Although Chelsea Flower Show is all done and dusted for this year, during our visit to the world-famous event, we kept an eye out for the top trends that can easily be replicated in your garden at home.
Purple and orange tones
At this year’s Chelsea Flower Show, the show gardens were awash with purple and orange shades. While purple is fantastic for creating a calm and soothing atmosphere in any garden, orange injects much needed colour for a happy, summery feel. Lavender was popular this year as many of the gardeners placed themes of reflection and relaxation at the forefront of their designs. However, L’Occitane’s Provence inspired garden used the scented drought-resistant shrub as the main focus of their rugged, arid landscape. While a bright orange container transformed into a garden room was the focal point of the official RHS Greening Grey Britain Garden, which will be relocated to Brixton’s Angell Town estate.
Meadow flowers
A number of show gardens utilised the wistful, delicate character of meadow flowers to create natural and organic looking landscapes. While in some gardens they introduced some much needed elegance into the abundance of grasses and dry shrubs that were bang on trend this year, other more luscious landscapes like the M&G Garden benefited from a pretty sprinkling of colour from meadow planting. This planting style is great if you’re looking for a low maintenance garden with bright flowers for visual and romantic appeal.
Luscious lawns
While tall blooms and mature planting give the impression of a well established garden, lawns definitely bring order back to some of the show gardens this year. In the World Vision Garden, waves of turf were cleverly laid to represent the ups and downs of life, while neat lawns in The Imperial Garden – Revive and the Chelsea Barracks Garden add a sense of calm and provide a serene space on which to enjoy the leafy surroundings.
Firepits
Winner of the coveted Best Show Garden award this year was Andy Sturgeon’s The Telegraph Garden. In amongst dramatic bronze sculptures, the seating area was centred round a firepit, which was a product that proved popular with this year’s stall holders. Not only can they be a sculptural focal point when they’re not lit, but they are great for keeping warm once the sun goes down. For a more artistic take on the trend, one of this year’s featured sellers was The Firepit Company, who handcraft a range of beautiful spherical firepits to order.
Foxgloves
If there’s one trend to take away from this 2016’s Chelsea Flower Show, it has to be foxgloves. Featured in the majority of the show gardens this year – including the Hartley Botanical Garden – the tall tubular shaped flowers are perfect for adding height and colour to your garden. Although great for attracting bees and easy to grow in a variety of soil types, they are poisonous, so we wouldn’t recommended growing them in places where pets can reach.
For those looking for more inspiration...
Take a look at properties with the best Chelsea Flower Show inspired gardens and indulge yourself with some urban garden design ideas. Or, why not browse through our home inspiration section for photos of our favourite ever gardens.
