We Predict These 7 Garden Trends Will Surge in Popularity in 2025

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The annual RHS Chelsea Flower Show, known around the VERANDA offices as the world’s best garden party, is a fabulous event for spotting royals and celebs, from Queen Camilla and King Charles, who was named patron of the Royal Horticultural Society ahead of his visit to this year’s show, to British acting legends like Dame Judi Dench and Joan Collins. And thanks to Netflix's The Bridgerton Garden designed by Holly Johnston, the press preview day was abuzz with stars from the Shondaland series, including Ruth Gemmell (Violet Bridgerton), Hannah Dodd (Francesca Bridgerton), and Adjoa Andoh (Lady Danbury).

But any garden lover will tell you that the true stars of the RHS Chelsea Flower Show are the plants themselves—and the genius landscape designers who concoct artful, inventive, and soul-stirring plots in just a few weeks’ time (granted with months of planning). With RHS Gold Medals and the coveted Best in Show prize at stake (not to mention the pressure of a visit from King Charles), landscape designers and their contractor partners go all out with their best work, making the RHS Chelsea one of the best places for spotting emerging garden trends.

This year’s show did not disappoint, with 35 garden spaces across four categories (Show Gardens, Sanctuary Gardens, All About Plants, and Balcony & Container Gardens) offering inspiration and ideas for every style, garden size, and budget. Needless to say, it left us feeling excited for what's next in the gardening world. Read on to discover seven beautiful garden trends that will be huge in the months and years to come.

Forest Gardens

Without a doubt, forest gardens were the most popular style seen at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show this year. Consisting of a mix of perennials in layers from groundcovers and shrubs to climbers and trees, forest gardens are designed to mimic a diverse forest ecosystem in which each species is mutually beneficial to another.

One reason why they are surging in popularity: “Forest gardens help people to unwind and connect with nature, and that’s increasingly attractive for those with busy lives,” says Ula Maria, designer of this year’s Best-in-Show Garden, the Muscular Dystrophy U.K – Forest Bathing.

Maria was inspired by Shinrin-yoku, the ancient Japanese practice of forest bathing—the “simple act of mindfully being in the forest and trying to reconnect with nature”— which has proven health benefits like lowering heart rates and cortisol levels and alleviating symptoms of depression. Another benefit of forest gardens? Because they are comprised of perennials, they typically require less maintenance and thus carry less environmental impact. Add in their biodiversity benefits and the appeal only grows.

Some favorite forest garden plants blooming at RHS Chelsea this year included medlar trees (Mespillus germanica), hazel (Corylus avellana), hops (Humuluslupulus), bistort (Bistorta officinalis), and wild strawberry (Fragaria vesca).

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Water-Wise Trees

With much of the world experiencing more dramatic swings between deluge and drought, many landscape designers at this year’s RHS Chelsea trained their focus on resilient plants that can tolerate either or both. Nowhere was that on greater display than in the WaterAid Garden, a gold medal show garden designed by Tom Massey and architect Je Ahn, featuring plants adapted to thrive in a range of conditions, from very wet to very dry.

Among the plants selected for their resilience: alder trees (Alnus glutinosa), a swamp-tolerant species that actually hardens when submerged for long periods of time. As an added bonus, its nitrogen-capturing roots are able to absorb toxic heavy metals, helping to restore contaminated soil. Other water-wise trees on display at RHS Chelsea included: white beam (Sorbus aria) and field maple (Acer campestre), which cope well with periods of drought; black birch (Betula nigra), tolerant of prolonged periods of damp soil; and coral bark willow (Salix alba ‘Britzensis’), a flood resilient species that can act as a natural water filter.

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Irises

Standing taller than most of their floral counterparts in shades of regal violet, elegant white, and fiery oranges and yellows, irises seemed to be popping up everywhere at RHS Chelsea this year—and with good reason. These relatively hardy perennials can thrive in a variety of conditions, from full sun to partial shade. While most varieties prefer drier conditions (most are even considered drought tolerant), some varieties, such as Japanese irises, thrive on moisture. Furthermore, most irises bloom in late spring or early summer, marking the change in season with showy color.

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Portal-Like Structures

RHS Chelsea landscape designers seemed particularly enthralled with creating gardens that reflected journeys of transformation this year, whether channeling the narrative of Bridgerton’s Penelope Featherington, as Holly Johnston did in her silver medal sanctuary Bridgerton garden, or designing a restorative space for torture survivors on their journey to recovery, as Emma O’Connell and John Warland did in their silver medal sanctuary garden The Freedom from Torture Garden.

A defining characteristic of both spaces: portal-like structures that mark transformation along the journey. In their garden, O’Connell and Warland divided the space with arches of sculptural willow designed to offer organic places of rest and meditation. In the Bridgerton garden, Johnston installed a traditional moon gate to mark passageway into a private space where her muse, Penelope, can feel safe reconciling her two personas.

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Color-Blocked Plantings

Leveraging sight, fragrance, and sound, landscape designers leaned into sensory experiences at this year’s RHS Chelsea to thrilling effect. For Miria Harris, designer of the Stroke Associations Garden for Recovery, a bronze medal show garden, that started with color: Harris planted complementary color-blocked schemes of pink, orange, yellow, purple, and green hues to guide visitors along different routes through the garden.

Elsewhere, such as in the silver-gilt show garden Terrence Higgins Trust Bridge to 2030 Garden or the gold medal sanctuary garden World Child Cancer's Nurturing Garden, landscape designers adopted similar approaches, clustering plants of similar hues together for maximal visual impact.

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Sustainable Hardscapes

Each year, RHS Chelsea increases its focus on sustainable garden practices. For example, this year all show garden proposals were put through a “rigorous green audit to determine their effect on the environment” and all gardens must be relocated or repurposed after the show. Following suit are all participating designers, many of whom used repurposed or low-impact hardscapes in their gardens.

Take the gold medal sanctuary garden, World Child Cancer Nurturing Garden, designed by Giulio Giorgi. Its primary feature is a series of circular raised beds created from 3D-printed terracotta blocks that are designed to fit together like Legos, without requiring concrete or chemical glues. The Italian landscape designer paved the paths between the beds with reclaimed bricks.

The show is moving towards no concrete use, notes Richard Curle, managing director of Landscape Associates. “Any we do use is cement-free, which reduces carbon emissions by as much as 80%, he says. “At the Show, we started using reusable screw piles—which wind into the ground—in place of concrete. We use them in our own yard now, so Chelsea is definitely an influencer!”

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Carnivorous Plants

One of most highly trafficked gardens at this year’s show was the No Adults Allowed Garden, designed by Harry Holding in collaboration with 29 students from Sullivan Primary School. As its name suggests, only people under 30 (with the exclusion of Holding, who turned 30 while working on the garden and was granted a pass by his collaborators) are allowed entry.

The garden features a fantastical mix of landscapes, from woodlands and meadows to wetlands and a partially subterranean den, accessible only via a slide. Among the students’ creative contributions: carnivorous plants, including 40 Venus flytraps (Dionaea muscipula) and trumpet pitchers (Sarracenia). While promoting engagement with nature among adults and children alike, these plants also provide natural pest control, trapping gnats, flies and other bugs.

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