5 emerging garden trends I spotted at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2025 – from exciting planting schemes to future-friendly gardening techniques

The RHS Chelsea Flower Show is back for 2025, and as ever, it’s packed with incredible garden inspiration for the growing season ahead.

I visited the Show today and made note of all the garden trends that stood out above the rest. Among the beautiful planting schemes, climate resilience was a huge theme, along with future-focused gardening and various other garden design schemes – and they're all perfect if you're looking for small garden ideas, too.

I’ve rounded up the top RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2025 trends you’ll want on your radar this year.

1. Climate-resilient planting

Climate resilience seemed to permeate every corner of the showground this year. Several of the show gardens featured drought-tolerant plants, from the Mediterranean planting scheme of Hospice UK’s Garden of Compassion to the drought-tolerant vegetables showcased in the Garden of the Future.

What really stood out to me were the extremes – The King’s Trust Garden: Seeding Success, set in a volcanic environment, highlights how plants can adapt to hostile environments. Of course, we won’t have to worry about volcanic conditions here in the UK, but I thought it was a brilliant way of showing that plants can be incredibly climate resilient. And after the hot summers of recent years, I gleaned a lot of Mediterranean garden ideas from Hospice UK’s Garden of Compassion, which featured plants like the strawberry tree and tulip poppies.

You can buy Austrian pine from B&Q, which featured in The King's Trust garden, or go for the unique Allium 'Hair', which is available at Suttons.

2. Coastal planting

If climate-resilient planting was the trunk of the RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2025 trends, coastal planting was one of the main branches. In fact, several gardens took on coastal garden ideas this year.

The Hospitalfield Arts Garden is set amongst dramatic dune topography with drought-tolerant plants established in sand instead of soil. I spoke to the garden's designer, Nigel Dunnett, who told me that there's currently a huge horticultural interest in growing plants in sand or gravel, not in traditional garden soil or topsoil.

Of course, there's soil beneath the layer of sand, but Nigel says, 'By having a layer of sand or gravel on top, the plants are a lot harder, and when we get the drought and extreme conditions, they can put up with a lot more.'

I loved the pink seathrift, which you can buy from Crocus.

Another personal favourite of mine was the Seawilding exhibition. Inspired by the Loch Craignish landscape on the west coast of Scotland, it features an array of exclusively native plants adapted to the Scottish coastline.

What I found really fascinating, though, was that the seagrass from the garden will be planted on the sea floor in England after the Show ends, to extend existing sea meadows. Brilliant!

3. Technology and AI

We've seen a huge rise in technology-aided gardening recently, and my visit to the RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2025 confirmed it: now, more than ever, technology is playing a huge role in the way we garden.

The Avanade 'Intelligent' Garden is RHS Chelsea's first garden with embedded AI for urban garden management. It features an AI assistant which monitors factors like soil moisture, temperature and the weather to track and predict trends for 'proactive, resource-efficient care'. But it's more than just smart gardening – visitors can interact with the garden itself and ask what it needs, and the garden will respond!

I tested Elho's smart pebble houseplant monitor earlier this year, and that was clever enough for me, but this AI integration goes one step further, and opens up a conversation with the garden based on live data.

4. Japanese gardens

Japanese gardens have become increasingly popular in recent years, but from what I saw today, they were a huge RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2025 trend.

The Cha No Niwa Japanese Tea Garden brought the essence of Japanese garden planting to the fore with Japanese maples, lily turf, ferns and moss playing central roles in the scheme.

But it wasn't just the show gardens that put the spotlight on this garden style – balcony gardens like the Komorebi Garden proved that small Japanese garden ideas can have just as much impact, with a series of Betula pendula trees and Fargium japonicum taking centre stage.

And Secret Base – The Another Green Room took small space design to another level (literally) with layered planting to make the garden feel larger than it really is.

Get the look

5. Recycled and reclaimed materials

Another feature I noticed a lot this year was the abundance of recycled and reclaimed materials used to create planters, furniture and other hard landscaping in the gardens.

From the recycled and repurposed hard landscaping in The Avanade Intelligent Garden to the recycled acrylic planters in The Glasshouse Garden, there was a real emphasis on sustainable gardening this year – and we love upcycling ideas for the garden.

My absolute favourite? The seating is upholstered in recycled Pensioners’ scarlet uniforms in The London Square Chelsea Pensioners Garden. I loved the mycelium walls in the Pathway Garden, too, which were made from recycled waste material from previous RHS shows.

I can't wait to see these RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2025 trends take off. Which ideas will you be trying this year?