Floristry and floral design at RHS Chelsea 2026

By Dimitris Koutroumpas X Gaia Eros Florals, sponsored by Relove Technology

By combining reclaimed technology with mushrooms, this display explores the success that occurs when human systems mirror natural ones. Here, the internet is used to model a co-supportive mycelium network, forming a symbolic ‘wood wide web’, while the colour scheme is informed by seasonal British woodland plants. Native, responsibly grown fungi form part of an interactive sound installation by biogenic composer Alex H Duncan, who uses MIDI-gathered data to evoke the hidden world of the mycorrhizosphere and beyond, showing how individual ambitions can benefit whole ecosystems.

By OF A space, Wagner Kreusch and FridaKim Flowers

Slow Dream imagines the garden as a newly forming territory, a microcosm that is still becoming, rather than a finished decorative arrangement. Burnt elements mark attempts, failures and renewal, while blackened matter evokes new landscapes emerging after volcanic eruptions. A dark palette creates a dreamlike atmosphere, recalling how dreams are often experienced in black and white. Shaped by terrestrial and extra-terrestrial conditions, the display is guided by a single question: what is a plant if not a slow imagination of place?

By Acacia Creative Studio sponsored by Tom Brown and Flowex

A sculptural journey through the scientific process of photosynthesis, this installation explores the hidden chemistry that allows light to become life. Four interconnected parts trace the lifecycle of chlorophyll, a pigment that makes photosynthesis possible, from its peak through a transition of tone and final return to earth. Colour becomes the narrative: from vibrant green growth to warm, decomposing browns, each stage represents evolution. The message is to reconsider decay as essential to ecological balance. By making the invisible processes of plant life visible, the work encourages reflection on nature’s cycles, as well as our place within them.

By Jade Loftus Floral Design sponsored by Rooted Florals

Taking visual cues from laboratory microscope slides and cellular forms, Nature Magnified highlights the unseen systems that underpin plant growth and enlarges these structures to human scale. Suspended, translucent layers of fresh botanical elements are arranged within a freestanding framework to create depth, rhythm and a sense of floating observation, evoking the experience of looking through a microscope. By magnifying nature’s geometries that are normally invisible to the human eye, this installation encourages us to observe the complexity of plant life beyond the surface.

By Anita Li, A&F Floral Art and Design

A sense of movement and surprise underpins this exhibit, intentionally designed to feel a little out of control. Flowers appear to burst and float, suspended between science and magic like fragments of a dream. Muted tones are layered with a vibrant palette to create contrast and energy, and exotic plants introduce an unexpected lightness. Capturing the moment when, during an experiment, something unexpected has just come to life, Botanical Alchemy is all about nature’s ability to surprise and to find its own way to bloom.

By Hanako Motoya, hanaikebito

Just as a single seed can grow into a beautiful flower, the vivid energy at the heart of this display reflects the beauty and strength of life. A sense of purity, calm and mystery is heightened by panels of white washi paper that partially veil the centre. Here, red flowers such as peonies and natural branches are woven together into a nest-like sculpture resembling a cell or core – the origin of life. Inspired by the Japanese art of ikebana, the composition embraces restraint rather than abundance, seeking to reveal beauty through simplicity. 

By Nikki Wright Floral Design

Rooted in the theory of micropropagation and the natural cycle of growth, this display takes the viewer on a visual journey from seed through germination to full bloom. Glass test tubes filled with seed pods and seedlings introduce rhythm and movement, guiding the eye upwards from softly toned planting. At the top, orchids, anthuriums and sculptural flowering forms erupt in colour. Rather than presenting flowers as an outcome, this floral laboratory reveals the hidden stages of growth, emphasising the role humans play in the propagation of plant material. 

By Dawn Allen, Peninsula Wildflower, sponsored by East Coast Wild Flowers, Proteaflora, Wafex and Gordon Studio

A celebration of Australian native flowers, this futuristic installation explores evolution and how nature can flourish within the boundaries of a science environment. Layered seed pods develop into plants, culminating in a floral cloud in full bloom where Banksia (Australian honeysuckle) takes centre stage. Muted tones, punctuated by bursts of colour, bring the space to life, as the designer pays homage to Australia and to what living there has allowed him to become. 

By Hedy Leung, partnered by Rescued Clay

How can waste become meaningful again? Choreographical Honey 2026 explores care, collaboration and renewal through the shared act of making. The work brings together ‘clay caregivers’ from the London-based ceramic studio Rescued Clay, who have transformed discarded construction clay into beehive-like vessels. Inspired by the social choreography of bee colonies – the waggle dance – these Ikebana compositions engage shared acts of care, while medicinal plants symbolise the healing power of nature. Together, these elements reflect on how collective effort can regenerate both matter and community.

By James Edward Buswell

Aspirin is considered the first synthetic, mass-produced pharmaceutical. Under the microscope, this chemical compound forms kaleidoscopic shapes, which inspire this suspended floral sculpture. Visitors encounter crystalline, fan-like structures that appear to float, while the colour palette is taken directly from the compound. Soft blues, whites and purples, with bursts of yellow and vibrant pink, translate scientific imagery into an immersive art installation. Fresh flowers and dried materials are combined, with willow – containing the natural precursor to aspirin – reinforcing the story that modern medicine is rooted in nature.

By Helen Pannitt, Helen James Flowers, sponsored by Flowervision Lancashire

Imagined within the atrium of a research centre or modern gallery, this exhibit embodies the search for a zero-emission, sustainable energy source that defines our era. The moment of creation deriving from the scientific principles of fusion and fission is expressed through light, movement and a sense of possibility. The sculptural form evokes an explosion of atoms, while the colours suggest energy moving through space and a process of transformation. This interplay of chaos and harmony, destruction and renewal, captures the optimistic spirit of change at the heart of our journey towards a cleaner future.

By Vanessa Merwood, Vanessa Jayne Floral Design

Nature as Laboratory challenges the idea that laboratories must be sterile places, showing that botany can be studies observing life as it thrives. A soft palette celebrates the character, form and beauty of seasonal, British-grown stems. Materials such as clay and iron are also incorporated to reflect the importance of earth and its elements. As willow bark contains salicin, a precursor to aspirin, its inclusion represents the impact of botanical discoveries on our daily lives.

By Emma Mcgeehan, Orchis Floral Design, sponsored by CGI

This upright and inverted landscape explores plant adaptation in microgravity. The design is deliberately clean and experimental – minimal at first glance, yet full of flowers and natural materials on closer inspection – and features structures where the natural world meets futuristic intervention. The roots of Triticum aestivum (common wheat) are used as a natural mechanism to hold the composition together, while oversized dandelion clocks dominate the space. Often considered weeds, these flowers take on an alien form, becoming the focal point of this dual-state floral experiment.