Perfect planting combinations at RHS Malvern 2026

Planting design is not an exact science. Sometimes you should just go with your instinct and if you want to plant a vivid red daylilly with a flourescent pink dahlia, who’s to stop you? However, the joy of attending an RHS Flower Show is being able to see how the experts do it, and steal their oh-so-brilliantly-given ideas.

Greens and blues

With its feet dipping in the cooling waters of the After the Rain border, the china blue Iris sibirica ‘Perry’s Blue’ sits at just the right height above the textural foliage of hostas, including Hosta ‘Devon Green’, Hosta ‘Halcyon’ and Hosta ‘Krossa Regal’. Dotted throughout are dusky pink geums, which give just that little hint of warmth. Designer Tomas Olesen’s top tip for keeping slugs at bay from your hostas: “Garlic spray. Try it, it works!”

Watery wonders in the After the Rain border

Purity and freshness

Green and white is just the most sublime, tried-and-tested colour combination in any garden. In the Primavera border, designer Damien Michel has paired a bright white, flowering saxifrage with a Pinus mugo – one the perfect foil for the other – ideal for an acidic soil.  The flat dome of the saxifrage leaves snuggle close to the strong, spreading uprights of the dwarf pine. The look is completed with groundhugging sedums and a layer of pale grey slate as a mulch.

Dainty white meets strong green in the Primivera border

Magical mix

White and silver work so well together, creating an ethereal lift that oozes atmosphere in a border. In Megan Dodd’s Finding Balance border, the silver speckled leaves of Pittosporum tenuifolium ‘Irene Paterson’ jostle for attention with a white flowering Veronica gentianoides ‘Tissington White’, both happy in a sunny spot but the Veronica is content in the dappled shade of a tree.

Silver and white make an ethereal pair in the Finding Balance border

Tree tones

The pretty planting on The Crafted Garden highlights a typical woodland scheme, with a focal white-barked birch tree, mid layer shrubs such as Viburnum and an underplanting of ferns and shade loving perennials. These are all plants that are readily available in plant nurseries and garden centres, and come in many varieties, so this is an ideal combination to replicate in a shady area of your garden. 

The tree bark provides the core of this combination on The Crafted Garden

Go Wild

If colour is your thing just go for it! Colours that sit opposite each other on the traditional colour wheel can look vivacious and fun, so mix them up to create a wild spash in your garden, or even better plant them in a container or a group of pots.  On the Beauty is in the Eye of the Beholder border, designer Adam Marshall has gone full rainbow with incredible effect. The colour just jumps straight out at you but with an anchoring water feature and a sea of green, maximalism can really work. Plants that feature are colourful shades of geums, camassias, alliums and foxgloves.

Go wild with colour, seen here on the Beauty is in the Eye of the Beholder border