After a three-year gap since the last May show, RHS Chelsea 2022 was eagerly anticipated – and it hasn’t disappointed. The garden count is the highest I can remember for many years, and the standard is high. In fact, there’s so much to see, I had trouble deciding what to feature. So, this is just a taste of what caught my eye.
The prize for sheer drama has to go to Sarah Eberle’s garden that’s inspired by the layers of vertical rock.
At its heart, water tumbles over a massive building into a pool surrounded by plants that thrive in damp shade.
The Morris & Co garden by Ruth Wilmott is simply beautiful – fitting for something celebrating the influential Victorian designer William Morris.
I loved the lattice work on the central pavilion, inspired by Morris’ Willow Boughs pattern and repeated in the water channels.
Andy Sturgeon’s gardens are always worth special attention and his design for RHS Chelsea 2022 is no exception. The Mind Garden explores how talking about mental health can help those who are struggling. Walls create enclosed spaces that become bigger and more open as you move down the garden.
I particularly liked the planting – its softness contrasts well with the stone and there are pops of colour throughout.
There’s contrast of textures too on Paul Hervey-Brookes’ Brewin Dolphin Garden, which looks at how an former industrial site can be repurposed as a garden using the existing materials.
Many of the plants have been chosen for their ability to clean up contaminated soil and combat pollution.
Arguably the most romantic garden at RHS Chelsea 2022 is Richard Miers’ design for horticultural charity Perennial. A formal layour of clipped yew, umbrella hawthorn trees and a central rill are set against perennials in shades of purple and white.
Chris Beardshaw’s garden for the RNLI avoids the obvious coastal garden style, and instead has his trademark beautiful perennial planting in soft shades of purple, white and pink.
The Sanctuary Gardens, first introduced at the 2021 September show, are back with many more entries. I loved the planting with its soft mix of colours on The Stitchers’ Garden by Frederic Whyte.
Also new in 2021 were the Houseplant Studios and they’re back for RHS Chelsea 2022. Packed with inspiring display ideas, they cover everything from how to care for houseplants to using them in a space for nightlife.
This year, the container and balcony gardens – all created by designers new to Chelsea – are being judged. The containers range from galavanised metal in the Wild Kitchen Garden by Ann Treneman to a repurposed copper gin distilling pot in The Still Garden by Jane Porter.
Designed to show how you can garden in a small space using just containers, this category is a welcome counterpoint to the large show gardens.
The Balcony Gardens are another source of small space gardening inspiration. I loved the detail that has gone into The Potting Balcony Garden by William Murray and sponsored by Viking. It shows good use of the space and even includes a mini greenhouse.
A welcome alteration to the first balcony gardens last year is the addition of an ‘entrance’ in the back wall so that visitors can view the garden from inside the building rather than just getting the bird’s eye view of the design.
For the first time, there are no Artisan Gardens. Instead, a new category, All About Plants Gardens, explore the postive power of plants. Such is the squeeze on outside space, the four entries are in the Great Pavilion.
Among the entries is The Core Arts Fron Garden Revolution, by Andy Smith-Williams which shows how removing the boundary between two front gardens creates a communal space for people to meet.
This year’s big RHS feature garden has been designed by Joe Swift with the aim of encouraging gardeners to plant for the bees. I loved the bee houses nestled in the planting.
Finally, the most unusual garden is The Plantman’s Ice Garden in the Sanctuary Gardens category. Designed by John Warland, it has a huge block of ice at its heart, representing the 28 trillion tonnes of ice the world has lost since 1994.
Not only does this permafrost store carbon, it also holds dormant seeds and, at the heart of the ice block, is a plant grown from such seed. Given the unseasonable weather forecast for Chelsea this week, it’s unclear whether the ice will melt to reveal its hidden plant before the show ends.
RHS Chelsea runs from May 24- 28.
(Feature picture: The St Mungo’s Putting Down Roots Garden by Darryl Moore and Adolofo Harrison.)
You can read about the nurseries in the Great Pavilion here.
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