TRENDS of the year

There was a time when flower shows simply celebrated the beauty of plants, but nowadays they’re part of a bigger picture encompassing plant breeding, garden design, furnishings, fashion and wellbeing, as well as the thorny issues of sustainability, loss of wildlife and climate change.

And now, a movement that began with talk of dwindling wildflowers, native hedges and water resources has mushroomed into ‘going green’, bringing ecological considerations to bear on every area of gardening. Even garden soil has come under scrutiny, with gardeners turning to sustainable wood fibre and green waste compost, or adopting a ‘no-dig’ system in order to reduce damage to soil structure. The designer Chris Beardshaw even minimised the environmental impact on his Chelsea Flower Show plot by using an electric excavator, and growing plants in recyclable taupe pots.

TAKE A LOOK

What we saw at Chelsea and other RHS Shows last year forms the trends for this year