Top Picks at RHS Hampton 2024

Sustainability was the buzz word at RHS Hampton 2024 – growing for pollinators, peat-free, and designing gardens that will withstand climate change.

Recycled wood was everywhere – as decking, boundaries and seats – and there were lots of planted up salvaged containers.

When it came to the Show Gardens, I was a bit underwhelmed. Nothing really stood out among the eight, except perhaps Juliet Sargeant’s celebration of The Lion King. Its vibrant colours are certainly hard to miss.

The planting, in colours that echo the stage production, is designed to be suitable for British gardens and drought-tolerant, while the ‘dry hedge’ is a good wildlife habitat. The garden certainly fulfills its brief of celebrating the 25th anniversary of the London show and won Best in Show although got a silver-gilt medal rather than gold. It was interesting but I didn’t find much in the way of ‘take home’ ideas.

Sadie May Stowell is again celebrating Oregon and Charleston at RHS Hampton 2024, something she’s done many times. The two gardens have some familiar elements: rocks and a natural pool on the Oregon garden and a central, ornate water feature in a courtyard garden for Charleston.

I did like the natural pool and planting on Nilufer Danis’ garden, which draws its inspiration from northern Spain and the pilgrim route of Camino de Santiago.

There are four RHS Feature Gardens, though no ‘iconic horticultural hero’ this year. These certainly appealed to me more than the show gardens.

Arit Anderson’s design shows what can be achieved with peat-free gardening and has some good ideas for water storage, wildlife habitat and using recycled materials. The planted containers are particularly good.

Instagram influencer Anya Lautenbach has joined forces with RHS Ambassador Jamie Butterworth to create a feature garden on the cheap – it shows how recycling and producing your own plants by propagation can save money. It’s a distillation of the ideas in her book ‘The Money-Saving Gardener’, reviewed here.

For me, the best was the RHS Adventure Within Garden, designed by Freddie Strickland. This Feature Garden has particularly good planting ranging from areas in shades of green and white through to sun-loving and drought-tolerant combinations.

There may not be an ‘Iconic Horticultural Hero’ garden at RHS Hampton 2024 but it could be argued that the gap is filled by Jon Wheatley, winner of multiple RHS gold medals.

Working with his son, James, he’s produced a feature garden to celebrate the 60th anniversary of Britain in Bloom and it has some beautiful planting, including a wildflower meadow with beehives.

Borders range from classic cool colours through to vibrant tones and there are also containers full of veg.

This year, it was the smaller designs that I found more interesting and I ended up spending more time on the Get Started gardens, allotments and borders than usual.

‘Moss Magic’ by Bea Tann encourages us to see moss as a useful plant rather than something to be removed – maybe my moss-filled ‘lawn’ is on trend.

And the planting on ‘The Making Sense Garden’ by Flora Scouarnec and Victoria Pease-Cox is certainly pleasing the wildlife. It was covered in tiny butterflies.

Katerina Kantalis swept the board with Best Get Started Garden, Best Construction and a gold medal with her Mediterranean-inspired design – a rework of the gold medal garden she had at Gardeners’ World Live last month. Again, drought friendly planting was much in evidence.

The New Talent section at RHS Hampton 2024 has a series of small borders created by recent graduates of the London College of Garden Design and celebrating asteraceae, the daisy family. They feature many of my favourite flowers, including achillea, echinacea and rudbeckia.

I really liked the planting on ‘A Summer Haze’ by Kate Brown.

Adam Phoenix’s border has lots of chicory, which surprisingly I rarely see in gardens. It’s a lovely colour and likes well-drained soil so I may try growing it.

The RHS Allotments has a great garden by Year Two pupils from Bagshot Infant School in Surrey and filled with plants they had grown from seed or cuttings. It won the Best Allotment award.

Steve Barker, chair of governors, told me any gluts were turned into preserves and sold to help fund the garden – the sale of jam recently paid for a cold frame.

I was particularly interested in the watercress growing in the tray from broken propagator and sitting in a salvaged tank filled with water.

Steve said the secret was to keep picking to stop the plants flowering and dying.

Neaby, The Pig Hotel’s border of veg has an unusual red cavolo nero-type kale.

RHS Hampton 2024 – the Nurseries

If some of the gardens were disappointing, the floral marquee is the expected celebration of colour and scent.

Derbyshire’s Plants Lets Grow has a display with a five senses theme – moss again makes an appearance.

The Master Grower for RHS Hampton 2024 is Tynings Climbers and their colourful display shows why they were chosen.

There are a few echoes of RHS Chelsea with a display by Kent Wildflower Seeds that is similar to their debut at the May show. However, the wildflowers in the spotlight are different to reflect the fact it’s a different month.

Blue Diamond also have a display celebrating their Chelsea garden by Ann-Marie Powell, which won the People’s Choice Award.

The Hampton show always has displays by National Plant Collection holders and there’s a lovely exhibit by Daniel Myhill, who has the National Collection of Rosa persica hybrids. It won Best Plant Heritage Exhibit.

As part of the display, he launched a new variety, ‘See You In Rosé’, a light pink flower that’s been bred by Kordes Roses. It gets to around 70cm in height and is perfect for containers or the front of borders.

I rarely see persica roses in gardens and Daniel, who is based in Norfolk, told me he was hoping his display – all grown peat-free – would encourage more people to grow them.

“I want to dispel the myth that roses are hard to grow. If you choose the right variety from the start, you are going to get a winner.”

Another new rose at RHS Hampton is from Harkness Roses. R. ‘Alfred Robert Boe’ is named after Alfie Boe’s father and sales will raise money for Brain Tumour Research.

The show always has a few nods to the more famous event happening nearby – this year in the ‘Match Point’ garden by Oliver Bond and also on some trade stands.

2025 will be the last RHS Hampton before it becomes a biennial event, alternating with a new show that launches at Badminton in South Gloucestershire in 2026. I hope the annual Hampton goes out with a bang next year rather than a whimper.

RHS Hampton Court Palace Garden Festival runs until July 7. Tickets and more information here.

Enjoyed this? You can read about more of my flower show visits here.

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