![\"Parkinson's](\"https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/10\/2026\/05\/Web-Use-Chelsea2026H8A0684May-17-2026-ab3262c.jpg\" "\\"Parkinson's")
<\/p>\nWe\u2019ve had water features at Chelsea before, of course, but they are everywhere in 2026. You could almost rename it the Chelsea Water Show. In the Parkinson\u2019s UK garden, below, Arit Anderson\u2019s snaking Accoya wood \u2018hand rill\u2019 ties the whole space together. It\u2019s a dual-purpose affair \u2013 at once a supportive handrail and a lovely, gently flowing water feature. In the Tate Britain garden, there\u2019s another sinuous rill, while in both the Eden Project\u2019s ‘Bring Me Sunshine’ garden and Kazuyuki Ishihara\u2019s Japanese courtyard, water is present in calming reflective pools. Elsewhere, there\u2019s bubbling, trickling and gurgling galore \u2013 into copper cauldrons, recycled planters, stone urns and even from copper stills to wooden casks in May Starey\u2019s ‘Fettercairn: The Angels’ Share’ balcony garden.<\/p>\n
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![\"Lady](\"https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/10\/2026\/05\/Web-Use-Chelsea2026H8A0453May-17-2026-64edf72.jpg\" "\\"Lady")
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In 2023 the sandstone and terracotta palette of Sarah Price\u2019s Nurture Landscapes garden kicked off a trend that\u2019s reached its scorched-earth peak this year. Provence-based James Basson\u2019s Project Giving Back space features towering weathered red sandstone cliffs anchored in pine woodland, a powerful space very much rooted in the south of France. The Lady Garden Foundation by Darren Hawkes is dominated by five sculptural clay forms immersed in soft planting, while the ochre pathways in Sarah Eberle\u2019s ‘On the Edge’ garden are striking in their richness. Finally, a favourite spot for Frances Tophill in her feature garden: a lime-rendered wall in terracotta and saffron. There\u2019s no doubt these colours make greens pop and muted pastels sing in harmony.<\/p>\n
![\"The](\"https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/10\/2026\/05\/Web-Use-Chelsea2026Z5A0149May-17-2026-5af5635.jpg\" "\\"The")
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At the heart of Frances Tophill\u2019s The RHS and The King’s Foundation Curious Garden is a fascination for rural crafts, in particular dyes and pigments. Dye plants and richly coloured perennials such as \u2018Black Knight\u2019 delphiniums and midnight blue irises reflect the inky theme. Elsewhere, plants such as Salvia nemorosa<\/em> \u2018Caradonna\u2019, great urns of near-black agapanthus, airy wine-coloured verbascums, Lysimachia ciliata<\/em> ‘Firecracker’ and the rich burgundy-hued foliage of physocarpus and black elder show how a palette majoring in deep, moody tones can bring drama to your garden stage.<\/p>\n It\u2019s not the first time Chelsea has showcased some brilliant water-saving\/diversion ideas, but this year, designers have really upped the ante. Clever hexagonal planters are at the heart of John Howlett\u2019s Persian-inspired ‘Contain the Rain’ urban space, while heading indoors for inspiration, the ‘Hanging Gardens of Botanica’ demonstrate water conservation and evapotranspiration with a series of hanging planters in round terracotta pots.<\/p>\n The sunny mix of edibles and traditional decorative plants in The Eden Project\u2019s ‘Bring me Sunshine’ garden is hugely inspiring, with coastal edibles such as samphire and sea kale giving Chelsea favourites such as alliums and irises a run for their money. In fact, you can hardly move for tasty morsels popping up among the ornamentals this year. Again, Frances Tophill\u2019s garden is a great place to let the eye wander: curly kale with poppies, pomegranate trees and cabbages\u2026 There are scores of ideas to take home and bring to life in a standard urban or rural garden.<\/p>\n While a full-scale replica of Sarah Eberle\u2019s jaw-dropping Mother Nature sculpture, in her garden ‘On the Edge’, is unlikely in most of our gardens, this is a trend ripe for tweaking and borrowing. The garden is all about the fragile fringes that lie between town and country, under pressure from development, and these could have manifestations galore at home, from re-wilding parts of the garden to creating smaller-scale artworks from fallen branches or simply embracing the naturalistic look that benefits biodiversity so profoundly.<\/p>\n For the second time in 113 years, Chelsea\u2019s lifted its ban on these cheeky charmers. There are celeb-decorated gnomes up for auction for the RHS Campaign for School Gardening, and we\u2019re on board. You can bid for a top-tier gnome painted by the likes of Bill Bailey, Sir Brian May, Dame Mary Berry or Cate Blanchett, or unleash your own creativity to welcome a family of bright, brash beauties or a more retiring pastel-hued clan. After all, gardening is about creativity and fun, so there really is gnome limit\u2026<\/p>\n Sexy gardens<\/strong> AI<\/strong> 1: Water features to calm your spirits We\u2019ve had water features at Chelsea before, of course, but they are everywhere in 2026. You could almost rename it the Chelsea Water Show. In the Parkinson\u2019s UK garden, below, Arit Anderson\u2019s snaking…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1342,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1341","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-1"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tadoley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1341"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tadoley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tadoley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tadoley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tadoley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1341"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.tadoley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1341\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tadoley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1342"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tadoley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1341"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tadoley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1341"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tadoley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1341"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n4: Creative water-saving to fight floods and drought<\/h3>\n
\n![\"The](\"https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/10\/2026\/05\/Web-Use-Chelsea2026H8A0730May-17-2026-3421ec3.jpg\" "\\"The")
<\/p>\n5: Edimentals to feed your soul<\/h3>\n
\n![\"The](\"https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/10\/2026\/05\/Web-Use-Chelsea2026H8A0377May-17-2026-fb63ce8.jpg\" "\\"The")
<\/p>\n6: Being present with Mother Nature<\/h3>\n
\n![\"Harkness](\"https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/10\/2026\/05\/Press-Chelsea2026H8A1172May-18-2026-05b67b1.jpg\" "\\"Harkness")
<\/p>\n7: Gnomes, gnomes and more gnomes<\/h3>\n
\n\u2026 and two you might just want to run from?<\/h3>\n
![\"Lovehoney](\"https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/10\/2026\/05\/Press-Chelsea2026Z5A0062-4May-17-2026-e9db7b0.jpg\" "\\"Lovehoney")
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With Lovehoney sponsoring an Aphrodite-themed \u2018pleasure garden\u2019 at Chelsea this year, some fans of the show might<\/em> say the organisers have gone a step too far. There\u2019s no tasteful terracotta in ‘Aphrodite’s Hothouse’, just a big, bold riot of red and green and a hothouse stuffed with lush, sultry plants designed to tease and seduce. We love it, but run if you blush easily.<\/p>\n
Garden designer Matt Keightley has landed the cat slap bang among the pigeons with Spacelift, an app that\u2019s designed three gardens at Chelsea this year. The impact of AI on garden design is a serious conversation that needs to be had, and Matt is a brilliantly talented designer, but before you blindly rush out to overhaul your own plot based on the suggestions of AI, remember that successful design isn\u2019t simply about plants and patio paving. It\u2019s about how your garden works for you, where the light falls on a sunny September morning, and what makes your heart sing.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"