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I’m just back from the Monday preview at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2025. It's always a huge treat to be among the first to see the show gardens and get up close to the plants. This year I was really thinking about the trends that were on display and how you could apply them to your own garden. It can be tricky to look at a show garden that's cost hundreds of thousands of pounds and find ways to relate it back to your own space, but I’m going to try my best! Here are my top 5 design tips inspired by this year's Chelsea gardens.
1. Use pattern
When you really study a designed garden, particularly from above, you will notice that the basic layout is often a big pattern that can be broken down into a series of shapes. They might be squares, rectangles, circles or curves which are repeated or linked to make up a garden design. When I studied garden design, the first thing we learnt was to draw a simple pattern on the plan of the garden, without thinking what each shape represented. Once you were happy with your pattern, then you would decide what would be lawn, patio, water or planting. I think the following Chelsea gardens demonstrate this really well.
Boodles Raindance Garden featured a series of circular paving, water features, ripples and a circular gazebo. The round shapes were repeated in the gazebo posts, with water gently dripping off into pools. I loved the ripple pattern design in the paving slabs. I will talk about plants in depth later in this post, but it's worth highlighting the restrained green and white planting in this garden, which really helped to soften the design, and show off the strong circular shapes.
The British Red Cross 'Here for Humanity' Garden, and the Tackle HIV Challenging Stigma Garden both incorporated a strong hexagon shape into their spaces. The former used it throughout to create paving, stepping stones and basalt columns, rising out as planters from ponds. The thing that really caught my eye was you could see the shape continued under the water. The Tackle HIV Challenging Stigma Garden used hexagonal paving to lead you through the space, and as an unconventional edging to the pond.
In the container gardening category, the C6 garden used much smaller hexagonal block paving set into gravel, then continued this pattern up the wall onto a cutwork, lit panel. This garden demonstrated just how much you could fit into a small space using only pots and containers.
My favourite garden of the show!
It was hard not to fall for the Japanese Tea Garden – The Cha no Niwa – also the judges’ favourite, awarded both Gold and RHS Chelsea Garden of the Year. Just look at the shapes in the design, cleverly combining straight and curved lines and incorporating pattern into the paving and raked gravel. It's interesting how this design may look very linear on paper, but in real life the plants soften the straight edges. I love the way the concentric, raked gravel is echoed in the circular window of the pavilion behind and in the big mounds of moss. I could have looked at this garden for hours. The more you look, the more you notice the amazing attention to detail.
2. Add structure
My second design tip is to incorporate structure into your garden – this might be in a building (like the tea house above), a gazebo or an arch, or through adding sculpture, seating and most importantly plants – particularly trees and evergreen shrubs. Having good structure or focal points means there is interest all year round, and the winter garden, even with its bare bones can still be an inviting space.
I really enjoyed seeing the use of wood outside, like this curved glulam arch on the London Square Chelsea Pensioners Garden (complete with singing Chelsea Pensioners!). It made the space feel enclosed and brought the design together. It’s a good example of how to use a bold structure in a small space, to make the garden feel bigger. I also loved the wooden bench in The Hospitalfield Arts Garden, although it wasn’t very comfortable to sit on! Unlike the comfy, curved seats in The Hospice UK: Garden of Compassion.
Rusty metal is still very on trend (but not for our Millbrook customers – every time we bring in rusty products they never sell!). My favourites were the use of metal in The Hospitalfield Arts Garden to create sand dunes, and in The Addleshaw Goddard: Freedom to Flourish Garden in the retaining walls and bridge. Look closely at the patterns in the gabion walls filled with tiles, stones and wood – which would also be great for wildlife!
My final structure top tip is to use plants! Striking stems of silver birch, balls of copper beech (they were everywhere), wonderful acers, lumpy moss, ferns and cordylines. Every garden needs some statement plants – and big is beautiful.
3. Think about colour
The Chelsea colour for 2025 was definitely purple. Dark purple copper beech topiary balls, glorious purple lupins and dark poppies, as seen in the RHS and BBC Radio 2 Dog Garden. Purple plants were blended with dark pink roses and contrasting orange geums, and in the Floral Marquee in amazing displays of alliums (my favourites). Not to forget the purple-toned panels of screen-printed glass in The King’s Trust Garden: Seeding Success.
Obviously, there were some other lovely colour combinations. I liked the soft silver, white and yellow in The King’s Trust Garden – it looked amazing against the grey crushed stone.
And finally, a subtle colour-matching triumph! The peach blossom of this climbing rose coordinated beautifully with the terracotta wall in The Hospice UK: Garden of Compassion.
4. Repetition
Once you’ve got your patterns, structure and colour sorted just run with them! Repetition is key to making a space feel coordinated. It also makes us feel more relaxed and calm. Repeating the same pattern or design draws you into a space, encouraging you to walk down paths, and can also make a small space feel larger. Keep your palette of colours and plants simple, and repeat them again and again – planting in bold blocks is the key to a beautiful garden.
In this garden, the yellow lupins are repeated on either side of the path, which really encourages you to walk down it.
My favourite copper beech balls! Look through this garden and the same plant is repeated three times diagonally down the space.
5. Usability
My final design tip (but perhaps not always a consideration at Chelsea) is how usable is your garden? As beautiful as they are, many of the show gardens are hard to imagine in real life, and it’s difficult to think how you would use the space if it was yours.
That is why I loved the RHS and Radio 2 Dog Garden so much. It actually had a lawn for dogs and people to play on, plus shade and a bench where you could relax. The vast majority of our real-life gardens will have a lawn – and it’s probably the most cost-effective design feature we can add to any outdoor space.
Most of us would like to sit and eat in our gardens, but it was also hard to find examples of dining sets on display. I think it's essential – whether it's a place to enjoy a coffee on a balcony, or a lovely big bench for 12! I really appreciated the balcony display gardens, which demonstrated how practical a tiny space can be, and how to get maximum enjoyment from your outdoor space – after all, that’s the inspiration we really want from the Chelsea Flower Show!
Feeling inspired? Pop in-store to shop our Chelsea plant collections at Millbrook – including our dog-friendly planting display inspired by the RHS & Radio 2 Dog Garden. If you’re just starting out on a new garden design, make sure to check out our easy planting plans, or ask our friendly team in-store for advice.
