RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2025 designers share the stories behind their gardens

RHS Chelsea Flower Show demonstrates how powerful our gardens can be in telling the stories of our lives and celebrating the things we really care about

Behind every green space, there is a great story. The RHS ‘Your Space, Your Story’ theme for 2025, which celebrates the individuality of all gardeners and how gardens can bring to life our greatest loves, is taking centre stage at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show.

From art to woodlands, from our pets to our mental health, this year’s Show demonstrates how gardens can become the most amazing places to tell stories about the people, pets, and pursuits that matter most to us.

The ADHD Foundation Garden

Designed by Katy Terry

The ADHD Foundation Garden aims to be a celebration of neurodiversity and reflects designer Katy Terry’s personal journey after being diagnosed with ADHD in 2023. The design is ‘modern formal’, with whimsical and relaxed planting arrangements among topiary. The plant selection has been chosen to provide a subliminal effect on the senses, inducing a sense of calm and rest from an overactive mind.

“For me, this is taking a pause in nature – being in a space with organic shapes, floral scents and opulent hues induces internal calm, breaks from the noise and quiets the mind, which is how I want a garden to make me feel. By drawing parallels with horticulture and the human world, we will break down misconceptions by showing that plants, like us, don’t always behave as expected.”To stress the concept of human diversity, the garden features diverse planting combinations – along with a variety of colours, shapes and textures – and five suspended umbrellas, one of which has the logo of the ADHD Foundation: The Neurodiversity Charity, symbolising the one in five people who have a neurodevelopmental condition.

Discover more about The ADHD Foundation Garden

Katy’s take-home:

Thinking differently is a strength
The world of horticulture, with its rich tapestry, mirrors the splendid nature of our minds.

The Hospitalfield Arts Garden

Designed by Nigel Dunnett

The Hospitalfield Arts Garden takes its inspiration from the location of Hospitalfield Arts on the east coast of Scotland, with its continuous, soft, fragile and precious sand dune landscape. “Hospitalfield inspired me to create a garden with a strong sense of place and local distinction,” said the designer, Nigel Dunnett. “Hence the dramatic forms and shapes, the resilient coastal planting and the use of materials like sand.” This is not only the setting for art practice – with an ‘artist bothy’ studio and workspace sitting at the heart of the design – but also a place where artists can garden, nestled into the surrounding sandbanks. “I haven’t tried to copy the local landscape, but to interpret it with an artist’s eyes.”

Discover more about The Hospitalfield Arts Garden

Nigel’s take-home:

This is not a flat garden. Having high and low points allows for the maximisation of different conditions and microclimate in the space
Gardening and garden design can be seen as an art form, rather than just a practicality.

Komorebi Garden

Designed by Masa Taniguchi

As the name suggests, the theme of this garden is Komorebi, a Japanese word for when light pierces through a tree canopy and the gently swaying branches make shadows dance on the ground. “People in Japan have sought out forests as a retreat where you can breathe fresh air and feel nature. Reimagining my childhood holidays in the Japanese Alps and things I have seen in my travels, I intend to create a place where a forest and people get closer,” said the designer.Key components of the garden include seven birch trees and the use of charcoal, which is used in Japan to purify air and water. “I want those who visit my garden to feel relaxed, as if they were in a forest. Gardening is my safe space, and it helped me go through anxiety and depression.”

Discover more about the Komorebi Garden

Masa’s take-home:

A garden can be a special place to retreat and reminisce, somewhere to connect with your memories and nature.

The Wildlife Trusts’ British Rainforest Garden

Designed by Zoe Claymore

The Wildlife Trusts’ British Rainforest Garden rekindles the wild and wet woodlands that once swathed vast landscapes throughout the UK and celebrates the efforts The Wildlife Trusts are making to bring those lost British rainforests back to life. “Creating this garden makes me feel like I were five years old again, when I used to walk in those woodlands,” said designer Zoe Claymore.By incorporating relevant forest elements like moss, ferns and wet, the garden should act as a launch point to discuss the charity’s 100-year Atlantic Rainforest Restoration programme, which aims to replant over 1,700 hectares of forest.

Discover more about The Wildlife Trusts’ British Rainforest Garden

Zoe’s take-home:

Moss is a plant. Don't scrub it from your garden... it’s there for a reason!

Other gardens embracing the ‘Your Space, Your Story’ theme

The RHS and Radio 2 Dog Garden, a celebration of our deep love of dogs and the gardens that we share with them;
The London Square Chelsea Pensioners Garden, an accessible and secluded space inspired by past experiences of the Chelsea Pensioners where different generations can come together;
MS Amlin Peace of Mind Garden, which uses the psychology of colour and colour therapy with plants and the positive impact they have on wellbeing;
Navium Marine: Blue Mind Garden, a balcony garden to reflect on our connections to the sea, where water is used to create a restorative space to be calm.

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The Royal Horticultural Society is the UK’s leading gardening charity. We aim to enrich everyone’s life through plants, and make the UK a greener and more beautiful place.