The RHS Chelsea Flower Show has opened its gates, and the show is bursting with beautiful blooms, gorgeous show gardens and more. To give you an inside view of the show's fabulous highlights, we asked the BBC Gardeners' World Magazine team to choose their Chelsea highlights from the show this year.

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mgr Changing Tides Garden: Gold medal

Designed by Lucy Mitchell

The mgr Changing Tides Garden, designed by Lucy Mitchell at Chelsea 2024
The mgr Changing Tides Garden, designed by Lucy Mitchell at Chelsea 2024

The small gardens always grab my attention at Chelsea and this year I really love the mrg Changing Tides Garden designed by Lucy Mitchell. It's a great example of planting for specific growing conditions, in this case challenging coastal weather, and I particularly like how Lucy has incorporated small trees growing in containers into the design - it just goes to show you can grow trees whatever space you have. The rest of the planting is great too, demonstrating there's a plant for every location, however tricky. The use of reclaimed and recycled materials is also fab and adds to the authenticity of the space. Bravo!

Chosen by Kevin Smith


MOROTO no IE Santuary Garden: Silver-gilt medal

Designed by Kazuyuki Ishihara

MOROTO no IE Santuary Garden designed by Kazuyuki Ishihara at Chelsea 2024
MOROTO no IE Santuary Garden, designed by Kazuyuki Ishihara at Chelsea 2024

This garden is the ultimate calm and restful retreat. Numerous shades of green clothe the space in unlimited textures but it’s the drifts of Siberian irises that really make it special for me as they punctuate the layers of planting with their powerful vertical growth.

Chosen by Emma Crawforth


Terrence Higgins Trust Bridge to 2030 Garden: Silver-gilt medal

Designed by Matthew Childs

Terrence Higgins Trust Bridge to 2030 Garden, designed by Matthew Childs at Chelsea 2024
Terrence Higgins Trust Bridge to 2030 Garden, designed by Matthew Childs at Chelsea 2024

The show garden that stole my heart was Matthew Childs’ garden for the Terrence Higgins Trust. The planting is exquisitely beautiful, effortlessly combining Chelsea stalwarts like irises, verbascum, poppies and grasses with succulents and more unusual conifers. It uses tough resilient plants, such as Dianthus cruentus that can cope with drought, moving through to plant that thrive in the dappled shade cast by the trees he has planted. And yet the garden feels coherent and not like a series of parts. There are so many gorgeous planting combinations to take from this garden.

Chosen by Catherine Mansley


Stroke Association’s Garden for Recovery: Bronze medal

Designed by Miria Harris

Stroke Association’s Garden for Recovery, designed by Miria Harris at Chelsea 2024
Stroke Association’s Garden for Recovery, designed by Miria Harris at Chelsea 2024

The most memorable gardens at Chelsea always touch me emotionally, often by conveying the message that connecting with nature is so important for our everyday wellbeing but also recovering from life changing occurrences such as ill health or grief. The Stroke Association Garden by landscape designer Miria Harris, a stroke survivor herself, is one such space, combining an uplifting and bravely colourful planting scheme with a meditative natural clay pond, soothing seating area, and an upper canopy of windswept pine trees to convey resilience, restoration, relaxation and hope.

Chosen by Sonya Patel Ellis


Planet Good Earth: Bronze medal

Designed by Betongpark & Urban Organic

Planet Good Earth , designed by Betongpark & Urban Organic at Chelsea 2024
Planet Good Earth , designed by Betongpark & Urban Organic at Chelsea 2024

I'm always attracted to gardens that incorporate edibles amongst the ornamental and the Planet Good Earth garden has so much on offer for culinary and medicinal use. There's also lots of colour for interest and for pollinators, too. Plus it's a garden for communities and enjoying outdoor spaces together - including skate-boarding!

Chosen by Claire Vennis


The RHS No Adults Allowed Garden

Designed by Harry Holding

The RHS No Adults Allowed Garden, designed by Harry Holding at Chelsea 2024
The RHS No Adults Allowed Garden, designed by Harry Holding at Chelsea 2024

I adore this welcoming RHS Garden by designer Harry Holding – the treehouse, the water, the hidden corners. All perfect for adventures outdoors and packed with inspirational touches. Pollinators will swarm to this wonderful planting scheme so kids can get to know a whole world of hidden life, and I love how the use of water and handle-with-care plants such as thalictrum and digitalis helps young visitors to understand small dangers and negotiate the world.

Chosen by Oliver Parsons


Floral Dens

Floral Dens at Chelsea 2024
Floral Dens at Chelsea 2024

These Floral Dens in Ranelagh gardens caught my eye as a very pretty but practical feature for gardens large or small. Made from woven willow they have different plants grown up and over and through them so they not only provide essential shade but also blend in brilliantly with their surroundings. The concept can be adapted with bigger or smaller shelters for play or relaxation.


The Octavia Hill Garden: Silver-gilt medal

Designed by Ann-Marie Powell with the Blue Diamond Team

The Octavia Hill Garden, designed by Ann-Marie Powell with the Blue Diamond Team at Chelsea 2024
The Octavia Hill Garden, by Ann-Marie Powell with the Blue Diamond Team at Chelsea 2024

I loved the colourful planting in this border, mirroring the materials used for the benches and water feature. This spot felt like a little hidden oasis of calm where one could lose oneself.

Chosen by Sarah Edwards

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Best Chelsea Flower Show Gardens in recent years

Take a look back at some of the best Chelsea Show Gardens of recent years. Manoj Malde picks some of his favourites and explains why they felt so special.

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