RHS Hampton Court Palace Garden Festival
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For the Love of Lamiaceae – the aromatic plant family borders

The mint family stars in a range of feature borders at RHS Hampton Court Palace Garden Festival (1-6 July 2025) with seven designs by horticultural students, celebrating over 7,000 species of these well-known sensory plants

Following the success of last year’s beautiful All About Asteraceae borders, budding designers from the London College of Garden Design entered a competition to be part of the Festival, with a brief to create a planting scheme that showcases the diversity and versatility of the Lamiaceae family.

Mint imperial – a guide to the Lamiaceae family

Read more about these often-scented plants, widely used as culinary and medicinal herbs.

Mint imperial – a guide to the Lamiaceae family
The Hummingbird Haven by Ali Williams and Yvonne Price

The Hummingbird Haven by Ali Williams and Yvonne Price
This garden celebrates the connection that evolved between hummingbirds and Lamiaceae plants such as Salvia and Monarda. Featuring a curated selection of their favoured nectar-rich orange and red blooms, the planting creates an inviting habitat inspired by these fascinating pollinators. Enjoy a vibrant, immersive space with life-size sculptures of hummingbirds darting between flowers. The oval shape and curves of the bed are inspired by their elegant flight patterns. Plants are chosen that attract these birds by providing nectar-rich flowers, shelter, and nesting materials such as downy leaves and grass heads. Iridescent foliage and swaying grasses evoke the hummingbirds’ eye-catching plumage and acrobatic flight.

Woman-to-Woman by Ally Elphick, Charlotte Rose Wroe, Gill Hall and Irene Rosazza

Woman-to-Woman by Ally Elphick, Charlotte Rose Wroe, Gill Hall and Irene Rosazza
The garden aims to reignite the recognition of female ancient healing knowledge and celebrates oral tradition – the practice of passing down knowledge through spoken word or song. Long before Hippocrates, the ancient Greek physician regarded as ‘the father of modern medicine’, health and healing was a female domain of knowledge, received, preserved and transmitted from generation to generation. 

In Ancient Greek civilisations, gardens played a central role in the cultivation of plants for medicinal purposes and women used several species of Lamiaceae for health and healing, such as Vitex agnus-castus, Salvia, Stachys, Lavandula, Origanum, Mentha and many more. These plants are featured in the border to offer a fresh perspective on a medicinal planting and inspire visitors to consider both aesthetic and therapeutic properties when choosing garden plants.

The Sundowner Garden by Victoria Stanton, Kate Hyslop and Gina Liverton-Brown 

The Sundowner Garden by Victoria Stanton, Kate Hyslop and Gina Liverton-Brown
For generations, the Lamiaceae family has been highly valued and cultivated for flavour, fragrance and healing properties, used in ancient feasts and as the base for medicinal tonics. Sage, lavender, thyme, hyssop and basil have all been used in the Hampton Court Royal Palace kitchen garden since the 17th century and are used within the planting palette for a contemporary spin on how this plant family can provide beauty, enjoyment and relaxation in the garden.

These plants are often used to infuse flavours in cocktails, teas and syrups, inviting us to unwind and find stillness in the garden at the end of a busy day. Plants that invite the buzz of wildlife, look and smell beautiful but also add a stimulating flavour and aroma to every sip of your favourite sundowner. The planting is gentle and natural, in warm sunset tones with pops of joyful colour. A relaxed seating spot and reflective water bowl enhance the restful atmosphere – the perfect place for a mindful moment to enjoy your favourite drink and savour the beauty and aromas of the garden.

Coastal reflections by John Howlett

Coastal reflections by John Howlett
This garden is a love letter to the coast and a poignant reminder of rising sea levels and the vanishing shorelines caused by climate change. It celebrates the beauty and nostalgia of a sunset coastal walk, creating a sensory experience rooted in the colours and textures of plants from the Lamiaceae family, complemented by coastal-friendly elements. By showcasing the diversity of the Lamiaceae family, the aim is to craft a garden that not only honours the natural beauty of the coast but also nurtures the soul. With its calming scents and soothing atmosphere, the garden will invite visitors to pause and reflect on the urgent need to protect our coastline and the environment.
 
The design will centre around a coastal gravel garden, featuring plants that thrive in this unique environment. Drought-tolerant species and coastal-friendly plants, including fragrant herbs from the Lamiaceae family, like mints and thymes, will be used to evoke the sensory experience of a coastal sunset walk. The colours of the garden – shimmering blues and purples of the ocean fading into the warm reds and yellows of the setting sun – will provide a tranquil backdrop for quiet reflection. 

Herbal Fortress by Marlene Lento

Herbal Fortress by Marlene Lento
Herbal Fortress illustrates the antimicrobial power of Lamiaceae. The design mimics a petri dish and how essential oils extracted from members of this genus create ‘halos’ of defence when they are added to bacterial cultures in a lab. Islands of vigorous, vibrant flowers represent this effect while the surrounding planting evokes the shape and colouring of pathogens under a microscope. In light of the increasing resistance to pharmaceutical antibiotics, this Lamiaceae-only border revives the age-old knowledge of their natural defensive properties and immune-boosting effects.

Telling Stories, Making Memories by Ella Clarke and Sally Holder

Telling Stories, Making Memories by Ella Clarke and Sally Holder
Of the five senses, the sense of smell is the only one fully developed before we are born. Our earliest memories are laid down in scent and aromas can transport us back to a past time. In the brain, scent molecules are captured by the olfactory bulb which connects directly to the limbic system including the amygdala and hippocampus which are centres of emotion and memory. The design is an intimate and immersive space intended to connect generations of a family through the medium of scent, memory and shared stories.

Aromatic and tactile plants, principally from the Lamiaceae family, provide the jumping-off point for evocation, exploration and engagement. The design includes a cocooning seating area formed from gabion crates filled with reclaimed construction materials – themselves fragments of the past. The seat is reclaimed teak, silvered with age. Within and around this structure, planting pockets bring plants to eye level as well as offering a range of conditions to suit individual species.

The Garden of Simples by Susie Kennedy

The Garden of Simples by Susie Kennedy
Inspired by medieval and monastic healing gardens, the garden celebrates the healing properties of the Lamiaceae plant family. The garden aims to reflect the style, structure, skills and craftmanship that would have been used within a monastic garden and how the priests and monks, in line with their commitments to serve the poor and sick, created early centres of medicinal plant collections, that were the precursor to the physic and botanical gardens of today.

  • See all the winning For the Love of Lamiaceae borders at RHS Hampton Court Palace Garden Festival 1 – 6 July 2025

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What’s on at RHS Hampton Court Palace Garden Festival 2025

What’s on at RHS Hampton Court Palace Garden Festival 2025

Treat yourself to a delicious picnic to enjoy at the Festival

Treat yourself to a delicious picnic to enjoy at the Festival

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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.