With its pensioners in bright scarlet tunics and a mandatory first day visit from the monarch, the RHS Chelsea Flower Show is the first spectacle of the British social summer season.
It can often be a diplomatic platform as well, which it was this year with the visit of the socialist president of Ireland, Catherine Connolly, on only her third official visit.
The changing character of the RHS event is one of the signals the UK sends about its outlook and mood, much as the slate grey skies and chill wind can leave guests wishing they had brought another layer of clothing. The ticket sales maxed out the cap of 150,000 over the week-long show, matching its heyday at the start of the decade.
One of the innovations this year was a row of balcony gardens, demonstrating that the UK has joined global trends towards apartment living and home-making in the sky. The legend for one balcony garden, The Transient Garden, said it was "proof that impermanent gardens can be beautiful".
With the cost of living on everyone's mind as the Iran war impacts shipping and energy, one designer added a giant household appliance in the form of a washing machine.
Floral diplomacy
King Charles III is well known in the UK as a garden-loving monarch. The other leader to visit this week is known more for her revolutionary politics. She talked this week of achieving "the decolonisation of the mind". Yet on the visit to the Chelsea Flower Show she displayed a more cordial side.
Mrs Connelly’s dress designer has spoken of how she used the commission for the president’s outfit to match the vibrancy and design feel of the Chelsea Flower Shower. "The fabric is a soft flowing crepe in light blue hydrangea colour," Niall Tyrrell revealed.
As a native of Ireland's West Coast, Mrs Connelly even declared the Galway weather was represented by the rain while she visited the show.
The garden she designed will be dismantled and donated to a foodbank project across the Irish Sea in County Tyrone.
Overseas visitors
This week's 2026 edition marked the first year since the Covid-19 pandemic that the world-famous event sold out before opening to the public. Its exposure to the nation with a nightly slot on national TV gives it access to tens of millions more. For those participating in Chelsea and afar, there was a domestic focus on many of the display gardens and a notable absence of the foreign influenced designs of recent years.
The inclusion of gardens with a wider message of the sort common a decade ago has changed focus. When the designer Kamelia bin Zaal unveiled her garden, The Beauty of Islam, she became the first Emirati to design a garden for the annual Royal Horticultural Society show. The remits in 2026 have gone in a different direction.
The RHS’s director general Clare Matterson noted that with “so much uncertainty in the world, we’ve never needed the joy of gardening so much”. An insularity was the result.
The timing of the show means it won't be boosted by the VAT cut that Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced for late June to cut the cost of visiting amusement parks, fairs, museums and other attractions.
Celebrity adornment
Former footballer and owner of the Inter Miami franchise David Beckham was on hand to join the King in adding to the design of one of the gardens. It boasted seven raised beds in a nod to Sir David’s famous number 7 shirt in the Manchester United and England teams as well as the King’s favourite blooms.
In a melding for real life and the diplomacy Dominic West, star of The Crown was on hand at the festival. This week he talked about his wife Catherine Fitzgerald and her work at Glin Castle in Co Limerick where she has built a “world class” showcase garden.
Could it be that the invitation by President Connolly to King Charles to make only the second visit to the Irish Republic by a UK monarch will include a pit stop at Glin, where the Fitzgeralds have lived since the 13 century.
The RHS is a charity and the Chelsea show is a big part of its year as it seeks funding for its efforts to ensure access to gardens in some of the UK’s deprived areas.
This year it crossed a Rubicon by allowing the placement of gnomes in the gardens. These controversial adornments were sold off during the week to create funds for its work around the UK.
Money raised in the auction will go to the RHS’s Campaign For School Gardening, which helps schoolchildren access gardening, giving them the chance to learn through growing plants, developing practical skills, confidence and understanding of the environment, the charity said.
