RHS Chelsea Flower Show Celebrates its 100th Year
The RHS Chelsea Flower Show, sponsored by M&G Investments, is back and is celebrating its centenary year in a spectacular show brimming with colour and creativity.
Running from Tuesday 21 to Saturday 25 May this year's show offers visitors 15 spectacular Show Gardens, 11 Fresh Gardens – the best of contemporary garden design – and eight Artisan Gardens. In addition, 150 exhibits from nurseries and florists in the Great Pavilion and up to 250 trade stands means the centenary RHS Chelsea Flower Show will be one not to miss.
Established in 1913 on the grounds of the Royal Hospital, Chelsea, the show has become one of the most celebrated annual events in the world and is now hailed as the catwalk of the gardening world. Since its beginning, the show has grown from 244 exhibitors in 1913 to more than 500 today. It now attracts 161,000 visitors each year and brings the world’s best horticulture to the heart of London.
Many exhibitors are celebrating the show’s special year with centenary-themed displays. The M&G Centenary Garden will celebrate and capture the design trends and themes of RHS Chelsea Flower Shows past and present. This year’s Generation Gardens will highlight the changes to gardens and gardening over the last 100 years, and a special RHS Chelsea Flower Show Plant of the Centenary will be decided by a public vote.
A concert, hosted with Opera Holland Park, will be held on the Friday evening as part of the centenary celebrations, and visitors to the show will be able to take a walk through the show’s history, with photographic displays from the archives of the RHS Lindley Library.
Other exhibits to look out for this year include Delancey’s East Village, a garden modelled on London’s Olympic Park. Prince Harry’s charity, Sentebale, is exhibiting for the first time in collaboration with B&Q, while Arthritis Research UK’s garden reflects the personal journey and emotions of someone with arthritis.
The Artisan Retreats will also return for a second year to the RHS Chelsea Flower Show. Here visitors can relax among beautiful summerhouses decorated by top UK designers and artists, including Wayne Hemmingway, Cath Kidston and Rob Ryan.
As well as all this there are spectacular floristry displays, gardening advice from RHS experts, a host of restaurants, bars and cafés to visit, and plenty of shopping opportunities to make the centenary RHS Chelsea Flower Show a very special day out.
