Container and balcony gardening unveiled at Chelsea Flower Show 2025
The Royal Horticultural Society's (RHS) annual Chelsea Flower Show, held in London, is renowned for showcasing the most innovative and beautiful gardens. This year, the show took a new direction, with a notable focus on wellness and biophilic design.
One of the key trends at the event was the creation of wellness gardens, designed to promote relaxation and mental restoration. These gardens emphasised calming colours and textures, with simplified plant palettes featuring lots of greens, some whites, and touches of lavender. Natural materials like gravel, wood, water, and stone were used to create grounded, sensory experiences that promote relaxation.
Color therapy also played a significant role in garden design, with designers combining colour and texture thoughtfully to create calming rhythms in the planting schemes. This approach helps enhance the wellness aspect by influencing mood through visual cues.
Water was another key natural material, often incorporated to add a tranquil element such as the sound of flowing water or reflective surfaces that enhance the calming atmosphere.
The show featured several unique gardens that exemplified these trends. Jun Ishihara is designing Secret Base - The Another Green Room, a biophilic hideaway for the RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2025. Freddie Strickland and Ben Gifford's A Space to Read will be a sanctuary for connecting to nature through a biophilic design. Jen Donnelly and Catherine Gibbon will design The Room to Breath Hospital Garden for the TSA, serving as a retreat for caregivers with a palette of greens and whites.
Other gardens, such as the ME + EM City Garden by Caroline and Peter Clayton, were designed with specific audiences in mind. This garden, designed for the working woman, features coastal planting, sea shells, and repurposed ocean materials. Asleigh Aylett will explore the connection between humans and water in the Navium Marine: Blue Mind Gardening.
Sustainability was also a focus at the show, with gardens like Joshia Fenton's C6 garden designed to store 450 litres of rainwater and sequester 1200kg of carbon.
The RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2025 is set to be a showcase of innovative and beautiful gardens that prioritise wellness, biophilic design, and sustainability. With gardens like these, it's clear that the show is not just a celebration of horticulture, but also a platform for promoting mental health and well-being.
- The wellness gardens at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show emphasize calming colors and textures, often featuring a simplified plant palette with lots of greens, some whites, and touches of lavender.
- In garden design, color therapy plays a significant role, with designers thoughtfully combining color and texture to create calming rhythms that influence mood through visual cues.
- Water was another key natural material at the show, often incorporated to add a tranquil element, such as the sound of flowing water or reflective surfaces that enhance the calming atmosphere.
- At the show, several unique gardens exemplified the trends of wellness, biophilic design, and sustainability, such as Jen Donnelly and Catherine Gibbon's The Room to Breath Hospital Garden for the TSA.
- Sustainability was a focus at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show, with gardens like Joshia Fenton's C6 garden designed to store rainwater and sequester carbon, demonstrating a commitment to both horticulture and the environment.
