This year the gardens at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show are divided into six categories:
• Main show gardens
• Sanctuary gardens
• All about plants
• Balcony gardens
• Container gardens
• Houseplant studios
In addition, this year’s show will feature an environmental garden feature – The BBC Studios Our Green Planet & RHS Bee Garden. It aims to inspire garden lovers to play their part in planting to sustain bees, our wild pollinators, currently in decline within the UK and beyond.
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The garden, which won’t be judged, has been designed by garden designer Joe Swift and has been in development for over two years. It features the silhouette of a bee wing as the centrepiece of a habitat brimming with nectar- and pollen-rich plants, many of which are included in the RHS Plants for Pollinators list. The garden shares the same conservation principles as the David Attenborough narrated TV series The Green Planet, which led to the global digital impact campaign #OurGreenPlanet.
Joe Swift says: “The RHS has used scientific evidence, extensive experience and the records of gardeners to create year-round flowering plants for its Plants for Pollinators list to help tackle the decline in pollinator numbers. It is one of the best resources for gardeners today to support pollinators and collectively if we all grew more of these plants in our gardens, community spaces, window boxes allotments and schools we can make a huge difference. I hope this garden both inspires and shows everyone just how easy it is to consider pollinators whilst making your garden a more beautiful space too, a win-win.”
Key plants for bees in the garden include Hesperis (sweet rocket), salvias, hardy geraniums, euphorbias and Viburnum opulus (guelder rose). There is also shallow water for insects to drink from, some mud for bees to make nests and a bee hotel that can be dismantled and cleaned out.
The garden is situated at the bottom of Main Avenue, opposite the Triangle. After the show, it will be relocated to a local school.