was designed by Chris Beardshaw, pictured above, to help highlight the positive impact that the NSPCC work can have on a child’s life, stole the show and won the award for Best Show Garden.

Best show garden

Designed primarily to raise awareness of the work of the NSPCC, this garden’s design is ‘a metaphor for the emotional transition that takes place in a child as they experience the positive impact of the NSPCC’s work’.

Initially as you enter the garden the path leads you in an unclear direction, then a cedar wood pavilion, the focal point, acts as a space that is a safe and secure sensory environment overlooking borders of softly coloured perennial planting.

This thoughtful space received the prestigious ‘Best Show Garden’ award.

Designer: Chris Beardshaw

Sponsored by: Morgan Stanley

Award: Gold, and Best Show Garden

SHOP GARDEN ACCESSORIES

Inspired by the dales

‘Welcome to Yorkshire’ has been designed to create a sense of the north.

This homegrown offering mixes a buttercup meadow, wild woodland and a small, infectiously charming, stone built cottage.

This is a space-savvy garden where every inch has been put to good use, from an eye-catching flowering wisteria to edible cabbages, the planting and positioning is well considered.

Traditional artisan skills have been employed to build the limestone walls that border the garden, giving this garden the heritage touch.

Designer: Mark Gregory

Sponsored by: Landform

Award: Gold, and Best Construction

SHOP GARDEN FURNITURE

Trailfinders

Split into three sections the Trailfinders garden inventively represents the Winelands of South Africa, ranging from the distinctive wild planting synonymous with the area, to a more cultivated plot resembling the garden of a Cape Dutch homestead.

A terracotta-tiled terrace leads down steps into a formal, romantic garden, then through a gate to a vineyard. Bright bulbs and exotic splashes of bold colour  create a sense of warm climate and scorching sunsets.

Designer: Jonathan Snow

Sponsored by: Trailfinders

Award: Silver Gilt

SHOP GARDEN PLANTING

EXPLORE STYLE STORIES

Image credits:

All images via The Royal Horticultural Society