My favourite plants from RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2025

This year, I was drawn to plants that felt a little airy, a little romantic, and full of movement. There were plenty of bold moments across the show, but the plants I loved most tended to be the ones that softened a space, lifted a scheme, or gave a planting that extra flicker of charm. Across Chelsea 2025, there was a real richness to the planting — from delicate woodland-feeling flowers to bold poppies, feathered grasses and rare treasures under glass. The show as a whole felt especially generous on that front.

Phlox divaricata subsp. laphamii ‘Chattahoochee’ is first up on my list. That lavender-blue tone felt soft, especially set beneath a canopy of planting it felt almost luminous. It was planted in the ADHD Foundation Garden, designed by Katy Terry of Good Grounding and sponsored by Project Giving Back, which leaned into soothing, layered planting as part of its wider message around neurodiversity and calm.

Then there was Iris ‘Party Dress’, which I loved for its peachy-pink colouring and those orange beards. It had that slightly theatrical quality irises do so well, where every flower feels dressed for the occasion. In the Landscape Tailor garden, it brought a warmth that felt a little playful.

And then there was Papaver ‘Colibri Salmonato’ paired with Linum perenne. - when two plants that look even better when paired. The salmon poppy had that papery, fleeting beauty, while the blue linum sharpened the whole thing. Safe to say i’m bring it into the garden this year.

Digitalis lutea was another favourite. It does not shout in the way some foxgloves do, but that is exactly why I liked it. That softer yellow felt especially beautiful threaded through greener planting.

I loved Nicotiana langsdorffii ‘Bronze Queen’ — an unusual, elegant thing. It has that small-flowered, slightly suspended quality, where the blooms seem to hover rather than sit. In Jo Thompson’s planting, it brought a sense of looseness and structure - perfect for a border then.

And then there was Hordeum jubatum with Lupinus pilosus in Tom Hoblyn’s Hospice UK Garden of Compassion. Hoblyn’s garden was designed as a sensory, accessible and restorative space, and the planting overall had that feeling of movement, atmosphere and depth. The grass brought softness and shimmer, while the lupin held its shape and colour through it.

And, I couldn’t not choose a pelargonium - it was a new discovery, Pelargonium triste in the Alitex glasshouse. There is something so appealing about a plant with that kind of understated strangeness of yellow flowers with a purple petal.

Roscoea ‘Harvington Raw Silk’. It had that woodland sort of beauty I always find hard to resist — subtle and slightly mysterious. The sort of flower that feels as though it belongs to a more shaded, private world.

I loved seeing Orlaya grandiflora appearing in Carey Garden Design’s planting too. Light, airy, fresh, and able to lift almost anything it is planted through. At Chelsea, where there can sometimes be so much visual richness, that kind of white froth is restful.

And finally, Verbascum ‘Clementine’ which I picked up in the grand pavillion - yes you can buy plants at the show. There is something about those warm apricot-orange verbascum tones that feels both joyful and easy to place.

What I loved most this year was how these favourites came from all over the show. Not just the Great Pavilion, though that was full of marvels as ever, but from show gardens, thoughtful planting details, glasshouse displays. Chelsea felt full of plant creativity — the sort that sends you home looking at your own garden slightly differently and already planning for next year.