Chelsea Flower Show takeaways for your OWN garden

The Show Gardens at this year’s RHS Chelsea Flower Show – currently in full bloom in London’s SW3 postcode – have seen royals and celebrities cooing at their creativity. 

While those gardens scooping Gold, Silver and Bronze awards have been painstakingly put together over many months – and often with very healthy budgets – there are certain elements that green-fingered amateurs can recreate in their own back gardens. 

BBC Two’s coverage this week of the annual event has highlighted a handful of garden trends, including ‘rewilding’ – letting your space grow to encourage birds and insets, a passion for rust-effect planters and Japanese-style gardens.  

Here, FEMAIL picks out the takeaways that can enhance your own green space. 

MAKE ROOM FOR A (GOURMET) MUSHROOM  

Magical: Presenter Adam Frost took a dive into the mushroom den in the Centre for Mental Health’s The Balance Garden – with mushrooms featuring heavily across this year’s Chelsea Flower Show

Mushrooms are definitely having a moment – and were a big attraction at this year’s show. 

In the main hall, shroom specialists the Caley Brothers created a veritable art display with different mushrooms perched on plinths like expensive collector’s items – with edible and medicinal mushrooms both on display. 

And in the Centre for Mental Health’s The Balance Garden, created by Wild City Studio and based on an urban space in Tottenham, there was a futuristic-looking mushroom den, with trays of billowing mushrooms growing under artificial light. 

HOW TO GET THE LOOK 

Grown your own – a yellow oyster mushroom starter pack costs around £20 from Merit Mushrooms

A raft of mushroom companies have sprung up in recent years, offering starter kits that can be grown indoors or in your garden. 

The Caley Brothers champion home-grown mushrooms, saying anyone with a keen interest can have a go – without the need for expensive kit or lots of space. A simple bag that promises a harvest of yellow oyster mushrooms costs £19.99 from Merit Mushrooms. 

GO FOR RUST

Corrosion chic: The Centre for Mental Health’s The Balance Garden at Chelsea also featured plenty of rust, with the look increasingly trendy amongst horticulturists

The Mental Health’s The Balance Garden, which was widely featured this year in the BBC’s coverage, not only included a mushroom den but also majored on something many of us might ordinarily avoid – rust. 

The monolithic mushroom den at the heart of the garden was a pleasing-on-the-eye burnt amber, with planters and pots elsewhere at the event showing rust is firmly on trend. 

HOW TO GET THE LOOK 

Authentic corroded troughs and planters can be pricey – expect to pay around £100 for a sizeable one – but an increasing number of copycat pots are being introduced by more wallet-friendly high street brands. A Dunelm balcony planter, for example, costs just £20. 

High street brands such as Dunelm have cottoned on to the trend for rust, with this balcony planter costing £20

Another alternative is to upcycle a planter you already have by using rust effect paint. Applicable on a host of surfaces, from wood to plastic, a tin of Craig and Rose artisan rust spray paint costs just £13 a tin. 

PLANT OF THE YEAR 

Double the fun: This year’s Plant of the Year at Chelsea – the ‘Black Jack’ Agapanthus promises black and purple stripes and 10 times as many florets 

The coveted Plant of the Year prize in 2023 went to a new take on an old favourite – the Agapanthus ‘Black Jack’ – a striking black and purple variety of the ordinarily lavender hued plant. 

Exhibited by Sparsholt College, this variant of the popular flower is buoyant when it comes to blooms – producing 10 times as many florets as your average Agapanthus.

HOW TO GET THE LOOK

Expect to pay around £15 for a single Black Jack – a little more than a standard Agapanthus thanks to the repeat flowering and its large flowerhead. Garden centre Dobbies offers a 9cm potted Black Jack plant for £14.99.

JAPANESE SERENITY 

Japanese landscape designer Kazuyuki Ishihara pictured in his Sanctuary Garden – known as The Biophilic Garden Otsu – Hanare

The garden is awash with vibrant Acer trees, green moss and rocks around a water feature

Japanese landscape designer Kazuyuki Ishihara was pictured whooping with joy after being awarded his 12th Gold medal for his show garden this year. He also was given the chance to show King Charles around his creation when the monarch visited on Monday. 

Officially called The Biophilic Garden Otsu – Hanare, the space is inspired by his home town of Nagasaki. Hanare means ‘small house’ and in this Sanctuary Garden is considered a ‘place of healing and calming’.

HOW TO GET THE LOOK 

Allowing moss to grow freely around pathways and on rocks and stones can quickly transform the look of a garden. Japanese Acers, also known as Japanese Maples, can add rich shades of red, yellow, greens and even baby pink to a garden. 

These slow-growing plants are great for compact gardens and can be picked up as small plants from as little as £4.99 – a more established Acer costs between £20 and £40 depending on size. 

REWILD YOUR GARDEN

There was a continued emphasis on the concept of rewilding again this year, with many of the show gardens looking deliberately unkempt as natural, wild growth – better for the environment – has been celebrated. 

The Centre Point garden at this year’s Chelsea Flower Show was an example of how rewilding lets nature take its course

Perhaps the most potent example was The Centre Point garden, described as ‘a part-demolished, ruinous house, where over time nature has taken over — is a visceral metaphor for what it means to be young and homeless’. 

Essentially rewilding let nature takes its course, the opposite of a manicured lawn and  tidy flowerbeds.  

HOW TO GET THE LOOK 

The simple answer would be too do nothing, simply let things grow and watch as  birds and insects descend. 

Let grass grow long and if you’re going to plant anything then try wild meadow flowers – a packet of seeds costs just a few pounds. Mulching – adding organic matter – to the top of soil rather than digging and disturbing root systems is also encouraged.