Chelsea gears up for future of extremes as dry spring affects show preparations

Yahoo

18-05-2025

Gardens at this year's Chelsea Flower Show are focusing on a drier future as amateur gardeners – and professional show designers – struggle with the dry spring.
The Environment Agency has warned of the risk of drought this summer without sustained rainfall after the driest start to spring in nearly six decades, with millions of households told they may face restrictions on water use in the coming months.
The Royal Horticultural Society's (RHS) advisory team says it has seen a 20% increase in inquiries since the beginning of April, compared with the same period last year.
Most questions from anxious gardeners have been around plants either failing to flower or blooms going over, with spring-flowering plants such as lilac and wisteria being affected, the horticultural charity said.
With extremes of drought, heatwaves and floods set to become the norm with climate change, some gardens at the RHS's annual festival of gardening at the Royal Hospital Chelsea, London, are exploring what that future might look like.
The King's Trust garden has a focus on adapting to climate change and the ability of 'pioneering' plants to thrive in extreme rainfall and drought, to represent the resilience of young people supported by Charles's charity.
All hard surfaces and walling materials are being constructed using methods which do not need cement, creating permeable surfaces that can reduce flash flooding in intense rainfall events.
And many of the plants chosen are renowned for resilience and their ability to adapt, such as growing and seeding in a single season or regenerating after fire.
The Killik & Co Save For A Rainy Day garden was first inspired by considering which 'future trees' may be able to cope with more extreme drought, heat and floods in southern England in the face of climate change.
Designer Baz Grainger told the PA news agency: 'I came up with setting the garden 25 years ahead, how do southern English gardens evolve over the next 25 years, experiencing more flood and drought, and more unpredictability in the weather.'
The garden includes a 'flood zone' to channel the water into when it floods in heavy rain, along with permeable paths and water collection tanks, while the planting takes inspiration from southern France and northern Spain and trees have been chosen that are resilient to drought, flood and rising temperatures.
Elsewhere at the show the Garden of the Future is set in the near future, drawing on conditions and practices of farmers and growers in the global south.
It features drought-tolerant crops such as sweet potato and millet which can now be grown in the UK due to the changing climate and water-saving measures such as a green roof that collects water.
The Hospitalfield Arts garden designed by Nigel Dunnett is planted in sand, helping it cope with the current dry weather, while its dune landscape creates lower areas where rain can be collected when it does fall.
But the dry, sunny conditions have put some gardens under pressure as the builds progressed and meant changing some of the plants designers were expecting to use.
Horticulturist and TV presenter Monty Don, who has teamed up with the RHS to bring a 'dog garden' to the show, said the dry weather had been a 'double-edged sword'.
He said: 'It's meant the build has been infinitely easier and more pleasant, however it's meant quite a lot of the plants have gone over, and it's meant some plants that wouldn't be ready are.
'And it's meant we've had to water up to three times a day – and that's wasted time.
'The thing about watering is not that it's unpleasant, but it's another hour you're not planting.'
For Zoe Claymore, who is creating a temperate rainforest garden for the Wildlife Trusts to highlight a rare habitat that now covers less than 1% of Britain, the dry build-up has been a struggle for her moisture-loving ferns, mosses and woodland plants.
'We've had two people with 'ghostbuster backpacks' every day misting,' she said.
Julia Mitchell, of Green Jjam Nurseries, said the weather had made preparations for their display more difficult than usual, with plants either flowering earlier than usual or slowing down in growth.
She said: 'We are trying to move plants into shadier areas of the nursery and water more to keep them looking good and ready for RHS Chelsea.
'Our astrantia and achillea have both slowed right down but happily the lupins, which we didn't think would be ready in time, are now starting to flower.'
The RHS is advising amateur gardeners that established plants will 'for now' draw on soil moisture but new plants will need some watering.
The charity's Guy Barter said: 'Ideally use water from storage tanks and butts or waste water from the kitchen.'
He added: 'Careful weeding and mulching will conserve the soil moisture left over from winter rains.
'Mowing lawns slightly higher will help the sward grow strong roots to search out moisture and shade the soil surface.'