Great ideas to take home from the show

A visit to Hampton Court Palace Flower Show can inspire dozens of creative ideas for your own garden. Here's some advice on themes to try from this year's show.

Grow tree ferns

The Azorean Garden features a number of sub-tropical plants found in the Azores, such as tree ferns. They look spectacular, and you’d be forgiven for thinking it’s too cold to grow them in the UK. But with a bit of special care, these plants are surprisingly easy for gardeners to grow at home.

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Plant vertical

Green walls are becoming more and more popular with space-strapped gardeners. Many types of plants will tolerate the high life in a green wall, from herbs and fruit to grasses and ferns. Make sure you see Old & New for a cottage garden themed-wall, and Live Outdoors for a lush green living wall.

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Clip some topiary

Pristine topiary hedges are no longer the exclusive preserve of the formal garden. Old & New, Contemporary Contemplation and the Essential Indulgence all show how you can use formal topiary shapes with informal planting.

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Go wildlife friendly

Get your garden buzzing with butterflies and bees by adding a few of their favourite plants. The Butterfly Jungles Transitions garden shows off a wide range of butterfly-friendly plants, including wildflowers and exotics; while A Compromising Situation shows what can be planted on a smaller scale.

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Graceful grasses

Grasses are not the showiest of garden plants, but they are excellent stalwarts for year round interest. There are so many colours, shapes and sizes, you can find one to suit any garden. Look how they’ve been used in Social Deckworking, the Landform Garden and Our First Home, Our First Garden.

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Ideas for pergolas

Not only do pergolas give structure, but they also provide a shady canopy for the seating area beneath. You’ll see lots of examples at the show this year, particularly in the Low Cost, High Impact Garden category: Live Outdoors, Summer in the Garden and a Compromising Situation.

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