Gardens What’s in store at Chelsea this year?

This Scandi-style desk with tapered legs will slot into any scheme, and features a central drawer to keep techy stuff out

This year’s RHS Chelsea Flower Show, taking place from May 23-27, is offering up a riot of patriotic tributes. Yet while pristinely manicured gardens may once have dominated the biggest horticultural event in the calendar, this year’s show promises to push a wilder format.

There will be a total of 36 gardens. Here are just a few of the themes to look out for...

Royal flush

Unsurprisingly, various royal tributes will be featured, including a life-size topiary display of the late Queen’s pony in the Great Pavilion, while a display celebrating the coronation in Dave Green’s RHS A Garden Of Royal Reflection & Celebration, features some of the Windsor family’s favourite plants.

Also featured in the garden will be the King’s favourites.

Weeds

Look out for clover and common knapweed in the Royal Entomological Society Garden, featuring plants which are important food sources for pollinators.

Rubble

Gold medal-winning designer Darren Hawkes will be creating a garden using 85 per cent reclaimed materials from demolition sites, scrap yards and farmyards in the Samaritans’ Listening Garden to mark the charity’s 70th anniversary.

Litter

The RSPCA will use repurposed litter sourced from its rescue centres for its sanctuary garden designed by Martyn Wilson, while Jane Porter’s Choose Love Garden, inspired by refugee migration routes across Europe, features a sculpture made from discarded tents.

Drought-resistant plants

Look out for drought-resistant plants – some 55 per cent of perennials in the show gardens will be drought tolerant, almost double that of last year.

A buzz around insects

Visitors can enter a human-sized hive in this immersive beehive experience - the ‘Beezantium’ exhibit for The Newt in Somerset, hosted by gardeners and beekeepers.

Edible ideas

Vegetable gardeners should be wowed by The School Food Matters Garden, an edible, climate-adapted garden for children, with more than 80 per cent of the planting edible.

Global landscapes

The Fauna & Flora Garden brings a slice of Africa to Chelsea, offering a window into the spectacular Afromontane landscape of Central Africa’s Virunga Massive.

Wellbeing wonders

Horatio’s Garden features a wheelchair-accessible space to step out of busy city life and take a moment to relax.

All about plants

The All About Plants category will champion specialist plants.