Chelsea 2019 line-up announced

The 2019 Chelsea Flower Show will set the theme to encourage people to reconnect with nature with gardens celebrating the beauty of the natural world.

Seven-time gold medal winning designer, Andy Sturgeon, is back for show sponsor M&G Investments drawing inspiration for his garden from nature’s power to regenerate. The design will feature a woodland landscape colonised by young trees, ferns and jewel-like flowers, interspersed with stone platforms and huge burnt timber sculptures representing natural rock formations.

The Savills and David Harber Garden‘, designed by Andrew Duff, will seek to create a beautiful, sustainable woodland clearing within a city. This design will feature bio diverse trees and greenery known to remove harmful pollutants from the atmosphere.

Designer, Mark Gregory, made quite a stir at the 2018 show with his beautiful Welcome to Yorkshire garden and is set to return for 2019, for the same sponsor. This time his design will be inspired by the canals and waterways found in the West of the county of Yorkshire – one to watch. (pictured above).

Jon Snow will be back for the Trailfinders garden, bringing inspiration from further afield, namely the temperate rainforests of South America. We loved his garden at the 2018 Show and feel sure he will bring us another special garden, this time complete with lush planting and dramatic waterfalls.

There will be a Middle Eastern feel from designer Thomas Hoblyn, who will be creating ‘The Dubai Majlis Garden, inspired by the sculptural beauty found in arid landscapes.

Sarah Eberle, a firm Chelsea favourite and multi RHS gold medal winning designer, returns to Main Avenue with a garden for The Forestry Commission to celebrate their centenary. ‘The Resilience Garden‘ looks ahead to the challenges facing our forests in the future and explores how they can be made resilient to a changing climate.(pictured above)

The importance of having access to nature and green spaces for all ages and abilities will be highlighted in ‘The Greenfingers Charity Garden‘, designed by Kate Gould. The design will cater for a hospice to provide a fun, interactive and uplifting space where seriously ill children and their families can come together to embrace the benefits of being in the fresh air and engaging with the natural environment.

We are absolutely delighted to see both Chris Beardshaw (winner of the Best in Show 2018 award) and Jo Thompson back to Chelsea for another year. Both are highly talented designers and for 2019 Chris will be back for Morgan Stanley with a garden focusing on the broad principles of the circular economy with a resilient and robust design celebrating the successful marriage of traditional herbaceous borders within a contemporary setting.

Jo will be designing the ‘Wedgwood Garden‘ to bring a garden where classicism meets modernism with references to Etruria, Wedgwood’s 18th century factory and village built for workers.(pictured above)

After the popularity of 2018, the Space to Grow Category will return again offering new ideas and inspiration. For 2019 Joe Perkins will be taking on his first solo garden for Facebook with a theme of connectivity, celebrating the positive benefits of social media as a powerful tool for engaging in real world issues. ‘The Facebook Garden: Beyond The Screen‘ takes on a coastal theme to reinforce this message as coastal habitats are constantly changing and evolving.(pictured above)

One garden we are looking forward to is the CAMFED ‘Giving Girls in Africa a Space to Grow Garden‘. This design brings the vibrant colours and exotic leaves of rural Africa to central London with a garden designed by Jilayne Rickards. CAMFED is a charity educating and empowering those reliant on agriculture in communities hardest hit by climate change and I feel sure that visitors to the show will find this garden really interesting.

Education also underpins the message of ‘The Montessori Centenary Children’s Garden‘, designed by Jody Lidgard.

If you like water in your gardens then you will find water featuring prominently in a number of gardens – water lies at the heart of ‘The Viking Cruises Garden‘, designed by Paul Hervey-Brookes and Helen Elks-Smith incorporates water in ‘The Warner Edward’s Garden‘. Helen will be incorporating water in a playful and imaginative way, taking inspiration from the architect Frank Lloyd Wright’s masterpiece ‘Fallingwater.’

The popular and much loved Artisan gardens once again promise lots of variety and maximises on the small is beautiful ideal. Annie Prebensen and Christina Williams, who were last at Chelsea in 2010, when they won Best Artisan Garden, return to celebrate the 50th anniversary of The Donkey Sanctuary. Graham Bodle will be taking inspiration from a quarry for his garden Walkers’ Forgotten Quarry Garden, sponsored by Walkers Nurseries.

It will be a special Chelsea for rose grower David Austin Roses, who are iconic multi RHS Gold Medal winners, as they celebrate their 50th anniversary at the show – look out for exciting new introductions on their stand in the Great Pavilion.

Eight nurseries will be making their Chelsea debut in the Great Pavilion including New Forest Hostas and Hemerocallis and Newlands Herbs.

And so it begins, the countdown to the most prestigious flower show in the world – bring it on.

Photo credits: Banner ©Reckless Gardener 2018 credit Emma J Campbell Photography: Welcome to Yorkshire Garden ©Mark Gregory; The Resilience Garden ©Sarah Eberle; Wedgwood Garden ©Jo Thompson; The Facebook Garden ©Joe Perkins, reproduced by kind permission of the designers/sponsors.