Embracing nature: Chelsea trends in the home and garden
It’s back! After the pandemic, the RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2022 is back this week. A must in the gardening calendar, the flagship Royal Horticultural Society has moved back to its rightful time of year after being postponed to last autumn.
Set in the grounds of the Royal Hospital Chelsea, the prestigious flower show this year will have the themes of "Embrace the Wild" and "Bring Nature Back". You don’t have to be a professional garden designer to recreate the Chelsea look in your home. Here are our predictions for the garden trends we’ll be seeing more of in a backyard near you following on from the show.
Wild and natural
A key focus of the show is rewilding Britain’s landscape. We can expect to see plants that are native to the UK, wildlife-friendly sanctuaries, and naturalistic planting designs lining the Main Avenue of Chelsea Flower Show gardens as consumers are encouraged to reconnect with nature around them.
Soft meadow colours, wildflowers and native plants such as cow parsley, poppies and buttercups are set to accompany wispy grasses, hedgerows and woodland trees and shrubs such as hazel, crab apple, willow and hornbeam.
A garden to look out for is ‘The Meta Garden: Growing the Future’ which takes its inspiration from the UK's countryside and will feature almost 3000 plants and trees including sweet chestnut to highlight the connection between plants and fungi in our woodland ecosystems.
Gardening in small spaces
The Balcony and Container Gardens return to Chelsea this year. Five amateur garden designers will each create a pocket-sized realistic garden in the footprint of the average-sized 2m x 5m balcony.
The Cloud Gardener’s show garden will be a particular highlight, Jason Williams demonstrates how he transformed his balcony, in a high-rise apartment in Manchester into an urban oasis during the lockdown. Using containers and hanging baskets, he created a colourful mix of flowering plants and edibles to create a wildlife-friendly haven in the centre of a city. The Potting Balcony Garden makes the most of the small space using functional design to create a place for its flat owner to enjoy the surrounding plants.
The Container Gardens will demonstrate how to maximise planting when floor space is at a minimum. The 4m x 3m spaces feature an array of different container and planter styles and will showcase how even the smallest area can come alive when filled with lots of blooms and foliage.
Our wide range of luxury containers and planters ooze Chelsea style and make you feel like you have a show garden of your own.
Edible gardening
One of the key show gardens at Chelsea this year is A Foraging Garden, designed to create awareness for Alder Hey Children’s hospital. The garden will create an outdoor kitchen, filled with tasty edibles including crab apple trees, elderflower and wild garlic and feature a white, cream and blush pink colour scheme.
In the Brewin Dolphin Garden, there is an area dedicated to a variety of fruits, herbs and vegetables to demonstrate the idea of the best use of space in an urban setting.
William Murray’s ‘The Potting Balcony Garden’ and Ann Treneman’s Wild Kitchen Garden will showcase how even with a small outdoor space, gardeners can still grow their fresh produce outside their door. The planters used in the exhibit are made from recycled material, demonstrating how sustainability can be adopted in the garden.
Why not try our Kitchen Herb Planter and embrace the Chelsea trend of growing your own?
Houseplants
The Houseplant Studios will once again focus on turning your indoors into positive green spaces for health and wellbeing.
The collection, based on Eastern Avenue in the site, features several studio spaces showcasing how indoor plants can be suitable for any room in your home. The exhibit aims to inspire even the novice gardener on how houseplants and nature can combine to produce inspirational statements reflected indoors
When is the show?
The show will take place between 24 - 28 May 2022. On the 24-27 May it’s open from 8am until 8pm, and on the final day it’ll be open from 8am until 5.30pm. Chelsea Flower Show tickets are available on the RHS website.
