Sanctuary Gardens at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show
The RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2024 'medium-sized' gardens are announced - read all about them here
This category always brings out the best in a designer: the spaces aren’t huge, and there’s nowhere to hide as far as detail is concerned. Every centimetre, every inch must work hard for its place.
The categories of judged gardens at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show change over the years in order to reflect the way gardens and gardening are changing and developing, and to create a diverse and interesting range of exhibits to excite and interest new tastes and new people coming to gardening.
When I first started out in 2009, the tiny gardens along the wooded route that is Ranelgah1 Gardens were called ‘Courtyard Gardens’, and they were judged, as was the category they became: Artisan Gardens, which did pretty much what it says on the tin, showing gardens which brought to us wonderful artisan skills. In 2023 this category became the Balcony and Container Gardens, a great category including handy ideas for small spaces. These have yet to be announced, and you’ll be the first to read about them here.
The largest gardens at this RHS show continue to be called Show Gardens; the middle-sized category - the Mummy Bear of these Three Bears of Garden Categories - are now known as the Sanctuary Gardens. They used to be known as the Urban Gardens, and then became the Fresh Garden category, before becoming the Sanctuary section a couple of years ago. And these are the ones I’m thrilled to be able to talk to you about today.
The garden announcements this year are much earlier than they used to be in around about January, which I think is an excellent idea - it enables us to start reading about the gardens and following the journeys of all these different journeys. As I mentioned in this post, I’ll be sharing with you my own journey, all those years ago, of two gardens which started off my Chelsea shows. This occasional series will be starting in a couple of weeks’ time, and I’ll be digging around in the archives for some never-seen-before-sketches and photos. I’ll be bringing you all the Chelsea news here - Watch this space!