In this post, I’m sharing inspirations from the Chelsea Flower Show 2022 in UK: beautiful landscaping, creative garden designs, inspiring show gardens, and anything that caught my eyes during my visit, with ideas you can leverage for your own garden!
This spring, I went to UK with my husband. One of our stops is to visit the Chelsea Flower Show 2022 by the RHS in London.
The Chelsea Flower Show is hosted yearly by the Royal Horticultural Society. Each year, for several days, it wows visitors from all around the world with beautiful flower displays, inspiring garden design, as well as hundreds of shops in art, floral, and gardening fields.
Here are four themes that really stood out to me.
Chelsea Flower Show Video
Color & abundance in cottage garden
Visiting from the US, the biggest thing I notice about the British cottage garden is its abundance. It might be for the show effect, as in real life you may not pack the plants this densely. However, you have to admit the impact it makes seeing all the beautiful plants thriving at the same time, it just makes a great show!
When it comes to cottage garden design, one big takeaway is to choose the garden color palette well. Most of the show gardens I visited at Chelsea Flower Show have a pretty simple color palette: white & green, pink & yellow, white and purple, etc. Some gardens may feature three or more main colors but they have calculated the proportions well so it never feels too busy.
In this raised flower bed, I felt the feelings of spring: happiness and abundance. I love the soft gentle color of creamy yellow, apricot, light pink, and pops of fuchsia in the back.
This garden designer has done an awesome job at packing a bunch of plants in a harmonious way by dividing and grouping plants. Although this show garden featured many different types of plants, it doesn’t feel chaotic at all. By getting multiples of the same plants and place them together, while mixing textures between groupings, it creates such an interesting but harmonious landscape.
This was one for the first show gardens that took my breath away. I love how this garden features a variety of flowers, with its color staying within the warm color palette, ranging from yellow to pink. The use of color of the hardscaping works well and stays within the color palette.
A closer view from the garden above. Note how each flower bed has its own color palette, and how well each garden bed work together, but sharing one or more colors so they flow nicely.
Outstanding water feature design
Water features make a huge impact to a garden. They add a new dimension to the garden space that is just irreplaceable by other things.
Here I chose a few show gardens showcasing water in very interesting ways. Perhaps we can incorporate those ideas for our own garden, maybe on a smaller scale.
Something interesting about this garden is how the patio is built on top of water, whereas in most the gardens water feature is added to a patio. It creates a more peaceful and zen moment when walking on the water.
I also love the water drop shaped blue container which is used as a fountain.
I like this fountain idea a lot because of how much it resembles nature. It is such an interesting idea to use a giant rock serving as a mini fountain, and let the water gets pumped out from the top creates a mini waterfall. It is especially realistic as the water falls right into a pond.
This living space(or water cabin?) on the water is just adorable. The modernism of the building combined with naturalistic garden design forms an interesting contrast.
I love the use of giant flagstones as steps leading up to the patio of this living space.
Another wow moment I had during this year’s Chelsea Flower Show. It might be a little hard to catch on the photo above, since I captured it with my iPhone.
I love the water cycling through several gardens features, plus the motion and sound comes with it. See how the chain on the top right corner is directing the water to the water wheel, and the water wheel carries the water to a few steps trickling down to the bottom left corner.
This show garden is called Circle of Life, which is very on point. Here’s a photo I found on Chelsea Flower Show official site.
Elevated lounge space to enjoy your garden
Creating and maintaining a beautiful garden is nothing of an easy job, so let’s make sure we can spend time to enjoy our garden throughout the seasons. Grab a cup of tea, take a walk or just sit down and read a book in the garden, to enjoy the reward from nature for your hard work.
There are a few show garden which features great living space inside nature.
If you found the pattern of this pergola somewhat familiar, you might have guessed who designed this garden – Morris & Co, featuring one of the iconic William Morris patterns.
This garden provides an interesting idea: we can be very creative with garden structures. Instead of using a slatted or solid surface, why not add some patterns that showcase plants.
Even the outdoor furniture features fabrics in classic William Morris design.
What a cool outdoor space! Although the patio area features quite some modern design style, they blend in really well with the plants, because of the shape and color choices. This garden is clean, sharp, with lots of depth.
Another photo featuring the same show garden I shared earlier in this post. I love how the house connects to a generous patio area to take full advantage of the outdoors. Add in a couple of lounge chairs, and I can sit there all day long.
Creative ways to use common materials for your garden
This year is Chelsea flower show is full of innovative ideas for gardening. Here are some creative ways to use natural materials for garden structure, 100% made in nature.
Maybe you can these ideas use for your own garden journey too!
I had to snap a picture when I saw this – using crushed seashells as mulch to cover soil is such a genius idea! I
Next time I go to the beach, I’ll definitely bring a bag to collect all those small pieces of broken shells to top off the soil for my indoor plants.
Using tree trunks as trellis for climbing roses? Why I hadn’t thought of that! The beautiful flowers add interests to the bare trunk on the lower portion a tree. And what makes a sturdier trellis than a tree trunk? I’m sure it will never fall over during a windy day.
Although this garden features symmetrical design and formality, I found it to be whimsical at the same time because of those umbrella-looking trees!
If you have a large garden area that needs some shade, maybe try training your trees to grow like an umbrella.
Another whimsical show garden space. Using a slice of tree trunk to create a path above water feels magical. The use of wood logs to elevate the bridge is equally important to this look.
Chelsea Flower Show final thoughts
Although we had to move our plans around to accommodate visiting this year’s Chelsea Flower Show, it is definitely worth it! Seeing many amazing gardening and landscaping ideas, plus discovering new plants is a memorable experience for garden enthusiasts like me.
I hope you enjoy this posts! And maybe walk away with some good ideas for your own garden design?
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